Roland Garros 2020 Preview
Women’s Singles
A touch of colour has been removed from the women’s draw with the non appearance of the reigning champion and world number one Ash Barty, together with the newly crowned US Open champion Naomi Osaka, and last years New York major winner Bianca Andreescu.
Still, the field is full of value, and while Simona Halep stands out as the warm favourite, there are several others with substantive claims for a fortnight of success.
Top seed Halep skipped the US Open, but either side of that won in Prague and just recently lifted the Premier 5 trophy in Rome. So her red clay form is red hot.
The Roland Garros draw is reasonable for Halep, with Teichmann likely to give her a good second round workout before a possible round of sixteen clash with last years runner up Markéta Vondroušová.
A quarter final meeting with Kiki Bertens, 2019 semi finalist Johanna Konta, or even Maria Sakkari shouldn’t pose too many problems, and then Halep is in the final four.
Elena Svitolina just won the clay court title in Strasbourg, and accordingly the third seed must be confident of her chances moving into Paris. Her Roland Garros record isn’t especially glowing, just a couple of quarter finals in 2015 and 2017 her best efforts, but current form is persuasive.
Anett Kontaveit (17), Caroline Garcia or Elise Mertens (16) may be round of sixteen trouble, but it’s the quarter final where things become significant for Svitolina.
Vika Azarenka (10) and Serena Williams (6) are due to meet in the round of sixteen with the winner aiming for a Svitolina showdown.
Although Azarenka hasn’t astounded Roland Garros since her 2013 semi final, she has her recent performances in New York and Rome as evidence of her credentials.
And Serena needs no words.
Fourth seed Sofia Kenin is out of form, but fortunately for her the draw doesn’t pose many serious early dangers. Elena Rybakina lost to Svitolina in the Strasbourg final, and could give Kenin a headache in the round of sixteen. The 14th seed won their only meeting to date, in Dubai early this year.
The winner from that section would face stiff opposition from a group featuring Aryna Sabalenka (8), Garbiñe Muguruza (11), Jennifer Brady (21), and Ons Jabeur (30).
Muguruza is a former Roland Garros champion, and ominously playing the brand of tennis which could net her a second title here. Only Halep could handle her in Rome.
Karolina Pliskova, the second seed, is anxious to do well at Roland Garros, a major where she has failed to reach the fourth round other than her semi final run in 2017.
Hopefully the injury suffered in the Rome final will no longer be an issue, because Pliskova was displaying excellent clay court tennis en route to Paris.
The number two seed could have former champion Jelena Ostapenko in round two, and former finalist Sloane Stephens (29) in round three, although Stephens is desperately down on form.
Petra Martic (13), quarter finalist from last year, looms as a round of sixteen opponent, and if Pliskova makes it as far as the quarter final, there could be Petra Kvitová (7), Angie Kerber (18) or Madison Keys (12) awaiting.
Keys is a semi finalist from 2018 and quarter finalist from 2019. Kvitová has only been beyond the fourth round once, and that was in 2012, her semi final effort.
Kerber, twice quarter finalist, has lost in the first round in three of the last four years, including 2019.
My quarter final predictions:
Simona Halep (1) v Johanna Konta (9)
Elina Svitolina (3) v Victoria Azarenka (10)
Garbiñe Muguruza (11) v Elena Rybakina (14)
Madison Keys (12) v Karolina Pliskova (2)
Semi finals:
Simona Halep (1) v Victoria Azarenka (10)
Garbiñe Muguruza (11) v Karolina Pliskova (2)
No comments:
Post a Comment