Tennis News

Back in 2007, Simona Halep and Evgeniya Rodina met in the Wimbledon Championships Junior Tournament. Now, eight years later, the two will meet again, this time as professional athletes competing for a slot in the second round of the prestigious Roland Garros tournament. This marks the first time that the two competitors will collide on the professional tour and should make for an interesting start to Halep’s 2015 campaign at the French Open.

Following an excellent start to her 2015 season, which included title wins in Dubai and Indian Wells, and most recently reached the semi-final stage in Miami, Simona Halep was dealt a significant blow when she was ousted from the Madrid Open in her opening round match. She managed to salvage some momentum ahead of the French Open when she worked her way to the semi-final stage in Rome before losing to Carla Suarez Navarro. She is yet to claim a title on clay this season.

Halep will come up against Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina, who has had a turbulent clay court season that included three first round exits (Stuttgart, Marrakech and Renava) and two second round exits. She will look to try her luck at the biggest win of her professional career in an upset win over Halep.

This marks the first time that Halep and Rodina will meet on the professional tour but that does not mean that the two don’t share history together on court. Rodina actually defeated Halep in the third round of the 2007 Wimbledon Junior tournament and will look to relive that moment with a crushing first round upset win against one of the tournament favourites. However, given Halep’s general consistency over the past few months, there is little doubt that the Romanian will advance to the second round.

Back in January, Stan Wawrinka began his title defense at the ‘Happy Slam’ against Marsel Ilhan. Now, five months later, the Swiss No. 2 and fourth seed at the event is scheduled to open his French Open campaign against Ilhan, which made for an interesting coincidence. Wawrinka leads the head-to-head series 1-0 and will likely remain undefeated against the Turkish player.

Prior to his last tournament ahead of the French Open, which took place in his hometown of Geneva, Stan Wawrinka looked as though he was set to arrive in Paris with some significant momentum. After alternating wins and losses for three consecutive Masters 1000 events, Wawrinka arrived in Rome, where he defeated Juan Monaco, Dominic Thiem and Rafael Nadal before losing to Roger Federer in the semi-final round. His win over Nadal was particularly impressive, yet he had that momentum halted when he failed to serve out a match against Federico Delbonis in Geneva and instead lost the contest in three sets.

The Swiss star will come up against Marsel Ilhan, who failed to qualify for the Madrid Masters event but managed to work his way into the Rome Masters 1000 draw, where he defeated Adrian Mannarino before losing to Rafael Nadal in the second round.

This is set to be the second time that Wawrinka and Ilhan will cross paths on the tour, and is not a particularly challenging contest for Wawrinka last time around. Wawrinka leads the head-to-head series 1-0 with a win earlier this year at the Australian Open, where they also met in the opening round. While anyone is capable of surprising a high seed early on in the tournament, this is unlikely to be the case here. Wawrinka looked to be in-form over the past few weeks apart from his bizarre exit from the tournament on home soil in Geneva last week. He should be able to work his way past Ilhan with relative ease.

Top Canadian Milos Raonic announced on Thursday afternoon that he would be forced to withdraw from the 2015 French Open. It appears the world No. 6 was unable to recover from right foot surgery in time to prepare himself for competitive play at the Grand Slam level.

“I am sad to have to unfortunately announce my withdrawal from 2015’s Roland Garros,” said Raonic. “I tried my best to be back on court and healthy in time after surgery but after consulting with my team and doctors, I made a decision to withdraw from this year’s tournament and make sure I am able to return return to the court at one hundred per cent. My rehab will continue this week and I will shortly begin preparations for a strong Queens Club and Wimbledon.”

Raonic, who dealt with right foot issues over the past couple of months, underwent surgery last week to aleviate a condition known as Morton’s Neuroma. It is a painful condition that involves the thickening of the tissue around a nerve leading to a toe. Due to this condition, he was forced to retire from the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 event and later withdrew from the Rome Masters.

Raonic had quarter-final points to defend at this year’s tournament, where he lost to Novak Djokovic last season. The tournament is set to begin on Sunday, May 24th in Paris.

An intriguing encounter is set to take place in the semi-final round of the Open de Nice tournament on Friday afternoon in France. The final warm-up event ahead of the 2015 edition of the French Open will feature an enthralling contest between American No. 1 John Isner and Dominic Thiem. It will serve as the first ever meeting on the tour between the two talented competitors.

In a standard match on court last Thursday, John Isner defeated Serbian adversary Dusan Lajovic in straight sets to advance to the semi-final stage of the Open de Nice. He fired eight aces, won 76% of his first service points, converted just the one break point in the second set and saved both the break points he faced on serve during the match. He eventually finished the encounter 7-6(3), 6-4.

“I thought it was a pretty high quality match,” Isner told ATPWorldTour.com. “I played pretty well. As it is in a lot of my matches, it came down to a few points in the first and second sets.”

In a less-than-stellar quarter-final meeting on Thursday, Austria’s Dominic Thiem defeated Ernests Gulbis in straight set to advance to the final four in Nice. He struck two aces, won 75% of his first service points and converted four break points to secure the 6-2, 6-4 victory in one hour and 37 minutes. It was an impressive showing from the Austrian as he prepares for a tall task against the American.

This is just the first time that these two competitors will cross paths on the professional tour and is an encounter with two separate, potential outcomes. However, it is likely that Isner will present a difficult challenge on serve for Thiem and he will likely advance to the tournament final following a tight straight sets encounter with a couple of tiebreaks.

Two of the top seeds at the Nurmemberg Open are safely through to the semi-final stage of the tournament, where they will now cross paths for a fifth time on the professional tour. Angelique Kerber and Roberta Vinci had cross paths on four previous occasions and split the head-to-head series 2-2 over the three-year length of the rivalry.

In a relatively straightforward encounter in the quarter-final stage of the tournament, Angelique Kerber advanced to the final four in Nuremberg with a straight sets victory against Misaki Doi. She struck one ace, 62 percent and converted six of seven break points to secure the 6-2, 6-3 win. The contest lasted a total of one hour and six minutes.

In one of the other four quarter-final matches on court that day, Roberta Vinci advanced to the semi-finals with a three set win against Kurumi Nara. It was a rollercaster affair that saw Vinci win 65% of her first service points and convert four break points to close out the match 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 in one hour and 37 minutes. Vinci was the more solid returner of the two competitors, particularly in the first service returns, which helped her break serve enough times to secure the victory. In the end, she won 47% of return points, which is 8% more than Nara.

This is the fifth time that these two competitors will cross paths on the professional tour, with the head-to-head series split at 2-2. They have no met on the tour since Beijing in 2013 and only met on clay once during in those four matches. Kerber won that sole clay court meeting, which came in the form of a straight sets win at Stuttgart in 2012.

World No. 1 Noval Djokovic didn’t have the best week on the ATP World Tour but he still managed to end his campaign at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia with a fourth trophy at the prestigious Masters 1000 event.

Djokovic, who was forced into several three-set matches throughout the week, defeated world No. 2 Roger Federer in straight sets to secure his title win just weeks ahead of the French Open. He won the match 6-4, 6-3 to close in on Federer’s lead in the head-to-head series.

“I was able to find my way through,” said Djokovic. “Roger put a lot of pressure on my service game at 4-4, but I managed to respond well, to gain those break points, move him around the court, and then I played a couple of great points that gave me the set. When you’re a set up, the momentum is shifting to your side and you start to feel better.”

Federer, who had not dropped a set all week heading into the final, admitted to playing below par in the final. It was the fourth time that Federer finished runner up in Rome and is yet to lift the tournament title in 15 attempts.

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“I know I can play better,” said Federer. “Novak was rock solid today, he played great throughout. He made very few unforced errors. I’m happy, feeling good and healthy.”