Favourites and ranking changes
![For-Paldano](http://www.sundaytimes.lk/170611/uploads/For-Paldano1.jpg)
Sara Errani
The orchestration to make the 2nd Grand-Slam of the year attractive was good and effective. Every piece of the news, prior to the French-Open, that is, the size of the prize money, keen contest for qualification, eligibility of good players, the big names in the draw, the unknowns in the draw, Sara Errani having to qualify to play, and the strong French prospects, created the much wanted interest in the world.
When the main draw matches began in Women and in Men, the possible last 8 was anybody’s guess. It was so open. Everyone was looking for new names, and there were plenty in the round of 16. Signaling transition time in the rankings.
Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko
None of the 8 Women’s quarter-finalists have ever won a Grand Slam title. In the Men’s, none of the 8 have shown strong run-up results to date, in 2017. These have to be seen as signs of transition in the world rankings. So many fresh names have propped up in both genders. Beyond doubt, the French-Open is a good showcase to register the presence of a player. Whoever is noticed here, will have their names perpetuated in the world of Tennis.
The eventual last 8 of the Women had two names the world is not familiar with. Latvian teenager Ostapenko and 1 of 2 French hopes for the title 25-year-old Caroline Garcia. Ostapenko, in a plucky game interrupted by rain, took away Caroline Wozniacki, who turned out to be the player with the best pedigree to win the title, in the quarterfinals lineup. Ostapenko’s game had more grit and was care-free, to bounce back whenever she was down. While none of Ostapenko’s game exhibited great maturity, there was no weakness one could pinpoint to, in her. The semifinal berth she has booked, beating Wozniacki, is historic.
In the only other quarterfinal, Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky put her best effort up to now, to beat France’s Kristina Mladenovic. Although the courts were covered to protect from rain, the dampness and heavy atmosphere did not help Mladenovic’s game. On the other hand, Bacsinszky made the best adjustments and won in straight Sets. The lower half matches were not played due to rain, and have two of the best prospects for the title in Romania’s Simona Halep and Czech Republic’s Korolina Pliskova. If these 2 come through to the semifinals, that would be the title match of the 2017 French-Open.
Men’s prospect
The prospects to win have registered their presence in the QFs. All are Grand Slam winners. Djokovic, Wawrinka, Murray, Thiem and Nadal are in the race. We have to remind ourselves that it is Clay. The process of engaging opponents, until the court is open to attack rally after rally, is more tedious than the attack repertoires, and costs a lot of energy. The 2 players who seem to have the Clay advantage up to now are Nadal and Wawrinka. They are not in the same half, so the final could well be between these two. While Nadal has been energetic in the execution, Wawrinka has developed clinical precision. From the form exhibited during the Clay season, Dominic Thiem cannot be completely discounted. It could be said that, in predicting the Men’s winner, one has to include him too.
Doubles trend
This must be the first time in a long time the Indian presence is missing in the QFs lineup in a Grand-Slam event. There were 4 Indians in the Men’s main draw. Rohan Bopanna, Leander Paes, Divij Sharan and Purav Raja. The Women’s had Sanya Mirza. None of them could come through to the QFs. In the professional circuit, at one time, Doubles was side tracked and made unattractive. From what is known, WTA and ATP see this event as the avenue to extend a player’s competitive lifespan. They are promoting Doubles in their events very much. In a way, it was a path shown to the world by the Indians, mostly. Doubles has evolved a lot, attracting many 30+ Singles players. Spain’s Verdasco and Al Magro play Doubles now.
Singles demands natural birth gift of physical presence and tactical maturity. It is not common to see such players from our region of the world. Now that the adult Singles club Tennis is not available to mature players, players from our region should concentrate on Doubles before Singles, to mature into competition. At a younger age, players have excellent reflexes and eye for early sighting. These are the critical factors to be effective in Doubles. Once older, although maturity is a plus point, while reflexes are not, unless one is an exception, which is a one-in-a-million occurrence. It is predicted that, Doubles will gain its original popularity. When it comes to Recreation Tennis, mostly, only Doubles is played, largely due to unavailability of courts in the afternoons.
The French-Open title prospect for Women’s Doubles are Bethanie Mattek Sands-Lucie Safarova, Elena Vesnina-Ekaterina Makarova and Martina Hingis-Yung Jan Chan. For Men, much is expected from Spain’s Fernando Verdasco-Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic and Colombians Sebastian Cabal-Robert Farah, as they have come through the top quarter.
George Paldano, Former int. player; Accredited Coach of Germany; National, Davis-Cup, Federation Cup captain/coach– geodano2015@gmail.com –