There are 16 women remaining in the singles draw and a quarter of them are American. A superficial tennis fan would think we were talking about the US Open, or maybe Wimbledon. But no, Americans are having a lot of success on the clay of Paris, and it should not be surprising anymore. Serena Williams leads the pack, as she is the number one seed at the French Open. The other three remaining Americans all have different backgrounds, that will now examine.
SERENA WILLIAMS: Plays Roberta Vinci in the Round of 16.
Serena has made her way through to the Round of 16 without dropping a set. And in the 6 sets that she has played, she has lost a grand total of 6 games. So if you do the math, that is only 1 game lost per set (Pfftt, who says you don't use math outside of school?). She is the number 1 seed in the tournament and she has been virtually untouchable all year, so it is no surprise that she is still playing this late in the tournament. If she doesn't go all the way to the final, that is what would be surprising. She's looking to win her first Roland Garros crown since 2002.
BETHANIE MATTEK-SANDS: Plays Maria Kirilenko in the Round of 16.
Bethanie has fought her way into the fourth round, and that fight didn't just begin at the beginning of the week. Her ranking has dropped well out of the top 100 in recent months, however with this good run she will easily be back there. This matches her best run at a slam, as she made the Round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2008. In order to do so, she had to defeat Dominquez Lino and Ormaechea, with an upset of Li Na thrown in between. She has been very well tested as her last two matches went three sets, expect another good test from the Russian, Maria Kirilenko.
JAMIE HAMPTON: Plays Jelena Jankovic in the Round of 16.
Jamie Hampton made a name for herself when she battled with Victoria Azarenka in the Australian Open in the beginning of the year. She lost that match, but she has been on the rise ever since then, which is proven by her run of good form in Paris. She had never been past the second round of a Grand Slam before this year, however she made the third round in Melbourne and is in the fourth round now. She defeated two seeded Czech players along the way, Safarova and Kvitova, and also took down Schmiedlova along the way. She'll have to face a tough veteran in her next match.
SLOANE STEPHENS: Plays Maria Sharapova in the Round of 16.
Sloane is one of the more known up and coming names in the USA, as she is the 17 seed of this tournament. This is only her 8th Grand Slam but she has made a Round of 16 and a Semifinals appearance before. She defeated Serena at the Australian Open this year and she has brought that form with her to Paris. She has won 2 of her three matches comfortably, but she hasn't faced another seeded player yet. Her match with Sharapova could go many different ways, but if she continues to play the way she has, then she will be fun to watch for the rest of the tournament, and her career.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
The Marathon Man Does It Again
After seeing a lot of success from Americans so far in the French Open, American fans had to believe that John Isner would defeat Tommy Haas today after he won an epic fourth set. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Tommy Haas ended up winning the fifth set, 10-8, which gave him the match. But what made this instant classic possible?
John Isner is known as The Marathon Man because of his tendency to play very long matches in Grand Slams. The one that comes to everybody's mind is the 70-68 fifth set with Nicholas Mahut at Wimbledon. Then there was the epic with Nadal that Isner lost in five at Roland Garros, and again in Paris was a great five-setter with Paul-Henri Mathieu. Despite all these marathon matches, Isner had never won after being down two sets to love, until Friday when he did so against his compatriot, Ryan Harrison. Because of the rain messing up the French Open schedule, Isner had to come back the next day to play against Tommy Haas.
John Isner found himself in familiar territory, as he dropped the first two sets by the identical scores that he did to Ryan Harrison. But in the third, Isner did not lie down as he got a break and ran away with the set. In the fourth, it was on serve the whole way. In the 12th game when Isner was attempting to force a tiebreak, he found himself down match point after match point. After a few amazing serves, Isner had forced the tiebreak. By the time the tiebreak had been won, Isner had saved 12 match points in total and was in prime position to win the match. Early in the third, Isner got a break and looked like he was going to cruise into the Round of 16.
It was too good to be true, as Tommy Haas broke at 2-4. From that point on, you could tell that it would be a classic John Isner marathon battle. He only played hard in his service games and for one or two points in the return games in order to conserve energy. The strategy did not pay off however, as Isner ended up getting broken at 8-all, and then went on to lose the set 10-8.
John Isner will be missed, but expect big things from him in the grass court season. American fans still have a plethora of women and doubles teams to root for as the French Open moves on. But as for the discussion on whether or not there should be a fifth set tiebreak at all Grand Slams...that's for another day.
Photo: The Official Site of Roland Garros
John Isner is known as The Marathon Man because of his tendency to play very long matches in Grand Slams. The one that comes to everybody's mind is the 70-68 fifth set with Nicholas Mahut at Wimbledon. Then there was the epic with Nadal that Isner lost in five at Roland Garros, and again in Paris was a great five-setter with Paul-Henri Mathieu. Despite all these marathon matches, Isner had never won after being down two sets to love, until Friday when he did so against his compatriot, Ryan Harrison. Because of the rain messing up the French Open schedule, Isner had to come back the next day to play against Tommy Haas.
John Isner found himself in familiar territory, as he dropped the first two sets by the identical scores that he did to Ryan Harrison. But in the third, Isner did not lie down as he got a break and ran away with the set. In the fourth, it was on serve the whole way. In the 12th game when Isner was attempting to force a tiebreak, he found himself down match point after match point. After a few amazing serves, Isner had forced the tiebreak. By the time the tiebreak had been won, Isner had saved 12 match points in total and was in prime position to win the match. Early in the third, Isner got a break and looked like he was going to cruise into the Round of 16.
It was too good to be true, as Tommy Haas broke at 2-4. From that point on, you could tell that it would be a classic John Isner marathon battle. He only played hard in his service games and for one or two points in the return games in order to conserve energy. The strategy did not pay off however, as Isner ended up getting broken at 8-all, and then went on to lose the set 10-8.
John Isner will be missed, but expect big things from him in the grass court season. American fans still have a plethora of women and doubles teams to root for as the French Open moves on. But as for the discussion on whether or not there should be a fifth set tiebreak at all Grand Slams...that's for another day.
Photo: The Official Site of Roland Garros
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