Todd Woodbridge and Sam Stosur consider Australian gamers can go deep at this yr’s clay-court Grand Slam event.
Melbourne, Australia, 25 Might 2024 | Leigh Rogers
Todd Woodbridge and Sam Stosur are optimistic that Australian gamers can carry out nicely at Roland Garros 2024.
The clay-court Grand Slam event, performed within the French capital of Paris, is historically thought of essentially the most troublesome main for Australians to win.
Nevertheless, Stosur believes that narrative is altering.
“There’s no explanation why Aussies can’t do nicely (at Roland Garros),” Stosur declared when speaking to media in Melbourne this week.
“We do have clay courts right here, our juniors are beginning to play on it increasingly. I by no means noticed a clay court docket till I used to be 15, however that’s definitely not the way in which it’s now.”
Stosur went on to turn out to be certainly one of Australia’s best clay-court gamers, advancing to 4 singles semifinals at Roland Garros and profitable the ladies’s doubles title in 2006.
“I’d wish to suppose all of the Aussies really feel like they’ll contend at Roland Garros,” stated Stosur, a ladies’s singles finalist at Roland Garros in 2010.
“My outcomes, the outcomes of Ash Barty who gained the event, I’d wish to suppose that does give a bit of little bit of a lift and hopefully (units) the bar to attempt to get to in years to come back.”
> READ: Australians handed difficult attracts at Roland Garros 2024
| Roland Garros Australian champions within the Open period |
||
| Occasion | Titles gained | Most up-to-date champions |
| Males’s singles | 2 | Rod Laver (1969) |
| Girls’s singles | 5 | Ash Barty (2019) |
| Males’s doubles | 8 | Todd Woodbridge/ Mark Woodforde (2000) |
| Girls’s doubles | 4 | Alicia Molik with Mara Santangelo (ITA) (2007) |
| Blended doubles | 8 | Casey Dellacqua with Scott Lipsky (USA) (2011) |
| Boys’ singles | 2 | Alexei Popyrin (2017) |
| Women’ singles | 1 | Lesley Hunt (1968) |
| Boys’ doubles | 6 | Nick Kyrgios/ Andrew Harris (2012) |
| Women’ doubles | 3 | Jessica Moore with Polona Hercog (SLO) (2008) |
| Quad wheelchair singles | 3 | Dylan Alcott (2021) |
| Quad wheelchair doubles | 1 | Dylan Alcott (2019) |
Woodbridge, a two-time doubles champion at Roland Garros, believes Alex de Minaur is Australia’s finest probability on this yr’s singles competitors.
“Alex can go deep,” Woodbridge predicted of the world No.11, who’s but to progress past the second spherical in Paris.
“He’s had sufficient wins towards high gamers on clay that if (the draw) opens up the proper manner he might sneak by means of. We’ve had the likes of Pat Rafter attain the semifinals (in 1997) earlier than on the lads’s aspect, so it may be completed.”
C’mon, Demon 💪
In his eighth #RolandGarros, @alexdeminaur will characteristic because the eleventh seed within the males’s singles draw. pic.twitter.com/VWASsdU1fw
— TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) Might 24, 2024
The 22-time Grand Slam champion is most impressed with the way in which De Minaur has “upped the ante by way of tempo off the bottom” this season.
“He’s bought larger, he’s bought stronger however he hasn’t misplaced any pace,” Woodbridge famous. “He’s taking over a way more front-foot perspective and taking it to his opponents.
“It’s not his favorite (floor), however his mindset is nearly as good as anyone’s.”
De Minaur is amongst 9 Australians on this yr’s males’s singles essential draw, the best illustration in 25 years.
> READ: Australian males to set 25-year excessive at Roland Garros 2024
Essential-draw motion at Roland Garros 2024 begins on Sunday 26 Might. It will likely be broadcast reside in Australia on the 9 Community and Stan Sport.
Discover your method to play: Go to play.tennis.com.au to get out on court docket and have some enjoyable!
