Serena Williams once again saw one of her matches delayed because of rain, but this time the former world number one will get another day to prepare for her second round match.
Inclement weather taunted the grounds of Roland Garros during most of Wednesday, but that did not stop Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Amelie Mauresmo, Venus Williams, and many others from scoring predictable two set wins. The only top seed who did not get to play her match on Wednesday was Serena, however she will get her chance early tomorrow on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Thursday’s action at Roland Garros will also feature many of the players from the second half of the draw including Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Amelie Mauresmo.
Key Matches for Thursday, May 31
(See the Roland Garros schedule for the complete order of play)
(2) Maria Sharapova vs. Jill Craybas
One thing is for certain, this match will not be a technical demonstration of classic clay court tennis. Between the two of them, they have only racked up six clay wins all season. Neither one of them will be doing much slipping and sliding, but that hardly means that it will not be an entertaining match.
Craybas has a lot of experience against top players and despite her age, is able to still hang with the younger girls on Tour. The clay court does its damage by neutralizing Sharapova’s power and she’ll need every angle in her playbook to keep the nimble veteran from pouncing on her weaker second serve. By the way, when was the last time we saw a match where Maria failed to serve an ace?
My Pick: Sharapova gets another work-out, but wills herself to the third round.
(4) Amelie Mauresmo vs. Nathalie Dechy
Just when you start to wonder if Amelie Mauresmo could actually stir up some trouble in the women’s draw after she dishes out a bagel in her first set of Roland Garros, she turns around in the second set by misfiring three times as many unforced errors, loses her serve twice, and barely escapes without a second set tie-break. In all fairness, it was still a solid performance on Wednesday, especially after her tough loss on Saturday in Strasbourg, however she does need to work on closing the back door faster for easier straight set wins.
My Pick: Easiest pick of the tournament – the Frenchwoman wins.
(3) Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Meghann Shaughnessy
Forget the men; the American women are alive and well in Paris. Meghann Shaughnessy did not get much of a contest against the still-ailing Anastasia Myskina in the first round, but I’m sure she’ll get a tough challenge from Svetlana on Thursday. Like Mauresmo, Svetlana opened up with a bagel win against Ekaterina Bychkova, but unlike her occasional doubles partner, she was able to back it up with a 6-3 finish without dropping serve one time.
My Pick: Svetlana swats her way through to another two set win.
(9) Ana Ivanovic vs. Sania Mirza
You can call this Sania’s golden opportunity. She won her first match since March on Wednesday and if she can edge past Ivanovic, she’ll enthrall her one billion fans with her best performance at a Grand Slam since the 2005 US Open. It will not be easy for the Indian superstar, especially as Ana Ivanovic has been playing the best tennis of her career lately.
My Pick: Ivanovic gives Mirza’s 1,000,000,000 fans a bad day.
What’s Happening in Paris
Venus Williams breaks record for fastest serve by a woman
Sorry to burst everyone’s bubble, but even though Venus Williams may have clocked a serve at 128.8mph on Wednesday for the fastest main draw record, she is still No. 2 behind Brenda Schultz-McCarthy’s 130mph serve.
Molik falls to Russian 9th seed
Alicia Molik was knocked out in the first round by Anna Chakvetadze.
Sharapova’s achy shoulder holds up at French Open
Maria Sharapova’s shoulder is not yet 100%, but she thinks she is good to go for the duration.
Anastasia Says
On why she decided to play Roland Garros:
“Well, I’ve been practicing one months and I was just thinking to come here and to see what can I do with my foot. But it wasn’t that good right now.”
When asked if this is a potentially career-threatening injury:
“Well, when you’re 20, it’s one thing when you’re injured. When you’re 25, 26, it’s different, because you know that you’re not going to play, like, for ten more years, you know. So of course it’s difficult to go through these matches, because you’re losing your confidence. You’re losing your ‑‑ a bit of yourself on the court. But if you can go through this time, you get stronger and then you feel better.”
About what she did while she was recovering:
“I was working on TV. I had a soccer show on TV. I have no idea about soccer, but now I’m kind of into that. Well, I was commentating tennis. I just was practicing, going to ‑‑ I had a great life. I don’t know why I’m here (laughing).”
USA Television Listings for Thursday
Second Round – TTC – 5:00 am to 12:00 pm (LIVE)
Early Rounds – ESPN2 – 12:00 pm to 6:30 pm
