Things We Learned On Day 4 Of The 2015 French Open

Andrew

1. Lucic-Baroni is Halep’s worst nightmare

Anyone remember Lucic-Baroni’s dream run at the US Open in 2014? That came courtesy of a Round 3 win over Simona Halep, who was runner up at Roland Garros earlier in the year. Well, Lucic-Baroni is back and yet again she’s put an end to Halep’s slam campaign with a straight sets win over the world no.3.

Halep didn’t look in great form in the first round, having not been able to show her best game for most of this year’s clay season. Lucic-Baroni took advantage of this, hitting 29 winners in comparison to Halep’s five.

With this win, Lucic-Baroni sets up a third round match with French no.1 Alize Cornet during which she says she hopes “at least three French people will cheer for me.”

Lucic-Baroni through, 7-5 6-1.

2. The third quarter of the draw looks GREAT for Makarova

Ekaterina Makarova is possibly the most understated threat on the WTA tour. Already a semi-finalist in Australia earlier this year and at the US Open last year, the Russian now has an opportunity to make it a hat-trick with a draw that has opened up for her. With Halep out and Ana Ivanovic looking extremely uncertain, Makarova is easily the steadiest and most accomplished of the rest of the field.

An on-form Ivanovic ought to be able to come through this draw, but she isn’t playing nearly the standard of tennis she was able to muster in 2014, when it looked like her famed “process” might finally have paid off.

Makarova, who hasn’t looked in top form herself in recent months, had to battle a bit herself today against Teliana Pereira of Brazil but was eventually able to win in three sets. The remaining names alongside Makarova and Ivanovic in this quarter are: Lucic-Baroni, Cornet, Vesnina, Vekic, Beck and Svitolina.

Makarova through, 6-2 5-7 6-3

3. Nick Kyrgios is good at making people groan

The young Aussie knows that when it comes to grand slams, you can go hard or go home. To make sure he can really penetrate the draw, Kyrgios revealed he has a healthy attitude towards pre-match preparations. Not everyone was thrilled to read this news, feeling it only confirmed that the 20 year old is a little too cocky. But, I mean, at least we know he’s come to play.

Kyrgios finds himself thrust into R3, as Britain’s Kyle Edmund had to withdraw from the tournament with a strained muscle in his stomach. Should Kyrgios not strain any muscles of his own, he’s certainly got the spunk to challenge Andy Murray in their scheduled R3 line up.

Kyrgios is certainly not afraid of going deep, and looks to have really found his rhythm on the tour.

4. Putintseva losing is SAD for tournament chaos but GREAT for gifs

She lost 9-7 in the final set having cruised the first set 6-1. As I’m sure you can imagine, she did not enjoy that.

Svitolina through, 1-6 7-5 9-7

 

Lindsay

1. Halep’s loss has me depressed.

There’s always one loss that I take hard, and for this Slam, this one is it, I think. I had high hopes that Halep was going to be able to find her killer Indian Wells-Miami form and make another big run here in Paris, but to see her come out as flat as she was against Makarova in Australia was just devastating.

Halep’s ability (or inability) to deal with pressure is going to be a huge factor in the WTA going forward, because it’s very clear that on her apprehensive days, any big-hitter can knock her out.

Of course I’m thrilled for Lucic-Baroni, one of the best stories in sports, but honestly I’m mostly just sad.

2. Welp.

3. Apparently Fed has a two-handed backhand in his book?

K.

4. I’m frustrated.

It could just be that I’m being a Debbie Downer and that I’m busier during the French Open than I usually am and so I’m super stressed–and all of that is true.

But really, the French Open is just so damn annoying. I pay an extra $10 a month for Tennis Channel, plus like $150 extra per month for cable (that I probably wouldn’t pay for if it wasn’t for sports) and high-speed internet for streaming. And then, to watch basically any of the afternoon matches during the first week not shown on Tennis Channel, I have to pay $12 extra for the streaming service? THAT’S INSANE. Plus, I’ve used the product before and I don’t think it’s good enough to justify that.

So, I miss out on things and twitter has to be my eyes and ears.

THEN, and I know we complain about this all the time, but the transcripts embargo is just ridiculous. AT LEAST let the transcripts be free after 24 hours. OTHER SPORTS DO NOT BEHAVE LIKE THIS. Trust me, I write about other sports from home, and can usually find full transcripts online within an hour of the presser.

Anyways, I needed to vent and I have vented.

5. Daria Gavrilova had to retire after the first set in her match against Lisicki, which was sad. But then she won twitter, so everything is better.

6 Responses

  1. Peter
    Peter May 27, 2015 at 7:21 pm |

    Andrew’s write up of Kyrgios was just oozing with innuendo. I, for one, loved it!

  2. Susie
    Susie May 28, 2015 at 1:40 am |

    Great fun to read. Can you not get access to the a Euro a Player? Makes me realise how lucky we are in Europe? 12 courts for about £3 for the duration and no commies….

  3. Matt V
    Matt V May 28, 2015 at 3:40 am |

    I love these updates, keep them going….Wow one of those women will be in the semis? That’s…intriguing for sure 😀

  4. cjb
    cjb May 28, 2015 at 4:32 am |

    I really do think it’s possible to write well about sport (and yes, tennis, and yes I have had some experience) without reading a single word from press conferences.

  5. Kristin
    Kristin May 28, 2015 at 7:04 am |

    Rather than double entendre, Andrew climaxed at quadruple entendre! See what I did there?

  6. James
    James May 29, 2015 at 5:57 am |

    Am I the only one who HATES the French Open website? It’s pretty but so counterintuitive. I have to click the site map to find anything. The app is more straight forward. What is WRONG with this GS? Why embargo everything, including and especially Youtube vids? Pourquoi? Pourquoi? Pourquoi? / end rant /

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