FRENCH OPEN - WTA STYLE

by Karen 

The draw, the draw, the draw.  That is all everyone is talking about.  Me, I am going to talk about the nightmare that woke me up on Draw Day.  I dreamt that I was at the French Open.  On the court was Venus Williams going up against Nadia Petrova. Words were exchanged.  Someone said to Venus that she should stand up for herself.  I said why should she when she has me.  I then went after Petrova ready to do battle against her for picking on Venus.  I woke up.  Then I saw the draw and I realised that there was a reason why I was so panicked in my dream.  Venus drew up and coming rising star Belinda Bencic in the first round.  If she manages to get through that match, and her next one, she faces her sister Serena Williams in the third round.  How do you say shit in French? 

Right, the WTA as it has been doing every Slam since 2010 is serving up intrigue and drama from day one.  The men's side of this tournament wishes they had the storylines and the matches to look forward to as much as the ladies do. 

People who are better at reading the draws have made their selection.  I am going to be lazy and post the best of the best. 

Matt Zemek over at Attacking the Net has a wonderful write up of the women's draw.  Steve Tignor as he does so well over at tennis.com has also broken down the draw.  Jon Wertheim at Sports Illustrated has his usual seed report and Courtney Nguyen, the authority on women's tennis in the mainstream media over at Beyond the Baseline has her winners and losers of the draw. 

The Spin is not going to be doing a draw breakdown for this year's French Open.  The team will be taking a closer look at matches for each day's play and will watch each match in its entirety (or try to) and then deliver cutting, post edge analysis (yes I said that with a smile on my face).  We will continue to provide our Match to Watch daily previews and of course who can forget Spin's Picks which will be here on the day preceeding each day's play for those of you who participate in Suicide Pool.  Link to TAT's Suicide Pool is here. 

I love that the French Open starts on a Sunday.  It gives me a chance to just sit at home and watch tennis all day long.  

Both Master Ace and I will provide daily match summaries and we will be back later today with our Picks for what to watch and who to watch.  We will also be going out on a limb and doing our Upset Alerts.  

ODDS AND ENDS

Genie Bouchard is into her second final of her career.  She goes up against Karolina Pliskova over in Nurenberg.  

Over in Strasbourg, the final will feature first time finalist Monica Puig who upended Madison Keys going up against the Spanish qualifier, Silver Soler-Espinosa who saved a match point against Christina McHale in her semifinal. 

I am thinking that Puig will be lifting her first trophy but I would not be surprised if Espinosa takes this one.  She has been playing the better tennis through this week and has had to gut out a number of wins.  If she wins, she will be the second qualifier to take a trophy this year on the WTA Tour as Pironkova won her first title in Sydney after going through qualifying.