The WTA Tour gears up for the French Open. It’s a tournament in which Serena Williams is expected to do well, and it’s a tournament in which Angelique Kerber will get a lot of positive publicity after her Australian Open championship. What about the four WTA players most likely to disappoint?
Ana Ivanovic
There is the chance that Ivanovic could awaken at this tournament. After all, she made the semifinals last year and had a chance late in the first set to take control of her semifinal against Lucie Safarova. Ivanovic’s only Grand Slam title came at the French Open back in 2008. The No. 14 seed could do something special…but you wouldn’t want to count on that. Ivanovic has been little more than a .500 player this season and ever since she won that French Open, she really has never put it together for another stretch. She hasn’t made very many deep runs in tournaments this season and when a player can’t play a lot of matches in at least some weeks, it becomes next to impossible to generate any momentum.
Here’s one important point about being a disappointment: Some pundits might expect Ivanovic to lose in the fourth round. If she meets that standard, she might not be seen as a disappointment by some. However, the idea that she will disappoint should be advanced in relationship to her semifinal performance last year. If she loses in the fourth round, she’ll lose a lot of rankings points, and that would be a disappointment for her, no matter what other people might say.
Victoria Azarenka
The situation to appreciate with Azarenka is that she won’t disappoint people with the quality of her tennis. She will disappoint with the level of her health. Azarenka might have been the favorite for the tournament had she not gotten injured during the clay season. Back problems have derailed all her momentum and all the great tennis she played in Indian Wells and Miami, two important hardcourt events she won in California and Florida. Azarenka’s lack of health will hold her back here in Paris. She was 22-1 on hard courts this year. It’s unfortunate, and it’s not a reflection of her tennis, but she will disappoint just the same.
Johanna Konta
The young Brit hasn’t been able to generate much momentum on clay this season. The Australian Open semifinalist is performing a few notches worse on clay, compared to her preferred hardcourts. To put that into perspective, she was 13-7 on hard courts this year but she’s just 2-2 on clay so far. However, she was 14-5 on clay last year.
Konta will face a lot of pressure coming up at Wimbledon, so there’s a lot for her to think about at the French Open. Do not expect the No. 20 seed to go deep at Roland Garros. She is not in a comfortable position, and she’s not playing her best tennis. That’s not a recipe for success in any context and she might even be one of the players you look to bet against early on in the rounds at Roland Garros.
Petra Kvitova
The tenth seed has not historically done well at this tournament and very little about the 2016 season offers reason to think that she’ll be able to live up to expectations at the French Open. Kvitova had a chance against a relatively weak field to make a deep run in Madrid and defend her 2015 title in Spain, but she couldn’t take advantage.
When you start to crunch the numbers, it’s clearly visible that she’s been stronger on the surface in other years. She’s just 2-2 on clay in main draws this year, which is a stark contrast from last year when she was 11-2. Hard courts are usually her best as she was 24-10 on the hard surface in 2014 and 20-9 last year, but she’s just 6-6 in that same scenario this year. Overall, she’s just 11-9 on the season. She was not a factor in Rome, either, so there’s just not much to recommend a breakthrough tournament for the Czech veteran.
