Tuesday, June 03, 2025

RG.10- To See a Familiar Face, in a Different Place

Coming in 3, 2, 1...













=DAY 10 NOTES=
...two days ago, the top half of the singles draw produced the single best day of action in the women's competition (and maybe in *all* of them) at this slam, with three (of 4) three-setters, a comeback win that saw three MP saved, and the four-time defending champ turning around an early behind-kicking situation to pull off maybe the most unlikely victory in her nearly four-year long streak of wins at this tournament.

Today, well, let's just say that the group didn't produce a sequel.

The result? Well, it means the semifinals will feature a match-up of the two best women's players in the world (ignore the rankings), and it'll lead into a final vs. one of four potential opponents who'll bring their own simply irresistible storyline along with them, be it that of a Cinderella run, an attempt at an AO/RG '25 title combo, the possible coronation of the game's next superstar, or arguably the women's tour's most famous active player looking to win her second major.

But about today...



#1 Aryna Sabalenka has been a virtual buzzsaw through her first five matches in Paris, not dropping a set. And when she *has* been challenged, she's simply buckled down and found a way to get the job done in the most economical way possible to avoid having to play any longer than she might have to.

One of the matches she *did* lose earlier this spring came in the Rome QF against Zheng Qinwen, the only win by the Chinese star in the first seven match-ups between the two, but it came in their only meeting on clay. Sabalenka got her "revenge" -- she used the word, with her usual hearty laugh, the other day -- against #8 seeded Zheng in their QF match-up on Day 10, ending the Gold medalist's ten-match Paris winning streak in Olympic/RG competition in a 7-6(3)/6-3 contest.

Zheng had led 4-2 in the 1st set, but Sabalenka found her footing quickly enough to hold a SP on Zheng's serve at 6-5 before having to go to a tie-break. There, Zheng had the early mini-break lead at 2-0, but Sabalenka ran off four straight points and won 7-3. Zheng led the stats in winners (17-11) for the set, but her 21 UE were key down the stretch when she lost her chance to take the lead in the match.

In the 2nd, the two exchanged breaks of serve in games 5 & 6, but Sabalenka reclaimed her break advantage to go up 4-3. She took both of the final two games that followed, breaking Zheng to end the match after having trailed 40/love. Thus, Li Na (2011 champion) remains the only Chinese woman to reach the RG semis.

For Sabalenka, it'll her 11th career major semi (second straight in Paris), with nine coming in the last ten slams that she's played. The world #1 is 11-1 in slam QF matches.

...Sabalenka's opponent will be a familiar one in #5-seeded, four-time and three-time defending champ Iga Swiatek.



One could tell that Swiatek didn't really fear her QF opponent on Tuesday, #13 Elina Svitolina, or at least didn't worry that she might find herself in a desperate situation from which she might not be able to recover. Whether that was an internal comment on Svitolina (her 18-2 record on clay this year be damned), or simply the lingering confidence carryover from finding her way out of a steep hole against Elena Rybakina on Sunday, well, I guess we won't really know until the Pole's tournament has been completed and we look back at what she's accomplished and precisely how she got it.

Swiatek claimed the 1st set at 6-1, a scoreline that doesn't necessary indicate the closeness of many of the seven games played. But, still, there was never really much doubt that Iga would win the majority of them. She led 3-1, and soon after won back-to-back long games to extend her lead, saving two BP in a five-deuce hold for 4-1, then breaking Svitolina on her fifth BP chance to go up 5-1.

To her credit, in the 2nd set, Svitolina gave herself a *chance* to push the match to a 3rd. But, like Rybakina vs. Swiatek, she couldn't claim the most important points when the balance of the match (in this instance, just the 2nd set) was being determined in a few key games.

The Ukrainian led 2-1, and was up love/30 on Swiatek's serve. Iga netted a swing volley to go BP down, then a backhand error give Svitolina the break for a 3-1 lead. But Svitolina then dropped serve in the next game. She held from 15/30 down for 4-3, as well, but there was little indication of anything other than that, at worst, Swiatek would likely win a very close set as the gust behind her back (not the literal one on court, as the winds swirled on Chatrier) from the 4th Round was evident.

Svitolina held at love to keep a game ahead at 5-4, and when Swiatek saw her 30/love lead slip to deuce, Svitolina was presented with "an opportunity." Two days ago, Rybakina had had a similar one -- in a higher stakes moment -- when she had BPs for a 4-2 edge in the 3rd. The Kazakh didn't take advantage of the moment, and neither did Svitolina.

At deuce, Svitolina jumped on a Swiatek second serve and attempted to hit a return winner. Her angled forehand looked like it might be out of Iga's reach to carve out a BP chance, but the ball caught the tape and fell back on Svitolina's side of the net. Off the hook, Swiatek put away the hold a point later, then broke Svitolina in the next game to give herself a chance to serve out the win.

She did, at 15, winning 6-1/7-5 to push her RG winning streak to 26 matches, one ahead of Monica Seles into second place behind Chris Evert's record of 29 in a row. Swiatek, now 8-3 in slam QF matches, can't catch Evert at this RG, but she *is* now just two additional wins away from the first Open era four-peat in the history of the women's competition.

All that stands between her and the chance? The world #1, for the first time in Paris. And if she gets past her, maybe the world #2 in the final.



Svitolina falls to 3-10 in career major QF, 1-6 since her big-match breakthrough 2019 season when she reached the semis at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

...meanwhile, a little over a year ago, this happened...



Today, Li Xiaohui was at it again, this time ending Diede de Groot's 52-match winning streak in slam play via a very similar 6-2/6-4 scoreline in this year's RG opener for both women.



De Groot's exit comes as both a surprise and, well, not-THAT-much of one. Of course, for quite a few years it's been a surprise *any* time she loses, but she's still in the very early stages of her comeback from hip surgery, *and* Li has been the breakout player amongst the rollers in 2025, rising to #4 in the rankings and now having posted wins this season over the #1 (Yui Kamiji), #2 (Aniek Van Koot) and #3-ranked (de Groot) players in the WC rankings.

Still, de Groot had been 7-0 in limited action in recent weeks since her return, and had beaten Li in a singles final two weeks ago. It was three-setter, one of two three-set finals that Li dropped over the last two weekends (the other was vs. Zhu Zhenzhen, who also lost today) in RG tune-up events. De Groot still has a 4-2 career edge vs. Li in their head-to-head, but the 25-year old from China has made the very most of her two (streak-ending) victories over the active wheelchair legend.

De Groot had been crowned champion at the last fifteen slam singles events she'd played, hadn't lost in a major since the 2020 Roland Garros (SF-Momoko Ohtani) and hadn't had a one-and-out slam journey since AO20 (a loss to Zhu). De Groot had at least reached the final in 26 of her last 28 majors (winning 23), and at 26 of 30 during her career.

Last year, de Groot defeated Li in the 1st Round in Paris en route to what was her fourth straight RG title and fifth in six years.





*WOMEN'S SINGLES QF*
#1 Aryna Sabalenka/BLR def. #8 Zheng Qinwen/CHN
#5 Iga Swiatek/POL def. #13 Elina Svitolina/UKR
#6 Mirra Andreeva/RUS vs. (WC) Lois Boisson/FRA
#7 Madison Keys/USA vs. #2 Coco Gauff/USA

=WOMEN'S DOUBLES QF=
#1 Siniakova/Townsend (CZE/USA) vs. Krunic/Danilina (SRB/KAZ)
(Alt.) Begu/Wickmayer (ROU/BEL) vs. Eikeri/Hozumi (NOR/JPN)
#4 M.Andreeva/Shnaider (RUS/RUS) def. Danilovic/Potapova (SRB/RUS)
#2 Errani/Paolini (ITA/ITA) def. #6 V.Kudermetova/Mertens (RUS/BEL)

=MIXED DOUBLES SF=
Krawczyk/Skupski (USA/GBR) vs. #4 Townsend/King (USA/USA)
#3 Errani/Vavassori (ITA/ITA) vs. #2 Zhang Sh./Arevalo (CHN/ELS)

=WHEELCHAIR SINGLES QF=
#1 Yui Kamiji/JPN vs. Lizzy de Greef/NED
Li Xiaohui/CHN vs. Ksenia Chasteau/FRA
Kgothatso Montjane/RSA vs. #4 Wang Ziying/CHN
Manami Tanaka/JPN vs. #2 Aniek Van Koot/NED

=GIRLS SINGLES ROUND OF 16=
#1 Emerson Jones/AUS vs. #13 Charo Esquiva Banuls/ESP
#9 Julieta Pareja/USA vs. Victoria Luiza Barros/BRA
Lilli Tagger/AUT vs. Nellie Taraba Wallberg/SWE
#12 Julia Stusek/GER vs. Beatrise Zeltina/LAT
#8 Hannah Klugman/GBR vs. #10 Alena Kovackova/CZE
(Q) Sarah Melany Fajmanova/CZE vs. Mia Pohankova/SVK
Luna Maria Cinalli/ARG vs. #11 Zheng Ruien/CHN
#16 Laima Vladson/LTU vs. Rositsa Dencheva/BUL







...SIGH, didn't we stop arguing about this about thirty years ago? Just play... ON DAY 10:




...IF ONLY THE TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR WAS A WOM-... oh, wait... ON DAY 10:


Apparently, it doesn't really matter much where Roland Garros (and the FFT) is concerned.




NOTE: I had a whole mini-rant about the scheduling imbalance that I was going to include in this section in yesterday's post, but I deleted it at the last minute because I figured, "Why even bother..."

via GIPHY



Ah, but I will ask this: How about that great men's night session match on Tuesday, huh? Did he even get five games? Checks... yep, *just* five. Bravo! I guess that Y chromosome didn't make much difference.


...IT LOOKS LIKE AN OFFICIAL ROLAND GARROS POSTER FROM, SAY, 1982... ON DAY 10:


Without the cut-off head, of course, which I suspect happens to the image via the embed process...





...KARMA (belatedly recognized)... ON DAY 10:


I knew about Harriet Dart's record starting with the "she smells bad" match in Rouen vs. Lois Boisson (0-4, extending her losing streak to seven), but I was slow on the uptake last week in realizing that Emma Navarro's 6-0/6-1 loss in the 1st Round to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro had come in Navarro's first match in Paris since she'd lost to Zheng Qinwen in the Olympics after having had a MP, then afterward (audaciously, to pick one of many appropriate words) telling Zheng at the net that she didn't respect her as a player.

Navarro is a Top 10 player, and a slam semifinalist nine months ago. She won *one* game in a 1st Round slam match. A belated tip o' the cap to the Tennis Gods on that one.

via GIPHY














I probably should've used this one yesterday...













kosova-font












kosova-font

*LONGEST RG WIN STREAKS*
29 - Chris Evert, 1974-75/79-81
26 - IGA SWIATEK, 2022-current
25 - Monica Seles, 1990-92/96
24 - Justine Henin, 2005-07/10
20 - Steffi Graf, 1987-89
19 - Chris Evert, 1985-87
18 - Steffi Graf, 1995-97

*SWIATEK vs. IN RG WINNING STREAK (26)*
3 - Coco Gauff, USA
2 - Lesia Tsurenko, UKR
1 - Marie Bouzkova, CZE
1 - Cristina Bucsa, ESP
1 - Jaqueline Cristian, ROU
1 - Beatriz Haddad Maia, BRA
1 - Leolia Jeanjean, FRA
1 - Dasha Kasatkina, RUS
1 - Danka Kovinic, MNE
1 - Claire Liu, USA
1 - Karolina Muchova, CZE
1 - Naomi Osaka, JPN
1 - Jasmine Paolini, ITA
1 - Jessie Pegula, USA
1 - Anastasia Potapova, RUS
1 - Emma Raducanu, GBR
1 - Alison Riske-Amritraj, USA
1 - Elena Rybakina, KAZ
1 - Rebecca Sramkova, SVK
1 - Elina Svitolina, UKR
1 - Marketa Vondrousova, CZE
1 - Wang Xinyu, CHN
1 - Zheng Qinwen, CHN
--
6 - USA
3 - CZE
3 - UKR
2 - CHN
2 - RUS
1 - BRA
1 - ESP
1 - FRA
1 - GBR
1 - ITA
1 - JPN
1 - KAZ
1 - MNE
1 - ROU
1 - SVK

*SWIATEK - RG CAREER HEAD-to-HEAD (40-2)*
3-0 - Coco Gauff, USA
2-0 - Lesia Tsurenko, UKR
2-0 - Marketa Vondrousova, CZE
1-0 - Genie Bouchard, CAN
1-0 - Marie Bouzkova, CZE
1-0 - Cristina Bucsa, ESP
1-0 - Jaqueline Cristian, ROU
1-0 - Beatriz Haddad Maia, BRA
1-0 - Hsieh Su-wei, TPE
1-0 - Selena Janicijevic, FRA
1-0 - Leolia Jeanjean, FRA
1-0 - Kaja Juvan, SLO
1-0 - Dasha Kasatkina, RUS
1-0 - Sofia Kenin, USA
1-0 - Anett Kontaveit, EST
1-0 - Marta Kostyuk, UKR
1-0 - Danka Kovinic, MNE
1-0 - Claire Liu, USA
1-0 - Karolina Muchova, CZE
1-0 - Naomi Osaka, JPN
1-0 - Jasmine Paolini, ITA
1-0 - Jessie Pegula, USA
1-0 - Rebecca Peterson, SWE
1-0 - Nadia Podoroska, ARG
1-0 - Anastasia Potapova, RUS
1-0 - Monica Puig, PUR
1-0 - Emma Raducanu, GBR
1-0 - Alison Riske-Amritraj, USA
1-0 - Elena Rybakina, KAZ
1-0 - Rebecca Sramkova, SVK
1-0 - Elina Svitolina, UKR
1-0 - Martina Trevisan, ITA
1-0 - Wang Qinwen, CHN
1-0 - Wang Xinyu, CHN
1-0 - Zheng Qinwen, CHN
1-1 - Simona Halep, ROU
0-1 - Maria Sakkari, GRE
--
7-0 - USA
4-0 - CZE
4-0 - UKR
3-0 - CHN
2-0 - FRA
2-0 - ITA
2-0 - RUS
1-0 - ARG
1-0 - BRA
1-0 - CAN
1-0 - ESP
1-0 - EST
1-0 - GBR
1-0 - JPN
1-0 - KAZ
1-0 - MNE
1-0 - PUR
1-0 - SLO
1-0 - SVK
1-0 - SWE
1-0 - TPE
2-1 - ROU
0-1 - GRE



kosova-font


kosova-font











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 (3rd Rd.)
LUCKY LOSER WINS: Yuliia Starodubtseva/UKR (3rd Rd.)
LAST WILD CARD STANDING: Lois Boisson/FRA (in QF)
PROTECTED RANKING WINS: none
LAST PASTRY STANDING: Lois Boisson/FRA (in QF)
Ms./Mademoiselle OPPORTUNITY: Nominees: Boisson, (WC), (WD/MX)
IT "TBD": Nominees: Mirra, Zheng, Boisson
COMEBACK PLAYER: Nominees: Gauff's missing rackets (1r, Day 3), Swiatek
CRASH & BURN: #9 Emma Navarro/USA (1r- wins 1 game vs. Bouzas Maneiro)
ZOMBIE QUEEN OF PARIS: #7 Madison Keys/USA (saved MP in second straight major: AO SF vs. Swiatek, RG 3r down 3-0 in 3rd vs. Kenin, saved 3 MP at 5-4)
DOUBLES STAR: x
VETERAN PLAYER (KIMIKO CUP): Elina Svitolina/UKR
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: On Henin's birthday (June 1), Iga Swiatek passes Henin on all-time RG win streak list w/ #25, def. Rybakina from 6-1 and early 2nd set break, and Rybakina had 3 BP for 4-2 lead in 3rd







All for Day 10. More tomorrow.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 6:40 PM 

1 Comments:

Blogger khan35 said...

I have my doubts about Mirra-Boisson, but, I am certain that Gauff will beat Keys.

Tue Jun 03, 10:27:00 PM EDT  

Post a Comment

<< Home