Which players have the best chance of playing spoiler to the top tier of Roland Garros contenders? WTA Insider compiled a list of seasoned veterans and dangerous floaters who could do some serious damage on the terre battue.
Victoria Azarenka: The most in-form player through the first quarter of 2016, Azarenka is hard to beat once she gets on a roll, completing the Sunshine Double with titles in Indian Wells and Miami. Her lone hardcourt loss was to eventual Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber in Melbourne.
Coming into what has traditionally been her least favorite time of year, Azarenka appeared keen to disprove the doubters – not that she listens to what they have to say – and continue her winning streak through the clay court season. Injuries have played their part in disrupting that rhythm, as a lower back injury forced her to withdraw from Madrid and didn’t seem fully healed in a second round loss to Irina-Camelia Begu in Rome.
Should she be healthy in time for Paris, her consistency can certainly take her places, having reached the semifinals back in 2013.
With comfortable head-to-heads against three of the four top seeds, it will be interesting to see who will be projected to face the Belarusian come the quarterfinals.
Agnieszka Radwanska: Seeded No.2 at this year’s French Open, Radwanska would be an all-out contender were this any other major tournament, but red clay of Roland Garros has proven the Pole’s kryptonite on too many occasions for her to feel truly comfortable coming into the fortnight.
The 2012 Wimbledon finalist eased into the semifinals of Stuttgart before getting dismantled by qualifier Laura Siegemund, and an unlucky draw saw her face one of her fiercest rivals in Dominika Cibulkova early on in Madrid. Opting not to play the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, it’s anyone’s guess how Radwanska will play in Paris, but like Azarenka, her long resumé of consistency should give her confidence to start the week. Since the US Open, the WTA Finals champion has made the semifinals or better at all but three of her last 12 events, including the semifinals of the Australian Open, which she reached dropping just one set along the way. Conserving energy will also be critical for a player who was once all too often drawn into wars of attrition.
Petra Kvitova: With a new coach and new philosophy when it came to clay courts, the two-time Wimbledon winner looked poised to build on last year, when she won her second Mutua Madrid Open title.
A run to the semifinals in Stuttgart saw her battle with eventual champion Kerber, but a pair of early losses to Daria Gavrilova and Madison Keys may have shaken her confidence ahead of the French Open. Kvitova is another former semifinalist, reaching that stage back in 2012, but has only made it to the second week once since then – last year, when she lost to Timea Bacsinszky in the fourth round.
Carla Suárez Navarro: If clay court comfort holds back the first three, the next three will need intangibles on their side. The Spaniard has all the skills and “traditional” clay court guile to succeed at the French; her breakout run came back in 2008, when she reached the quarterfinals as a qualifier.
But for Suárez Navarro, it’ll come down to what’s between the ears. A game from the semifinals in 2014, the Spaniard succumbed to nerves and a determined Eugenie Bouchard. She appeared in good form at home in Madrid, but a cold kept her from closing the door against Samantha Stosur.
If she can replicate the form that took her up to No.6 in the world just two months ago, the Qatar Total Open champion will be in good shape in the latter stages of the fortnight.
Dominika Cibulkova: The 2014 Australian Open finalist was a woman in need of a big win, and she got it in Madrid, taking out top seed Radwanska and battling all the way into the final with three-setters against Caroline Garcia, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and Sorana Cirstea.
The Slovak missed last year’s French Open to have surgery on her Achilles, and will be looking to back up her best result at a Premier Mandatory with another deep run at a major tournament. The dynamic veteran burst onto the scene back in 2009, when she blew past Maria Sharapova to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal at the French, following the feat five years later in Melbourne by going one better, again by beating Sharapova and Radwanska en route.
Seeded No.22, Cibulkova will be in position to face down another big name in the first week; unless the nerves that kept her from early round upsets in Indian Wells and Miami reappear, she is all but a shoo-in to reach the second week.
Svetlana Kuznetsova: The tour’s most enigmatic figures had a solid, if unspectacular, clay court swing; though she failed to defend her runner-up points from last year’s Mutua Madrid Open, she rebounded nicely in Rome, defeating Samantha Stosur and Daria Gavrilova before bowing out to World No.1 Serena Williams in the quarterfinals.
The 2009 champion still has the game to compete with the best in the world, as her run to the finals of the Miami Open proved, but everything else has so often been up in the air. Seeded in the Top 16, Kuznetsova will be able to work her way through the first few round without facing a top seed, but will have to hit the ground running should she reach the second week.
Her win over Williams in Miami showed she could close out a big name when given the opportunity; whether she can still seal the deal at a Grand Slam remains to be seen.
Lucie Safarova: Which Safarova will show up in Paris? The 2015 runner-up looked to have shaken off the rust with a much-needed title run at the J&T Banka Prague Open, but food poisoning derailed her in Madrid and Rome. The Czech star was ruthless through six matches 12 months ago, and it took a return to red clay for the former World No.5 to win her first matches of the season after coming back from injury and illness.
A tough draw may help her feel less pressure, and she proved she could take out the best clay courters around to reach the final last year, including Sharapova, Garbiñe Muguruza, and Ana Ivanovic. A healthy and confident Safarova is not one to underestimate, particular for a top seed looking to reach the last eight.
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