French Open women’s tournament was similar to last year, but the ultimate result was different. A lot of different things happened in the two weeks preceding this past Saturday’s final. What should be made of everything that happened at this event in Paris?
Garbine Muruguza Will Win Several Majors
There is a reason Garbine Muguruza is a special player. She actually gets stronger in the bigger tournaments instead of getting weaker. Some players are able to perform really well in the kinds of tournaments which don’t get much publicity, or don’t offer as many rankings points. Other players step up their game precisely when the lights are brighter and the pressure on each player is far greater than at most times of the year. This is the player Muguruza is. No one expected her to do well at Wimbledon last year, but she made a run to the final. That day, she lost to Serena Williams, but she learned from that experience by beating Serena at Roland Garros.
Muguruza has the obvious talents of a next-level player. She is tall, with long arms and legs. She can cover so much more ground than a smaller player with shorter limbs. She can reach for a forehand on the run and get to the shot more easily than a lot of her peers. As a server, her height enables her to tower over the court and hit a serve with the angle which creates a hard, downward flight. She can punish the ball on her serve, whereas a shorter server is easier to read because the server has to generate more topspin. Muguruza didn’t do much this season, but as soon as she gets through the fourth round of this or any other Grand Slam tournament, she smells the prize, and in this case at the French Open, she grabbed it. She’ll continue to do this kind of thing in her career.
Serena Williams Continues To Excel
The bottom-line result of this French Open final, like the Australian Open final, is that Serena Williams lost it. However, Serena was injured for this match, unlike the one in Melbourne against Angelique Kerber. Serena fought as well as she could against Muguruza. She played well enough to beat most players, but Muguruza had developed such confidence and form that she was not going to be stopped in the final. Muguruza took the match away from her. Serena did not give it away, which happened against Kerber to a point. Serena continues to make the finals of big tournaments. She’s had an extremely good year, better than anyone other than Victoria Azarenka, but Azarenka is hurt. She’s in good shape for Wimbledon as long as she’s healthy.
Kiki Bertens Is A Player To Watch
The story of Kiki Bertens is remarkable. She had to qualify for the Nuremberg tournament and then went all the way to the title in that event. As you might recall, we pointed her out as a player that had been playing well heading into the event and needed to be monitored for upsets.
She ended up winning five French Open matches, creating a 12-match winning streak. She suffered a calf injury which hurt her in the semis against Serena, but she still made a pretty big statement. She’s a player who demands attention on the WTA Tour going forward.
So Many Players Continue To Miss Opportunities
Simona Halep and Agnieszka Radwanska still haven’t won a Grand Slam title, but there were such high expectations for them. They were not in Serena’s half of the draw, but they couldn’t do what Muguruza did. A lot of people will come to their defense and say that they were put in a bad position by the tournament organizers, but it’s probably more than that. Yes, that duo was forced to go out and play in the rain, which shouldn’t have happened, but there was already skepticism about their prospects of winning it all anyway. Victoria Azarenka was another player who disappointed. After ruling the hard court season, she bowed out in the first round at Roland Garros with a back injury. So many players continue to allow opportunities to pass through their fingers, and that’s a story which won’t go away for the WTA.
