For a multitude of reasons, this year's French Open women's tournament is one of the most wide open in years. Throughout this week, the editors of TENNIS.com will each write about three possible contenders?un, deux, trois?for the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen.
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| Schiavone's strength comes in her ability to do whatever she wants to the ball. (AP Photo) |
Un: Francesca Schiavone
Italian opera is among Schiavone?s favorite music, and in her last trip to Paris she played as if channeling a championship chorus in her head.
When the No. 17 seed opened the French fortnight, the odds of her becoming the first Italian woman to capture a Grand Slam title may have seemed longer than the chances of lofting a lob over the Eiffel Tower. But when the dust settled, Schiavone swept three Top 10 players?Caroline Wozniacki, Elena Dementieva and Samantha Stosur?in straight sets to become the biggest underdog to rule Roland Garros since ninth-seeded Iva Majoli toppled top seed Martina Hingis in the 1997 final.
Dropping to her knees, Schiavone kissed the court in celebration with the exuberance of a woman engaged in a lip-locked exchange with a long-lost love. Next week she?ll try to embrace the challenge of defending her French Open crown.
It won?t be easy.
During the past decade only one woman?Justine Henin?has successfully defended a French Open title, and the last woman over 30 to reign at Roland Garros was Chris Evert, who was 31 when she won the last of her seven titles there in 1986. The 5' 5 1/2" Schiavone will celebrate her 31st birthday next month and is 4-3 on dirt this season (through Rome) after posting a 16-3 mark on the slow stuff last year. She?s beaten only one Top 10 player this season, so why assign an improbable champion the seemingly impossible task of defending, when so many digits surrounding her name seem to spell doom? Because this undersized overachiever brings the pure passion, a symphony of shots and all-court acumen that plays well in Paris. The daughter of a physician, Schiavone is a spin doctor who seldom prescribes the same speed and angle on successive shots.
?She definitely puts a lot of spin on the ball,? Venus Williams said before beating Schiavone, 7-6, 6-4, at the 2010 U.S. Open. ?Most of us hit it flat and through it. It is a different game (she plays) and she uses that really effectively.?
Playing Schiavone after facing a fleet of flat-ball hitters is like returning home to find all the furniture in your living room rearranged?everything looks familiar but feels oddly out of place and unsettling. Schiavone?s ability to alter spins and speeds and her skill at exploring acute angles can make even the most accomplished opponents uncomfortable. The imaginative improviser realized she could not play the stronger Stosur straight up from the baseline in last year's French Open final, so she wisely moved forward in the court, winning 14 of 15 trips to the net in her 6-4, 7-6 (2) triumph.
The lack of a dominant clay-courter in the women?s field means Schiavone has a shot to make another deep run in Paris?provided she can play through the pressure that comes with the weighty ?defending champion? tag. If you?re snickering, consider that the Fed Cup heroine has reached at least the quarterfinals in three of her last four majors, and exudes a love of the good fight on the Grand Slam stage.
Still not convinced?
Fueled by ferocity, Schiavone fought off six match points in outlasting Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-4, 1-6, 16-14, in a four hour, 44-minute marathon?the longest women?s Grand Slam match in Open Era history?at this year's Australian Open. It was a draining duel that showcased Schiavone's emotional intensity and staying power. This is a woman who lost the first eight WTA finals she played, yet was undeterred and has produced her best tennis in the past two years. In an era of ballistic ball-striking, Schiavone reminds us that championship tennis is not always about hard hitting or searing serves. It's about being smart, tough and tenacious, having the guts to keep moving, the game to keep changing and the courage to take a shot at a lifelong dream on the rise.
She may be the most overlooked defending French Open champion in recent years, but if Schiavone?s game is in tune, she?s capable of scoring a memorable encore.
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| Ivanovic is one of the few players in the field who can say she's tasted Grand Slam glory in Paris. (AP Photo) |
Deux: Ana Ivanovic
Once a powerful Parisian presence, Ivanovic can craft a Roland Garros resurgence if she can play the first-strike tennis necessary to impose her aggressive baseline game on opponents.
Since her resounding run to the 2008 French Open title, Ivanovic has been quiet on clay. She?s posted an an 11-9 clay-court record, has yet to return to a dirt final and hasn't been to a Grand Slam quarterfinal in her last 11 majors.
Yet the two-time French finalist remains a threat against nearly any woman on the terre battue. Only three current Top 10 players own winning records against Ivanovic?Kim Clijsters (4-0), Li Na (1-0) and Maria Sharapova (3-2)?and of those three only Li has a clay-court victory over her.
If the Serbian power player can fire her forehand and serve with ambition and accuracy and compete with confidence, she is capable of dictating play and posing problems for almost anyone.
Trois: Li Na
You can say she?s never won a clay-court title, never surpassed the fourth round of the French Open and endured a nearly three-month winless drought earlier this season, but Li is coming off her first major final, is extremely fit and is on a recent roll, having won seven of her last nine matches to reach successive semis in Madrid and Rome.
Richard Pagliaro is a senior editor for TENNIS.com and authors The Pro Shop.
Source: http://feeds.tennis.com/~r/tenniscom-features/~3/uDCJQBL291c/
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