Roland Garros – Women’s Tuesday Preview

Francesca Schiavone vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

With three top women already out of the draw before entering the second week of the tournament, this is by far one of the most open contest in the history of Roland Garros.

Defending champion Francesca Schiavone takes on Russian teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for a place in the semifinals of the 2011 French Open, season's second Grand Slam event being played here at Roland Garros in Paris, France.

After watching Jelena Jankovic in her first three matches, I was sure she will be able to pull an upset over the Italian Francesca Schiavone. But I must say, Schiavone surprised me with her confident play and experience on clay in nailing the former world number on in 3 sets of struggle. Schiavone is without a title for exactly 12 months now and is looking like a contender in real sense after her fabulous perofrmances in the first 4 matches. Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is the highest ranked teenager in the WTA rankings at the moment. Her consistent performances and an awe-inspiring win-loss record last season made her a notable player in the tennis fraternity. Last year, Pavlyuchenkova tested Serena Williams to limits before going down in three sets. In the fourth round in this year's edition, Pavlyuchenkova caused one of the biggest upsets in the draw and knocked out World No.3 Vera Zvonareva. Currently ranked No.15 in the world, Pavlyuchenkova has three career titles to her name.

Both players have contested 3 matches before and Schiavone leads the way 2-1. The Italian won the pair's previous meeting in New York at the US Open in straight sets.

Schiavone is a very strong and experienced player on clay court and 3 of the 4 WTA triumphs of her career have come on the red dirt. She is likely to utilise that experience and confidence to register win in three closely contested sets.

 

Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Marion Bartoli

Often considered a choker in big matches, Svetlana Kuznetsova once again closes on a Grand Slam triumph in the absence of big names as she takes on Frenchwoan and home favourite Marion Bartoli in the quarterfinal of French Open.

2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova takes on Frenchwoman and a howling crowd favourite Marion Bartoli for a place in the semifinals of the 2011 French Open, season's second Grand Slam being played here at Roland Garros in Paris, France.

Kuznetsova has suffered from inconsistency throughout her career and at 25, is hoping to add as many titles to her credit before age gets the better of her. The Russian's best performance this year came in Dubai where she reached the final before bowing out to Caroline Wozniacki. In the previous rounds at this year's edition at Roland Garros, Kuznetsova was unchallenged till the fourth round where she lost the opening set to Daniela Hantuchova before making a comeback.

In the ten French Opens she has contested so far in her career, Marion Bartoli has never made it past 4th round but with a quarterfinal appearance after win over Gisela Dulko this year, she is all set to rock the nation. Bartoli took out some big names this season including Ana Ivanovic and Kim Clijsters in Indian Wells to reach the final. Before coming to her favourite Roland Garros, Bartoli made the finals in Strasbourg where she finished runner up to German Andrea Petkovic.

Both players have contested three matches before and Kuznetsova has a slight edge at 2-1 in the head-to-head. Interestingly, it was Bartoli who won the pair's previous meeting in 2010 in Miami.

Kuznetsova maybe erratic or inconsistent but her solid baseline game on a given day is enough to get past the best in the business, and Bartoli seems no exception.