10 Things: Roland Garros Recap
1. Garbiñe Muguruza is the next big thing: The new World No.2 became just the second woman born in the 1990s to win a major title, joining two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in a, as it stands now, very exclusive club. Kvitova is 26 and well alongside a generation of players that includes Victoria Azarenka, Angelique Kerber, and Agnieszka Radwanska. But the 22-year-old Muguruza is the first representative of her generation of women, which includes Eugenie Bouchard, Sloane Stephens, and Madison Keys, to break through.
And there’s no reason to believe Roland Garros will be Muguruza’s only major title. The big-hitting Spaniard, already playing in her second major final in 12 months, was able to push Serena Williams around the court and power her way to a 7-5, 6-4 win in the final. She has the physicality to endure and a big all-court style that is built on solid technique. Most importantly, she has the ambition and mentality that is focused on not the spoils of success, but the success itself.
Read more about Muguruza’s meteoric rise from WTA Insider here.
2. The gap between Serena Williams and the field is shrinking: Heading into this season, Serena was riding a 15-match win-streak in tournament finals, dating back to 2013. In 2016 she has won one of the three finals she’s played so far, with two of the losses coming at Slams. It was Angelique Kerber getting the best of her in the Australian Open final, Victoria Azarenka beating her in the BNP Paribas Open final, and now Muguruza in Paris. You have to go back over a decade to 2004 to find the last time, and only other time, Serena has ever lost three finals in a season.
The debates over whether this is a result of Serena’s level dipping dramatically, how much injuries or fitness impact that dip, or how much the competition behind her has improved, will rage on. But this time a year ago, Serena held 11,291 ranking points, holding a 4,421 point lead on then-No.2 Kvitova. Today she holds 8,330 points, holding a 1,564 point lead on No.2 Muguruza.
3. Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic love the stage: Many French players have come and gone and many have said playing at home at Roland Garros can be an incredibly stressful time. With the expectations, attention, and crowd support, it can be difficult to just focus on the task at hand and play tennis.
But both Garcia and Mladenovic shook off any concerns this year in Paris. Coming off her title run in Strasbourg, Garcia played confident and inspired tennis despite going out to No.2 seed Radwanska in the second round. Mladenovic offered a fantastic challenge to Serena in the third round in one of the best matches of the tournament. And then the two paired up and rode their wave of confidence in doubles, becoming the first French pair to win the women’s title at Roland Garros since 1971.
4. Victoria Azarenka’s toughest rival: After dominating the hard court season, Azarenka sputtered on clay. Her biggest enemy continues to be her body. She pulled out of the Mutua Madrid Open with a back injury and then retired in the first round of Roland Garros due to a knee injury. Now she’s already withdrawn from this week’s Aegon Open Nottingham due to the same knee injury.
5. City of Milestones: No Slam has produced more first-time winners than Roland Garros. In the Open Era, there have been 45 different players to win a Grand Slam singles title. Roland Garros has produced the most first-time winners (16), followed by Australian Open (11), Wimbledon (9) and US Open (9).
But it wasn’t just about Muguruza joining the Slam club in Paris. Kiki Bertens, who had been past the second round of a Slam just once in her career, found herself in her first major semifinal. The unseeded Dutchwoman, ranked No.58 at the start of the tournament, won the title in Nürnberg as a qualifier and proceeded to mow down the field in Paris. She beat Angelique Kerber, Camila Giorgi, Daria Kasatkina, Madison Keys, and Timea Bacsinszky, tallying 12 consecutive wins over three weeks.
Then there was Shelby Rogers, ranked outside the Top 100 at the start of the tournament, who did he own heavy lifting to make her first Slam quarterfinal. Like Bertens, Rogers paved her own way, with wins over Karolina Pliskova, Elena Vesnina, Petra Kvitova, and Irina-Camelia Begu, before losing to the eventual champion.
6. Daria Kasatkina and Naomi Osaka continue their rise: Both 18-year-olds made the third round of the Australian Open in their tournament debut. They each replicated the feat in their Paris debuts. Osaka beat No.32 seed Jelena Ostapenko and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni before pushing No.6 seed Simona Halep to three sets. She’s now firmly in the Top 100 at No.87. Kasatkina, seeded in her first Roland Garros, had a good look to make the second week before a leg injury derailed her late in the third set against Bertens. The young Russian appears to have secured her singles spot on the Russian Olympic team, now up to No.31.
7. Weather is the ultimate equalizer: In a stunning turn of events in the second week, Samantha Stosur and Tsvetana Pironkova resumed their rain-interrupted matches to score big upsets, with Stosur ralling from 3-5 down at the break to roll to a 7-6(0), 6-3 win over Halep. Pironkova did one better, knocking out Radwanska after being down 6-3, 3-0 at the break. The Bulgarian reeled off 10 consecutive games on the restart and eventually won 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to make her first French Open quarterfinal.
The cool, wet conditions in Paris were a big storyline in the second week. Roland Garros saw its first washout in 16 years on the second Monday, forcing a schedule shift that saw Serena play four straight days, including Saturday’s final, compared to Muguruza, who played two straight days.
Top players are understandably accustomed to playing in the best of conditions and circumstances. They get the best court assignments, but the preferred scheduling, and as a result they can be put off by even the slightest of disturbances. On the flip side, lower-ranked players, such as No.102 Pironkova are more seasoned in dealing with the litany of variables that can crop up on the ITF circuit or qualifying.
8. Olympic picture comes into focus: Roland Garros was the last opportunity for players to grab ranking points to put them into contention for their respective Olympic teams. A full explanation of the complex qualifying scheme can be found here.
Ranking aside, Bertens needed to make the fourth round in Paris due to specific rules put into place by the Dutch Federation, and secured her spot by beating Kasatkina 10-8 in the third. Pironkova also went from being an Olympic afterthought to landing right on the bubble at No.71. Her spot will come down to how many players ranked ahead of her are ruled out of Rio. The ITF will confirm the composition of the field on June 30th.
9. Familiar faces on the Road to Singapore: With the clay season complete and two of the four Slams in the books, the RTS Leaderboard is now starting to take shape. Here’s where we stand at the halfway point:
1. Serena Williams (Rome champion, Australian Open finalist, Indian Wells finalist, French Open finalist).
2. Angelique Kerber (Australian Open champion, Stuttgart champion, Miami semifinalist, Charleston semifinalist).
3. Victoria Azarenka (Brisbane champion, Indian Wells champion, Miami champion).
4. Garbiñe Muguruza (Roland Garros champion, Rome semifinalist).
5. Agnieszka Radwanska (Shenzhen champion, Australian Open semifinalist, Doha semifinalist, Indian Wells semifinalist, Stuttgart semifinalist).
6. Carla Suárez Navarro (Doha champion, Brisbane semifinalist, Australian Open quarterfinalist).
7. Simona Halep (Madrid champion, Indian Wells quarterfinalist, Miami quarterfinalist).
8. Svetlana Kuznetsova (Sydney champion, Miami finalist).
10. Internationals matter: Bertens played Nuremberg the week before Roland Garros, won the tournament as a qualifier, and proceeded to knock off No.3 seed Kerber in the first round en route to the semifinals. Rogers made her second WTA final in February, on clay at the Rio Open. Stosur’s run to the Prague Open final, losing narrowly to Lucie Safarova, was a confidence building week for a woman who was playing far better on clay than people realized before Paris. And Cagla Buyukakcay, who became the first Turkish woman to qualify for the main draw at a Slam and win match, won the Istanbul Cup in April.
While the results throughout the fortnight in Paris were surprising at times, you would have seen the results coming if you were keeping an eye on the tour’s International tournaments. They may not be the biggest tournaments on tour, but they’re prime scouting ground to discover who may just be on the verge of a breakout week.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
