Thursday, May 29, 2025

RG.5- Have Rackets, Will Win











=DAY 5 NOTES=
...bring rackets? CHECK. Win? CHECK. 3rd Round, here comes Coco Gauff at a seventh consecutive major (and 12th of the last 13).

While Gauff advances, 18-year old Tereza Valentova, the RG junior s/d champ last year, can surely declare her tour-level debut a rousing success as she made her way through qualifying to reach her maiden slam MD, then got an opening win over Chloe Paquet after having trailed 5-3, 30/love in the 3rd set. In the 2nd set today vs. #2 Gauff, the Czech twice erased break leads in a break-filled stanza (servers lost 9 of 10 games) but wasn't able to carve out anything greater against by far the highest-ranked player she's ever faced as Coco won 6-2/6-4. But the Crusher will be back.



...meanwhile, the (other) Czechs are always lurking, with a possible huge result on the way back from an injury always something that can't be totally dismissed.

With Karolina Muchova already out, and even Barbora Krejcikova unable to keep her run afloat today (the #15 seed and reigning Wimbledon champ lost love & 3 today vs. Veronika Kudermetova... but, remember, she'd only won five matches all season -- four in one event -- heading into the grass season *last* year before her SW19 title), Marketa Vondrousova is the last remaining up-from-the-ashes possibility for the contingent.

And she *is* still alive in the 3rd Round.



In fact, Vondrousova knocked off a seed -- #25 Magdalena Frech -- on Thursday, winning 6-0/4-6/6-3.

Traditionally troubled by her wrist, the Czech has been out since February with a shoulder injury this season. Ranked #96, she arrived in Paris with just eight matches under her belt in 2025, but with a significant muscle memory when it comes to big stage success. A finalist in '19, she reached the RG quarters just last year. She's an Olympic Silver medalist, and won Wimbledon just two summer ago. Overlook her at one's own peril.

If Vondrousova can get past Jessie Pegula in the 3rd Round (the #3 seed has advanced past the RG 3r just once, three years ago), she'll only have a French wild card standing between her and a return to the last eight.

...speaking of those French wild cards, the structure of the Pastry women's tennis establishment at this RG continues to be held atop the shoulders of Lois Boisson and Elsa Jacquemot. And one of them is assured of continuing to do so into the second week, as they'll next face off for a spot in their maiden major Round of 16.

After the French women opened 1-6 at this major things have turned upward significantly with the 4-0 run of Boisson and Jacquemot, who'd been a combined 2-7 in slam MD play a week ago (and *all* of that had come via Jacquemot's racket). Over the first week of this RG, though, Boisson has picked up where she left off last spring when her rise was interrupted by a knee injury, and Jacquemot has finally found some footing of her own in her home event after in 2020 she became the first Pastry to win the girls' junior crown in Paris in eleven years.

After upsetting #24 Elise Mertens in the 1st Round, 22-year old Boisson dispatched of Anhelina Kalinina 6-1/6-2 today.



Boisson's 3rd Round opponent will be her 22-year old countrywoman Jacquemot, who appeared ready to let slip away the biggest win of her career only to emphatically snatch it back on Day 5.

Against Alycia Parks, Jacquemot led 6-2/5-3, and held three MP at 5-4 before the Bannerette forced a TB and won it 7-4. Was a Zombie Queen about to be born? Uh, no. Jacquemot seized the 3rd set 6-1 to set up a big match on Saturday for the locals that surely will *not* be played in the night session because, well, this tournament just does not do that. No women's match has been played under such circumstances in Paris since 2023.

Interestingly, the first official night match on Chatrier *was* a women's match (Serena/Begu in '21, played without fans during the pandemic, as was another women's night match in that first year with the new roof). Since then only two women's matches (Cornet/Ostapenko in '22, Sabelenka/Stephens in '23) have been scheduled under the lights on the big court. None were played there last year, nor has there been any this time around.



...while there are more Bannerettes in the Final 32 (7) than any other nation, Parks wasn't the only U.S. woman to miss out on what seemed a real a shot to advance on Thursday.

Robin Montgomery led Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 4-1 and was up 15/30 on the Spaniard's serve in the 3rd set, but Bouzas Maneiro once again showed some toughness in advancing to the 3rd Round at a third different major (in the last four) with a 6-4/4-6/7-5 win. The 22-year old was the favorite vs. the world #115 today, but remember that she got to this match by virtually dismembering #9 Emma Navarro in the 1st Round, dropping just one game.

...#31 Sofia Kenin reached the RG final back in 2020, and while her overall results since then have waned, her best *major* results have continued to come in Paris to the tune of a 4th Round in '21 and 3rd Round in her next RG MD appearance in '24. She's had just one other slam 3r -- at the '23 Wimbledon --since the start of '21 (after having six before '21, including an AO20 title run).

Kenin fell behind Victoria Azarenka 5-2 in the 1st set today, and Azarenka served to take the match lead at 5-3, then held a SP at 5-4. She couldn't put away her lead, something the Belarusian veteran has had increasingly more trouble doing in this latter stage of her career, but on her return game she was able to prevent Kenin from serving things out at 6-5.

Kenin took the 1st set TB, then won a close 2nd to advance to another RG 3rd Round with a 7-6(5)/6-4 victory.



It's Azarenka's fifth 1r/2r exit in a major in her last eight slam appearances (DNP '24 WI) since reaching the AO23 semis.





...ONE WIN AWAY FROM BACK-TO-BACK RG ROUND OF 16 RUNS... ON DAY 5:


The Dane's nine wins in Paris are more than her total (8) at the other three majors combined.




...DASHA IS 8-11 IN NON-SLAM COMPETITION IN '25, but 5-1 in majors... ON DAY 5:




...Hmmm... ON DAY 5:


Translation: "0 | The number of sets Victoria Mboko has lost from the start of qualifying to the main draw. The last person to do this was Emma Raducanu at the 2021 US Open. The rest is history"




...MEANHWILE, MIRRA IS STILL JUST CONCHITA'S PERSONAL, MULTI-TALENTED "CHICHINETTE" AT THE MOMENT, BUT SOON THE DRAW'S "BIG DAWGS" WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH HER... ON DAY 5:



chichinette: (French) "little pain in the neck"

























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*2025 RG FINAL 32 AT A GLANCE"*
DIFFERENT NATIONS (AO 19): 17
MOST IN 32: 7-USA,4-RUS,3-UKR,2-CZE,2-ESP,2-FRA,2-KAZ,1-(10)
---
19 - seeds
9 - unseeded
2 - wild cards
1 - qualifier
1 - lucky loser
0 - protected ranking
---
2 - teens (M.Andreeva/Mboko)
5 - age 30+ (Alexandrova,Pegula,Pera,Putintseva,Svitolina)
5 - 1st major 3r (Baptiste,Boisson,Jacquemot,Mboko,Starodubtseva)
7 - 1st RG 3r (5 + Bouzas Maneiro,Cristian)
17 - 3rd Rd. at both 2025 AO/RG
17 - 3rd Rd. repeats from RG 2024

*RECENT RG "LAST QUALIFIER STANDING"*
[2017]
(4th) Petra Martic/CRO
[2018]
(2nd) C.Dolehide/USA, A.Dulgheru/ROU, M.Duque-Marino/COL, M.Frech/POL, G.Garcia-Perez/ESP & R.Peterson/SWE
[2019]
(4th) Aliona Bolsova/ESP
[2020]
(SF) Nadia Podoroska/ARG
[2021]
(2nd) Hailey Baptiste/USA, Anhelina Kalinina/UKR & Varvara Lepchenko/USA
[2022]
(2nd) Fernanda Contreras/MEX, Olga Danilovic/SRB, Aleksandra Krunic/SRB, Donna Vekic/CRO
[2023]
(3rd) Mirra Andreeva/RUS, Olga Danilovic/SRB, Kayla Day/USA, Clara Tauson/DEN
[2024]
(4th) Olga Danilovic/SRB
[2025]
(in 3rd) Victoria Mboko/CAN



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Wow. She ended most of her future political aspirations and this is what she got???????l hope folks learn that everything the orange demon touches dies. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

[image or embed]

— Miss Aja (@brat2381.bsky.social) May 28, 2025 at 8:43 PM


After so many decades of his petty squabbles and revenge tours due to hurt feelings, they still don't get it: if you bend the knee, even slightly and only for show, he recognizes it and sees it as weakness and comes back for more (often just to prove he can), knowing you have no *true* conviction and, worse, think you're smarter than he is. As dangerous as it seems, it's better to maintain your ground and take his childish slings and arrows... in you're famous enough, they're his form of "respect" for someone whom he believes has at least some semblance of an identifiable backbone.

They continue to interact with him as if he's a normal person who has well-adjusted interpersonal relations with sane people. He is not, and does not. *Every* "relationship" is transactional (for him) and/or about maintaining fealty (to him).

The first step is realizing that everything he touches gets destroyed, but he *never* does. Then you try to find a way to move forward from *that* Point A. Not easy, but *some* ground has to be protected.

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TOP QUALIFIER: Nao Hibino/JPN
TOP EARLY-ROUND (1r-2r): #1 Aryna Sabalenka/BLR (5 games lost 1r/2r)
TOP MIDDLE-ROUND (3r-QF): xx
TOP LATE-ROUND (SF-F): xx
TOP QUALIFYING MATCH: Q2 - Nao Nibino/JPN def. #17 Bianca Andreescu/CAN 2-6/7-6(5)/6-4 - Andreescu led 6-2/5-3, holding a MP in game #8 of the 2nd and then serving for the win a game later, and led 5-2 in the 2nd set TB; Hibino also saved 2 MP vs. Ella Seidel/GER in Q3
TOP EARLY-RD. MATCH (1r-2r): 1st Rd. - #10 Paula Badosa/ESP def. Naomi Osaka/JPN 6-7(1)/6-1/6-4 - Badosa SP in 1st, up break at 4-3 3rd and saved BP; Osaka out 1r year after had MP vs. Swiatek 2r and won first pro title on clay in '25)
TOP MIDDLE-RD. MATCH (3r-QF): xx
TOP LATE-RD. MATCH (SF-F/Jr.-WC): xx
=============================
FIRST VICTORY: #13 Elina Svitolina/UKR (def. Sonmez/TUR)
FIRST SEED OUT: #28 Peyton Stearns/USA (1r: Lys/GER)
FIRST SLAM MD WINS: Emiliana Arango/COL, Sara Bejlek/CZE, Lois Boisson/FRA, Joanna Garland/TPE, Victoria Mboko/CAN, Leyre Romero Gormaz/ESP, Tereza Valentova/CZE
UPSET QUEENS: Czech Republic
REVELATION LADIES: United States
NATION OF POOR SOULS: Australia (2-5 1st Rd.; only wins AUS/AUS 1r and new-AUS Kasatkina)
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: Victoria Mboko/CAN (in 3rd Rd.)
LUCKY LOSER WINS: In 3r: Starodubtseva/UKR
LAST WILD CARD STANDING: In 3r: Boisson/FRA, Jacquemot/FRA
PROTECTED RANKING WINS: none
LAST PASTRY STANDING: In 3r: Boisson, Jacquemot
Ms./Mademoiselle OPPORTUNITY: x
IT "TBD": x
COMEBACK PLAYER: Nominee: Vondrousova/CZE, Gauff's missing rackets
CRASH & BURN: Nominee: #9 Navarro (1r- 1 game vs. Bouzas Maneiro)
ZOMBIE QUEEN OF PARIS: Nominees: Valentova/CZE (1r- trailed 5-2 in 3rd vs. Paquet, who served up 5-3 30/love; '24 RG Jr. champ wins last 5 games for first slam MD win); Bouzas Maneiro/ESP (2r- trailed Montgomery 1-4, 15/30 in 3rd)
DOUBLES STAR: x
VETERAN PLAYER (KIMIKO CUP): Nominee: Svitolina
Mademoiselle/Madame OF THE EVENING: -
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: x
Légion de Lenglen: 100th anniversary of Suzanne Lenglen's first grand slam French Championship titles (WS/WD/MX sweep) in 1925 (first time event open to non-FRA competitors)
Coupe LA PETIT TAUREAU: x






All for Day 5. More tomorrow.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 6:56 PM 

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