She’s still chasing history – Steffi Graf’s Open-era record of 22 majors is one championship away.
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Kerber, the third seed, is lined up for a last-eight duel with 2015 semi-finalist Timea Bacsinszky.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Viktorija Golubic and Su-Wei Hsieh also advanced to round two of the grand slam on the famous clay courts in Paris. The world No. 1 has won just a single title since last August. He was docked a point for his protestations and the duo were made to play two more games – Monfils saving three match points before they chose to return the next day.
While the Wimbledon title was always to be the crowning glory of his tennis career, the satisfaction of doing exceptionally well at the French Open must mean that it is a tennis court home from home for him. The Canadian has put a disappointing 2015 behind him and is having the best season of his career. The clay season hasn’t been as successful.
After winning the Madrid Open this month, Djokovic was beaten by Andy Murray in the final of the Internazionali d’Italia.
Djokovic, whose quarter-final victory past year was his first over Nadal at Roland Garros, still has that history to contend with. Raonic is projected to meet Wawrinka in the quarters, an opponent he beat at the Australian Open. But in 2014 she lost a second round tie to Garbine Muguruza.
The two-time major champion took the third set 6-0, and was up a break at 4-2 in the fourth when they stopped. “You have to go back to winning match by match, round by round”. The draw was not been favourable for Bouchard, who will have to get through world No. 39 Laura Siegemund in the first round just to potentially face No. 8 Timea Bacsinszky in the second round.
How big of a concern is Victoria Azarenka’s back injury? . This year has been a different story. And Rafael Nadal was so at ease in a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 victory over 100th-ranked Sam Groth of Australia that the nine-time French Open champion even allowed himself a smile after a dazzling, back-to-the-net, through-the-legs passing shot victor in the next-to-last game. Although he won the opening set, Novak was completely surpassed in the next three, thus allowing the Swiss to claim the title.
There are voices who say that the timing could not be better for the Serb. That in itself is remarkable for a player once perceived as a struggling clay-courter. I believe that people who organize the event and the whole city is 100% focused on make the event safe for everybody, not only for the players.
“She needed to feel the stress of the competition and get her efficiency in matches back”, he wrote in an email from Rome, singling out her 6-2, 6-0 drubbing of former French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals.
However, just four teens are present in the first round of Roland Garros this year with promising German youngster Alexander Zverev the highest-rated of the quartet at 41 in the world. Williams heads to Roland Garros confident that if she manages her nerves and plays close to her best tennis, she’s likely to come out on top. Those are impressive results for a player who couldn’t get anything going on clay in the past.
At the other end of the spectrum is 37-year-old Radek Stepanek, the oldest player in the field, who came through three rounds of qualifying to set up a first-round match against second seed Andy Murray.
Nadal will play his first round match against Sam Groth on either Monday or Tuesday. Last year brought him his first clay court titles (Munich and Madrid) and this year he has improved again.
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“I regret to announce that I have made the decision not to play in this year’s French Open”, father of four Federer said in a message posted on Facebook.
