Rome: Kuznetsova Interview
An interview with Svetlana Kuznetsova after her win in the third round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
An interview with Svetlana Kuznetsova after her win in the third round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
ROME, Italy – Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic overcame a mid-match wobble to defeat Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Thursday.
In their opening match, Garcia and Mladenovic came within two points of defeat, and they once again sailed close to the wind, eventually coming through, 7-6(4), 1-6, 10-7.
A chance for Olympic glory prompted the union between Garcia and Mladenovic, who had previously been in successful partnerships with Katarina Srebotnik and Timea Babos, respectively. And while the French duo took a handful of events to gel, the partnership has flourished on the clay.
Victory over Garrigues and Parra Santonja extends their unbeaten streak to 15 matches, a run taking in tournament victories in Charleston, Stuttgart and Madrid. No.4 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka are the next team hoping to end the run, securing their quarterfinal place with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Sara Errani and Lara Arruabarrena.
Elsewhere, there were mixed fortunes for two of the other leading teams. Andreja Klepac and Katarina Srebotnik followed up their surprise win over the Williams sisters by knocking out No.2 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova, 6-3, 6-4.
No.3 seeds Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova had no such trouble, overcoming Italian wildcards Claudia Giovine and Angelica Moratelli, 6-3, 6-2.
Madison Keys takes on Barbora Strycova in the quarterfinals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
Serena Williams takes on Irina-Camelia Begu in the semifinals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
The story of the tournament from the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
Angelique Kerber’s 2016 has been about countering the narrative. In fact, let’s expand that. Her last two seasons have been about proving the conventional wisdom wrong. After a frustrating 2014 season, which saw her go titleless despite making four Premier finals, the German rebounded in 2015 to win four Premier titles and finish the year at No.10.
But her results at the Slams waned last season. She never got past the third round at any of the four majors and completely choked under the pressure at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, falling one set short of advancing to the semifinals. Going into 2016 it was easy to discount Kerber as a hard-working, talented player, who just didn’t have the fortitude to win the big titles.
Then she proceeded to win the one Slam at which she had historically posted her worst results, beating the hottest player at the time in Victoria Azarenka and World No.1 and defending champion Serena Williams to win the Australian Open.
AmazingWeek?so nice to win at home again#PTGP @PorscheTennis Special thanks to all my fan#TeamAngie#selfie @porsche pic.twitter.com/C1XFArcUMb
— Angelique Kerber (@AngeliqueKerber) April 25, 2016
Kerber will be seeded No.3 at the French Open next week. Paris has proved a perplexing place for the 28-year-old. She has made it past the fourth round just once, stalling in the fourth round in two of the last three years. A closer look at her recent losses in Paris reveal they really weren’t bad ones, losing to Garbiñe Muguruza (2015), Eugenie Bouchard (2014), and Svetlana Kuznetsova (2013).
With nine titles under her belt, Kerber has proven she can win on any surface. Indoors, outdoors, grass, clay, or hard court, she has a title on each. Last month she successfully defended her title at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. That title came on the heels of back-to-back wins in Fed Cup over two of the best clay courters right now, in Simona Halep and Irina-Camelia Begu. A week before that came a semifinal run in Charleston, which ended in her retirement due to illness. In our Clay Court Power Rankings only she and Serena Williams were able to match their ranking on clay with their overall ranking. In other words, Kerber is as good on clay as she is on all other surfaces.
The question is whether Kerber goes into Paris with the confidence of the woman who made the Miami semifinals, Charleston semifinals, and won Stuttgart, or the confidence of the woman who lost both her opening matches at the Mutua Madrid Open (l. Strycova) and Internazionali BNL d’Italia (l. Bouchard) in her lead-up. In Rome she told her coach Torben Beltz during an on-court coaching timeout that she couldn’t find any rhythm, and hinted that their practices that week had not gone well. Perhaps the early exit from Rome gave her extra time to fix what’s been going wrong.
.@AngeliqueKerber ???☺️???? pic.twitter.com/blUriTcedD
— Mutua Madrid Open (@MutuaMadridOpen) April 29, 2016
One key to assessing Kerber’s chances in Paris are the conditions. Warm, fast conditions will play into her strengths as she’ll be able to inject extra power and get her shots through the court. Slow, wet conditions will slow down her ball – especially her serve – and she’ll be caught on defense far too often.
But if she gets a good draw that allows her to earn easy wins through the first week, a confident Kerber can do damage at the French Open. Serena Williams is the favorite in Paris, no doubt. Then again, she was the favorite in Melbourne, too. And we all saw how that turned out.
Click here to keep up with WTA Insider’s pre-French Open coverage!
In a draw of 128 players, which players could pull off a plot twist or two at this year’s French Open? WTA Insider takes a look at the young and the restless who will reside between the biggest seeds in the forthcoming draw:
The Americans: Typically overlooked at this time of year, Internazionali BNL d’Italia runner-up Madison Keys leads a talented team of Americans who can definitely do some damage on the dirt. Keys unlocked her clay court potential last week in Rome as she found her timing and maintained her patience through a winning week in the Eternal City, outlasting Petra Kvitova and Garbiñe Muguruza en route to the final.
.@SloaneStephens receives a BIG surprise in Episode 3 of @DDFTennis' “Always Full of Surprises!” ?https://t.co/Got3BfEqZ3
— WTA (@WTA) April 27, 2016
It’s hard to predict exactly what will come next with Sloane Stephens, who has risen to the highest of highs – winning three titles – and sank to the lowest of lows – going 1-4 at the first three Premier Mandatory tournaments and Australian Open – in 2016.
The French Open, however, has been her haven for consistency, reaching the fourth round in four of her five appearances – defeating Venus Williams and pushing sister Serena to three sets last year. Stephens has made a career out of saving her best tennis for the biggest stages, and will certainly feel she has something to prove next week in Paris.
Irina Falconi won her maiden WTA title this season on red clay in Bogota, while Christina McHale is coming off a second straight quarterfinal finish in Rome.
18 Americans – including Madrid semifinalist Louisa Chirico, who qualified for the main draw on Friday – are set to face off at the French Open – the most of any nation.

The French: Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic have soared to new heights as a pair, riding a 15-match winning streak through three titles in Charleston, Stuttgart, and Madrid. Apart, they’ve largely struggled to translate that success to singles, but both Garcia and Mladenovic are in the semifinals at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, making up two-thirds of the largest French representation in the final four of a WTA tournament since 2006 at the Paris Indoors.
Garcia made her breakthrough in Paris as a teenager in 2011, getting within two games of defeating Maria Sharapova. Mladenovic won the title as a junior, and upset Eugenie Bouchard en route to the third round last year. The latter lin particular has looked buoyed by a bump in confidence in Strasbourg, building on a second round win over Alison Riske, which she won a in a third set tie-break, to looking all business in the quarterfinals against Alla Kudryavtseva.

Ranked in between the two is Alizé Cornet, who flew into the fourth round for the first time in 10 previous French Open appearances last year. The veteran enjoyed a fast start to 2016 with a title in Hobart, but while a back injury has slowed her since, she will likely be appointment television should she headline one of the show courts to start the week.
Pauline Parmentier reached the quarterfinals in Strasbourg this week with a win over Stephens, and beat Roberta Vinci to reach the fourth round in 2014.

The Romanians: Simona Halep reasserted her presence as one of the biggest names in tennis this spring, and not a moment too soon, as her countrywoman were right at her heels for most of the clay court season. Irina-Camelia Begu took the only set Halep would lose in Madrid, pushing the former World No.2 to three sets in the quarterfinals.
Begu backed up that result – where she also ousted Muguruza in three grueling sets – in emphatic style a week later in Rome, reaching her first career Premier 5 semifinal.

Monica Niculescu may prefer the faster courts, but she nonetheless had a strong start to her clay court swing, defeating Garcia and holding a pair of match points on Petra Kvitova in Stuttgart. Edging into the seeds at No.31, her unique ground game could cause problems for whomever she may face in her opening rounds.
Sorana Cirstea qualified for the main draw and is a 2009 quarterfinalist in Paris – defeating former No.1 Jelena Jankovic that year – and was one of four Romanian women to reach the last eight in Madrid. Along with Chirico, Cirstea is among the most dangerous qualifiers a big name could face.

The Dashas: Two of the most compelling counterparts since Jane Austen’s Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, Daria Kasatkina and Daria Gavrilova are a pair of dynamic characters who have proven to be highly capable on clay.
Kasatkina is the embodiment of “sense.” The teenager has, with the swiftest of prudence, built up quite the resumé in her still young career. Looking to reach a third straight Grand Slam third round, the Russian reached the quarterfinals of the Volvo Car Open, falling to Stephens from match point up.
Another junior French Open champion, Kasatkina employs excellent court sense and a heavy topspin forehand that could reverse the blips she endured in Rome and Madrid.

Gavrilova, by contrast, is “sensibility” incarnate. The emotional Aussie began the year with a bang, roaring into the round of 16 at the Australian Open with a thrilling win over Mladenovic in the third round. Rebounding from a slump that started in the Middle East, she upset Kvitova to reach the quarterfinals of Madrid and battled past Halep in Rome, where she reached the semifinals a year ago.
Gavrilova finds herself unseeded, while Kasatkina is in the Top 32 for the first time in her career; might both carve out a happy ending in Paris?

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All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
No.4 seed Garbiñe Muguruza overcame a slow start against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova to book her place in the second round of the French Open.
Simona Halep overcame a slow start to book her place in the third round of the French Open, defeating Zarina Diyas, 7-6(5), 6-2.
Serena Williams takes on Magdalena Rybarikova in the first round of Roland Garros.