It took Simona Halep 32 Grand Slam events and 4 finals to finally emerge as the last woman standing as she defeated Sloane Stephens 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the finals of the French Open. In a hard-hitting match where both opponents threw everything they had at one another, Halep didn't make it easy on herself and had to come back from a set and a break deficit to earn her first major victory.
It was the 10th seeded American who came out with a more emphatic start. Halep seemed understandable nervous and couldn't answer the precision that Stephens was generating in the first set. After Halep went down a break to start the second set, many got the feeling that winning a Grand Slam just might not be in the cards for the Romanian. Instead, it seemed that playing from behind was the more comfortable option for Halep.
While Stephens was serving up 2-1 in the second frame, momentum shifted and saw Halep win two straight games at love. Cue the chants of SI-MO-NA, SI-MO-NA and you could tell what the crowd wanted to see. Halep broke her opponent a second time to go up 4-2 but then followed that up with a lackluster game where she dropped four straight points. The pair stayed on-serve until Stephens was serving at 4-5, 30-40 and sent a backhand into the net to force a deciding set.
It was Halep who seized control in the final set and she never looked back. She reeled-off five straight games before allowing Stephens to get on the board. Halep closed out the match and her first Grand Slam on her next service game and looked at the same time proud and bewildered about what had just transpired. Remarkably Halep achieved the reverse of a year ago, where she faltered against Jelena Ostapenko after being the one in the drivers seat.
Halep then climbed into the stands on Philippe Chatrier and shared a hug with her parents, entourage and of course with her coach Darren Cahill. It was an emotional moment that speaks to the hard road the two have taken together in recent years.
Halep now can continue her time as the World No. 1 with the confidence of knowing she absolutely deserves to be there. She has silenced her critics and proven that she can hang-on to win in the most pressure-filled situations. Mission accomplished.
It's down to the final four at Roland Garros for the women as semifinal action is set to begin Thursday. In the top half of the draw there are two women who many/most expected to be there and in the bottom half a couple of unexpected arrivals given the surface being played on.
World No. 1 Simona Halep has every reason to capture her first Grand Slam in Paris, but the reservations are high given her previous performances when attaining the finals of a major. Both last year at this very tournament against Jelena Ostapenko and earlier this year in Australia to Caroline Wozniacki, she let commanding third sets leads slip through her fingers. She also lost a close final at the French Open in 2014 to Maria Sharapova.
Halep had to overcome losing the first set in both her opening round match against Alison Riske as well as her quarterfinal victory over Angie Kerber. The Romanian dug-deep both times and showed her typical grit to get back into the match. It often seems easier for Halep to come from behind, but her fans will nervously await the moment where she can protect a lead when it matters most. Can the Romanian finally overcome her late match lapses and maintain her focus to collect her first Slam title this week?
Garbine Muguruza will try to stop Halep and the 2016 French Open champion certainly knows how to bring out her best in the Slams. After having a lethargic clay court lead-up to Roland Garros, Muguruza has been on fire this week and is yet to drop a single set. She trounced two-time winner Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-1 in the quarters on Wednesday and looks intent to claim her second major title on the red clay. Muguruza is already a two-time Grand Slam champion and has proven herself quite capable when reaching this stage of the bigger events.
In the bottom half we have two Americans who are set to re-enact their surprise US Open final from last September. Madison Keys and Sloane Stephens have both seen their promising young careers temporarily derailed by injuries in the past. Healthy and playing the best tennis we have seen from them, the two have surprised many by having such strong results here on clay.
Keys - like Muguruza - has yet to lose a set in Paris and her most impressive win was a 6-1, 7-6 victory in the third round over rising star Naomi Osaka. For her part, Stephens has had four lopsided victories en route to the semifinals, but survived a stern test from Italian Camila Giorgi in the round of sixteen where she narrowly advanced 4-6, 6-1, 8-6.
In terms of head-to-head encounters, Muguruza leads Halep 3-1, but the Romanian took their only career meeting on clay back in 2015 in Stuttgart. Stephens has the 2-0 edge over Keys, and both of those matches have been on hard courts and also had very decisive scorelines.
All four remaining players have made Slam Finals before but only two have prevailed. While Muguruza has the best track record at the French as a previous champion, Halep will be anxious to erase the self-doubt she has certainly accumulated in recent years. Keys and Stephens want to prove that they can excel on the red clay of Europe just as much as their more accomplished clay court rivals in the other half.
Check back with us here at ProTennisFan for all the final action from Paris and follow us on Twitter as well for regular updates and photos.
Here are the two audio clips of my interview with Yorkshire tennis enthusiast and Alexander Zverev's favorite reporter Jonathan Pinfield from this year's French Open. My thanks to him for taking a moment out of his already very busy schedule this week to talk to us about his blossoming bromance with the World No. 3, the unique accent he carries with him and his thoughts about how us Canadians speak as well!
With the exception of his straight-sets victory in the first round, No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev had been playing with fire all week at the French Open. Three consecutive five set matches tested his followers confidence in his game and also clearly pushed his body past its limit as well. On Tuesday he was defeated by 7th seeded Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 after he suffered an injury to his left hamstring that would hamper his ability to serve and navigate his way around the clay on court Phillippe-Chatrier.
With Rafael Nadal the clear-cut favorite on the other side of the draw it likely wouldn't have mattered even if Zverev had advanced to the finals. At a mere 21 years of age he will certainly have many more future opportunities and is bound to end his career one day with multiple Grand Slam titles given his immense talent level. Still the result is a disappointment considering his No. 2 seeding and the fact that he had played so well on the red clay in Europe over the past two months. He made the semi-finals in Monte Carlo, lost the finals in Rome to Nadal and won the events in Munich and Madrid to establish himself as a bonafide contender in Paris.
One aspect of Zverev's 2018 French Open experience that garnered a lot of attention off the court was his friendly banter in his press conferences with Yorkshire tennis reporter Jonathan Pinfield. Covering the event for Live Sports FM in the UK, Pinfield brought out the best in Zverev - even after his quarterfinal defeat at the hands of Thiem. Zverev himself admitted during his final meeting with the media that, “I think you’re the only person in the World who can make me smile right now”
Overall the week should be seen as a step in the right direction for Zverev. While he still awaits his first major Grand Slam breakthrough, he did manage to advance to the quarterfinals of one of tennis' biggest tournaments for the first time in his career. He also won three matches that went the distance to help improve his previous record in five set matches that had stood at a meager 3-4 before the event began.
While some are quick to criticize Zverev, he is not the only promising tennis player to fail to attain Grand Slam success at a young age. Sure, Boris Becker and Bjorn Borg, among others, captured their first at the age of 18 or younger, but others needed a bit more time to let their games and their maturity season. Andre Agassi was 22 when he triumphed at Wimbledon, Ivan Lendl took the first of his eight Slams at age 24 and perhaps the greatest tennis player that ever lived - Roger Federer - was nearly 22 when he won his maiden major championship at Wimbledon in 2003. In short, there is still time for Zverev - someone who also happens to play at a time when the sport is still being dominated by two over-thirty legends in Federer and Nadal.
The next step for Zverev will be to overcome his injury and begin preparations for Wimbledon at the start of July. His all-surface game means that potential success at a Grand Slam is not just limited to the red clay in Paris. That fact should bode well when he finally does break through that barrier and begins to create a legacy that I'm sure there is a good chance will eventually see his name mentioned along with some of the greatest the sport has ever seen.
Any tennis fans who have been following the French Open over the past week have undoubtedly heard by now the charming voice of a certain tennis reporter from Yorkshire. The rapport Jonathan Pinfield has established with World No. 3 Alexander Zverev has captured the tennis world (both inside and outside of Yorkshire!) by storm and become one of the feel-good stories from the tournament this year. Here is my interview from yesterday with Jonathan where we discuss his experiences so far in Paris.
Q: So tell us Jon, is it true that you and Sasha Zverev will be partnering in doubles this year at Wimbledon?
A: Well we’ve exchanged one or two rallies so far in the press conferences, but we’re keeping it strictly professional and I’m not quite sure whether my backhand would hold up to be honest, but yeah really enjoying it at Roland Garros. I think it’s fair to say that Sasha is keeping everyone entertained both on the court and off the court.
Q: Well both of you are for that matter Jon. Tell me how did that one question after his first match lead into this current blossoming bromance between the two of you?
A: Well I think everyone by now knows I’m from Yorkshire. I’ve been told I have quite a strong accent so I have been making the conscious effort to speak quite slowly and deliberately. So when I got the opportunity to ask Sasha at the first news conference if he thought that Roland Garros could be a turning point in his Grand Slam career he looked at me slightly quizzically, started chuckling and said, “I love your accent, but I haven’t got a clue what you’re saying.” So it was at that point I realized that something had clearly been lost in translation. I’d like to think that from that point onwards we’ve been able to communicate by speaking the universal language of love and I think whatever has been lost in translation we’re trying to make up for now.
Q: I certainly think you’re achieving that. Are you taken aback, are you surprised by the reaction on social media by this relationships you guys are sort of forming?
A: Absolutely yes, because obviously we had a brief moment in the initial press conference where we had a bit of banter and a bit of good humored chat, but you come out of the news conference and from that point you don’t think anything of it whatsoever, you just got on to the next news story. You think quite fondly of the little exchange you’ve had and then you’re focusing on what’s going to happen next. But yeah, in a way that things have unfolded have certainly caught me by surprise and I’m sure everyone else who has followed it.
Q: What’s the reaction like back home from friends, family and other media members in your hometown?
A: Well I think everyone’s saying keeping flying the flag for Yorkshire. Lots of people have heard of Yorkshire, some haven’t, but one or two people have said that Sasha has certainly put Yorkshire on the map. And I understand now that there are calls for him to become an honorary Yorkshire-man so who knows, he could become the first honorary Yorkshire man to go deep into a Grand Slam.
Q: Tell me, have you had any other good reactions from players this week? Is this a usual thing for you week-in and week-out with your wonderful accent being recognized?
A: Well I got the opportunity to interview one of the players today who said that I’m the man, so he won his match today and I told him that he was the man. I’ll save his blushes, I won’t tell who that was, but that was a wonderful compliment.
Q: How long have you been covering the sport for Jon and do you play tennis yourself?
A: I don’t actually get a chance to do much reporting. There’s a team of about 30 of us at Live Sports FM. Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for our listeners, I think my colleagues are a lot more talented than I am so I’m usually back at the office organizing other people. The trip to Roland Garros was a bit of a treat to myself to be honest just to get out of the office for two weeks and experience some great tennis. Yeah I’d love to get on the court, I think you can probably guess what happens is that Wimbledon is on once a year and what us Brits do is we get our racquets out for about two weeks of the year dodging the showers to try to hit a few tennis balls. Then once Wimbledon is over and the weather changes we hide the racquets somewhere and then we’ve got to try and find them a year later. I’d love to think I can play tennis but I play it pretty poorly I must admit.
Q: Well you’ll have to find some more time to get out yourself and I would imagine that after this week’s performance by yourself on the job you’ll be getting a few more calls to attend some tennis tournaments in the future and I know we’d all enjoy that. Tell me, what do you think of Zverev’s chances in his quarterfinal match if you could objectively look at that as he tries to capture his first Grand Slam.
A: Well honestly they’re both young players at similar stages in their careers I’d say. Dominic has got a bit more experience on the ATP Tour and is a bit more measured and calm. I think Sasha has a lot of natural talent and it’s just a question if whether he can just curb those aspects of his personality that actually trip him up. I think a lot of people’s heads are thinking that it might trip up Sasha on this one but I think a lot of hearts are hoping that he can do it. But I must admit I’ve got a foot in both camps. I wouldn’t like to say who’s going to win that one it could be very close indeed.
Q: What have Zverev’s responses to you this week in press revealed to you about his personality? Has it surprised you his reaction to your questions and sort of opened the door to allow us to get to know him a little bit better?
A: Yeah I think one criticism of him so far has been sometimes he does come across as quite self-confident. He does a lot of news conferences, he gets asked a lot of the same questions and so he’s not someone who is always going to give you a stock response and what journalists like are quite long detailed answers to questions even if they’re not very well formed. So, I think yeah, we try to keep him on his toes, he’s certainly kept us on our toes, but just judging by the reaction to some of what’s happened on social media – not just the interactions with me – but his performances off the court, on the court, I think people are warming to him and seeing different aspects of his personality and that can only be good for him. I think that self-assured confidence that he’s got isn’t going to change dramatically and as you know any top flight tennis player has got to believe in himself to get the performances.
Q: Absolutely and I think we have to credit you as well Jon for helping get some of that out and certainly looking forward to your next press conference with him. I’ll end it on this one, since we started talking about accents - that beings yours – what’s your reaction to our Canadian accent as I know you’ve been doing a little press with some other Canadian reporters this week. How do we compare?
A: I think it’s very warm, very friendly and very open. And I think all the Canadian colleagues of yours that I’ve met at Roland Garros have helped by being very supportive towards me, very kind, very considerate and seem to also have a good rapport with the players as well. I’m a bit biased, I think that Yorkshire is the best accent in the world, but if I didn’t have a Yorkshire accent and had to learn a new one I’d definitely go for Canadian.
Q: Well thank you for sharing yours with us today Jon. You’re more than just your accent for sure, you’ve asked some great tennis questions this week and we look forward to more throughout this week in Paris and beyond as well. Thanks for taking the time.
A: Really appreciate your support as well Mike and everyone who has been in touch, thank you very much, been a pleasure.
And in case you missed it, here is the first exchange between Pinfield and Zverev :
Playing in her first Grand Slam match since winning the Australian Open 16 months ago, Serena Williams defeated Krystyna Pliskova 7-6(4), 6-4. Clad in an impressive and attention-grabbing black jumpsuit, the 23-time Slam winner worked her way through her first clay court match since the French Open two years ago.
In the hour and forty-five minute match, Serena was hitting her first serve in at a 55% rate while winning 80% of those points. Pliskova for her part served at 60% effectiveness on her first serve yet only managed to win 70% of those points. Pliskova had twice as many break point opportunities on Serena's serve but only could convert on 2 of 8 of those chances while the American was a sharp 3 out of 4 to break her opponents serve.
Serena was actually out-aced by Pliskova by a 15-13 margin but as she continues to find her groove back on the tennis court I would expect that to be a rare occurrence. Credit to Pliskova who was ripping her serves in at only 3 kph less than Serena on her average serve speed during the match. Though it is the other Pliskova twin - Karolina - who is ranked in the top-ten, Krystyna has been playing well of late and came into the match with a 10-5 record on clay this spring.
"I knew that after her first game of serving that I said, ok I have to serve really well today, I have to be really on my game serving-wise because there's not going to be a tremendous amount of rallies..."
The victory almost seemed to be overshadowed by the reaction on social media to Serena's eye-catching outfit that she revealed was as much about practicality as anything else. The returning tennis legend referenced in on her Twitter account as well after the match and gave credit to Mom's everywhere who have gone through challenging pregnancies.
"It is definitely a little functionality to it. I have been wearing pants in general a lot when I play so I can keep the blood circulation going," Serena revealed. "I feel like a warrior in it, like a warrior princess kind of -- queen from Wakanda maybe."
The coolest piece to the entire ensemble might have been the shoes that seemed perhaps overshadowed by the overall stunning look that she pulled-off on Tuesday with the catsuit.
Fashion aside, the victory puts Serena at a 3-2 record in her return to the WTA since her 14 month absence while pregnant and becoming a new mother. Things won't get any easier in the next round as she faces hard-hitting Ashleigh Barty of Australia, a player with a more similar style of game to Serena.
Barty won her opening round against Natalia Vikhlyansetva 6-3, 6-1 but that match likely offered very little in terms of preparing to face the greatest female tennis player of all-time. The pair have played once before - at the 2014 Australian Open - with Serena prevailing 6-2, 6-1. Barty was only 17 at the time, so the result doesn't hold any weight to it. The Australian has come a long way since then and has had some strong moments in 2018 including being a finalist towards the start of the season in Sydney and more recently when she made the semi-finals of a clay court tournament in Strasbourg where she had to retire down a set due to a sore back.
The big hitting second round match is slated for Thursday in Paris. We'll see if Serena is once again sporting her catsuit and can channel her inner superhero as she progresses through her inspiring comeback to tennis.
Jelena Ostapenko turned heads last year when she unexpectedly won the French Open. The 5th ranked Latvian surprised the tennis world again on Sunday but for entirely different reasons. The defending champion was taken out by 66th ranked Kateryna Kozlova - a player who had not won a WTA match since early February.
Kozlova refused to be dragged into the go-for-broke style of play that Ostapenko has become known for and walked away with a 7-5, 6-3 victory - her third in as many meetings with the Ukrainian.
Ostapenko's match stats stood out and for all the wrong reasons. She served at a mere 47%, was broken 7 times by Kozlova and she also threw in 13 double faults.
After the match Ostapenko spoke candidly about the pressure of returning to Paris as the defending champion. A pressure that clearly was too much for her to handle on this occasion.
"I made like 50 unforced errors and so many double faults, and couldn't serve today. Everything together just brought me a really bad result. I had this unbelievable pressure. I felt that I'm not myself today on court."
Aside from the mental pressure of defending her Grand Slam title, Ostapenko also revealed she had not completely healed from an injury she suffered against Maria Sharapova in their marathon quarter-final match at the Italian Open in Rome.
While no longer in action in singles, Ostapenko will try to salvage something of her 2018 French Open experience in doubles alongside partner Elina Vesnina where the duo is seeded 10th. As for singles success, that will now have to wait for the grass court season that begins in two weeks time. Hopefully by then the pressure Ostapenko struggled with today will be a distant memory.
Fourth seeded Elina Svitolina is widely considered one of the favorites to emerge with the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen in two week's time at Roland Garros. Her French Open started with her looking anything but the player who could do that. The Ukrainian found herself down two breaks of serve at 1-5 in the opening set. Svitolina then settled down and rattled-off six straight games to take the set 7-5 and give her fans a much needed chance to calm down. She would take the match 7-5, 6-3.
Asked after the match about her slow start the Ukrainian said, "It’s probably a mixture of things. She was striking the ball well, I was a little bit off sometimes going for too much. It was a mixture of things…of course I want to prevent doing this again next match.”
Svitolina's stats for the match reveal a first serve that was clicking at merely 63% and allowed her to win just 57% of those points. She actually won a higher amount of second serve points at 62% and saved 3 of 6 break points that she faced versus only 6 of 11 saved by her opponent Tomljanovic. Svitolina's winner to error margin was 22-26 while Tomljanovic was heavier with the mistakes and had a 21-35 ratio between the two statistics.
A year ago Svitolina took down Yaroslava Shvedova by a more routine score of 6-4, 6-3 in the opening round before falling to Simona Halep in the quarterfinals where she held a 6-3, 5-1 lead but allowed the Romanian back into the match and saw it ultimately slip away 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-0. It was a defeat that Svitolina admits was a tough learning experience that she now uses to motivate herself in order to move towards her first major title on the WTA.
In 2018 the 23 year old has already captured three titles in Brisbane, Dubai and most recently on the clay in Rome. She successfully defended her Italian Open title there last week to kick-start an otherwise mediocre clay season and re-establish herself as a threat in Paris.
In her post match press conference on Sunday Svitolina eluded to the fact that she was going to head right back out onto the practice courts. "I know that I have to put lots of hours on court to get better. For me, the only way to get better is to practice. To get better, to improve my game each day, each match.”
Svitolina will next face 20 year old Viktoria Kuzmova who defeated 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 7-6(2), 7-6(2). The younger Kuzmova made the finals of the 2016 Junior US Open in New York City and likely just ended 37 year old Schiavone's French Open career in the Italian's 18th consecutive appearance there.
The Ukrainian does not play her second round match against Kuzmova until Wednesday and joked that she might, "Go back home and come back" before then. When she does return to action expect a cleaner performance than the one we saw today as Svitolina works towards making her first career major semi-final or better here in Paris.
The men's and women's singles draws at the French Open were both revealed around 1pm ET on Thursday as the second Grand Slam of 2018 is just about ready to begin.
In the men's draw Rafal Nadal will attempt to win his 11th Roland Garros title. He begins his defense against Alexandr Dolgopolov and then would face the winner between Joao Sousa and Guido Pella. A fourth round re-match from Rome against rising Canadian Denis Shapovalov would be an entertaining match but truthfully there does not appear to be any serious threats until the finals for the World No. 1. Even then, the term "serious threat" on clay against Nadal would be considered a stretch. Players who are being discussed as potential obstacles for the Spaniard such as Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic are all in the other half of the draw.
On the women's side it will be far more difficult for Jelena Ostapenko to repeat as champion in 2018. The 20 year old Ukrainian will be challenged quite early in the draw as she is likely to face former World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka in the second round. Ostapenko's run to the title a year ago was one of the most shocking moments on the WTA Tour that year but a repeat seems almost equally unlikely.
One of the main threats on the women's side is current No. 1 and last year's finalist Simona Halep. The Romanian was up by a set and a 3-0 lead in the second frame of her championship match against Ostapenko but could not secure the victory. With another agonizing defeat to start 2018 at the Australian Open, could this year in Paris allow Halep the occasion to finally capture her first major title?
Check back this weekend to see our full draw preview on both the men's and women's sides at the French Open. Be sure also to follow us on Twitter throughout the two week event for up-to-date news and photos.
In a sport that is so often dominated by talk of what a player has done in the past or what they might do in the future, it must come as a relief for 21 year old Alexander Zverev that he can at the very least enjoy the present after his 6-4, 6-4 victory in the Mutua Madrid Open finals Sunday against Dominic Thiem. The two players came into the match tied for the ATP World Tour lead in victories in 2018 with 25 apiece but it was the 3rd ranked German who prevailed for this third career Masters 1000 title. The victory makes him one of just five active players who hold that many Masters level championships. The others are notable greats Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. Pretty impressive company to say the least.
While Zverev is a can't-miss future star for the sport, much has been made about his lack of success thus far in his career at the Grand Slam level. His best result to-date was a fourth round finish at last year's Wimbledon. He has yet to make it to a quarterfinal at a major and has routinely lost early to players that he should undoubtedly be beating.
Despite all the criticism, Zverev is a player that nobody wants to face at Roland Garros in two weeks time. He is a young talent who is poised for a breakthrough at the Slam level and with two of his three Masters shields coming on clay, there is no reason to think that can't happen in Paris. Those slagging Zverev's record in Grand Slam competition should take a moment to reflect on other greats whose rise in the sport came a little later than expected. Ivan Lendl didn't win the first of his eight Slams until he was 24, Andre Agassi until 22 and both Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer at 21 - the same age that Zverev just turned a few weeks ago. Federer in particular was labelled as a can't-miss prospect yet in the seven majors that led-up to his first triumph at Wimbledon in 2003 he failed to advance past the fourth round of play. Thankfully for Federer, social media did not exist back then otherwise he surely would have been receiving the kind of scathing comments that Zverev gets from his critics.
On Sunday in Madrid, Zverev came in as the slight underdog against the red-hot Dominic Thiem. Three years older, Thiem came into the match with a 4-1 head-to-head advantage over his opponent. Thiem also recently ended the incredible streak of 50 consecutive sets won on clay by the King of the surface - Rafael Nadal. Interestingly enough, Nadal's streak began following his surprising loss to Thiem about a year ago in Rome. Following the win over Nadal this year in Madrid however, Thiem was unable to continue the same level of play in the final against Zverev. Thiem was broken to start both the first and second sets and in return was unable to break the Zverev serve that had remarkably been held throughout the entire event. Zverev's serving coupled with confident play at the net allowed him to control the entire match that unfortunately failed to live-up to the hype. He won 16 of 17 first serve points in the final set and displayed an unwaivering resolve as he approached the finish line in Madrid.
As the French Open is now only two weeks away, Nadal is still the overwhelming favorite. Having his consecutive match streak broken prior to the start of his most dominant Slam is likely a blessing in disguise for the Spaniard. He no longer has to face the added pressure and questions surrounding the remarkable streak. With a career record of 79-2 in Paris, who might be capable of handing Nadal loss No. 3? After Zverev's big win in Madrid, there is no reason to think that person can't be him.