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June 1st, 2013 – Round 3 action
FALLEN SEEDS
#7 Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic)
The big shock of the day came courtesy unseeded American Jamie Hampton who dumped out the 7th seed Petra Kvitova. She beat the Czech in straight sets, 6-1 7-6. The American returned extremely well, winning a high percentage of points on Kvitova’s 1st serve. The Czech’s big shot – her booming forehand – also broke down, reeling off a ton of errors from that wing.
#9 Samantha Stosur (Australia)
Jelena Jankovic
No.18 seed Jelena Jankovic beat the Aussie brawler 3-6 6-3 6-4 in a re-match of the 2010 semi-final. Stosur had won on that occasion before going on to lose the final to Francesca Schiavone. Stosur looked like she was going to repeat that result as she came out of the blocks flying to win the first set. The Australian served exceptionally well, even staying perfect on her 2nd serve winning 6/6.
Her serve dropped in the 2nd set and that allowed Jankovic a way back as she began reading the Stosur serve a lot better. Carrying the momentum from the 2nd set win, Jankovic opened up a 3-0 lead in the decider before Stosur fought back to level. She had picked up her 1st serve percentage, but Jankovic continued to return well, having got a grip of things. She broke again in the 11th game and, after some tense moments serving for the match at 5-4, finished it in style with an ace down the line.
#13 Marion Bartoli (France)
Francesca Schiavone
Francesca Schiavone is playing unbelievable tennis. In her match yesterday against the crowd favourite Bartoli, she displayed a level of tennis capable of winning a Grand Slam; a throwback to 2010 when she won the title. In 78 minutes, she had laid her opponent to rest in a 6-2 6-1 demolition. Schiavone moves superbly on this surface and she gave Bartoli no chance as she controlled the points beautifully. The Frenchwoman had no answer to the Italian’s brilliance – Schiavone broke serve 5 times, hit 32 crisp winners with just 14 unforced errors, a +18 differential in that column.
ONES WHO PRO’SEED’ED
#2 Maria Sharapova (Russia)
The No.2 seed faced some resistance from China’s Zheng Jie in the second set which lasted 70 minutes as she dug deep to ensure the match didn’t go to a decider, winning 6-1 7-5. Zheng could not manage a single service hold in the first set as Sharapova broke her 4 times to quickly wrap it up 6-1; the only game she won was by breaking the Russian’s serve. Sharapova was 4/4 on break points in Set 1.
The 2nd set was a break-fest with both Zheng and ‘Shara’ trading breaks all through – Zheng broke the Russian’s serve 3 times, while Maria continued to stay perfect with 4 breaks from as many break points. Sharapova also threw in 6 double faults in the 2nd set alone (she had 8 in total) to aid Zheng’s fightback. She finally managed to consolidate and serve out the match after breaking the Chinese for the 8th time in the match in the 11th game of the second set.
Sharapova has had trouble all season with that serve of hers. She is into Week 2, but plenty of work and improvement will be required if she is to harbour any hopes of retaining her crown.
#3 Victoria Azarenka (Belarus)
‘Vika’ ran into trouble, losing the first set to French No.31 seed Alize Cornet, but rebounded to win 4-6 6-3 6-1. The match was a scrappy affair that was up and down for the most part with momentum shifting either way. Both struggled on their 2nd serves – Cornet won only 33% of points on it, while Azarenka was only slightly better off at 37%. On top of that, Azarenka had 10 double faults to add to her agony.
Holding serve proved to be a huge task for either player as they constantly found themselves under the pump – Cornet fashioned 16 break point opportunities, converting 6 of them while Azarenka had 20, converting 9. Azarenka was a +10 (41-31) though in Winners-Unforced Errors as against -4 (28-32) for her opponent.
#12 Maria Kirilenko (Russia)
Beat Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 7-6 (3) 7-5 in 2 tough sets to make it through to Round 4. She is yet to get past the 4th round here, having exited at this stage in both 2010 and 2011.
#17 Sloane Stephens (USA)
Stephens is back to where it all began; it was here at last year’s French championships where the teenager initially carved out a name for herself when she made the 4th round. Now, in her 2nd visit, she is there once again after a hard-fought 6-4 6-7 (5) 6-3 win over unseeded Maria Erakovic of New Zealand.
TRIVIA
The USA has 4 women players in the round of 16 in Paris for the first time since 2004 – Serena Williams, Sloane Stephens, Jamie Hampton and Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
Sloane Stephens, for the first time since Melbourne where she reached the semi-finals, has now won 3 matches in a row.
