2024 WTA Tour – Grand Slam Tennis
French Open
Stade Roland Garros
Chosen Ro128 Matches – 28 Could 2024
Katie Boulter 26/10 | Paula Badosa 2/7
Brit Katie Boulter is having fun with her greatest season on the WTA Tour, profitable the most important title of her profession at this yr’s San Diego Open. However the Brit has divebombed just lately, struggling to come back to phrases with the clay as she competes in the principle draw of clay-court occasions for the primary time in her profession.
She suffered early exits in Madrid and Rome, going out of each occasions to gamers ranked exterior the highest 100. Eish! She did take down Clara Burel within the Billie Jean King Cup for her one clay-court victory of the season.
Boulter’s sport actually hinges on her sturdy first-serve and she or he doesn’t are likely to get a lot buy for it on clay. However she has loved a uncommon injury-free season. The Brit has overtly admitted that clay isn’t her sturdy go well with however she did prepare on the sticky stuff through the Covid lockdown. Perhaps she may spring a couple of surprises this yr.
I feel I’ve been considerably responsible of following the whole ‘Badosipas’ relationship with an excessive amount of zeal. I virtually really feel responsible in admitting that I used to be secretly happy once I heard that they had rekindled their romance.
However that’s why we love tennis, for the little narratives that assist give these large championships which means. Badosa will likely be hoping that her optimistic romantic information will assist give her Roland Garros prospects a lift.
The previous World No.2 has been suffering from accidents these previous few seasons however has been displaying a couple of indicators of life in latest occasions. She was pressured to withdraw from an epic spherical of 16 conflict with Sabalenka in Stuttgart and she or he just lately pushed Gauff to 3 units in Rome.
1 / 4-finalist right here again in 2021, Badosa clearly has the pedigree to thrive in these situations. However her notoriously unreliable physique all the time makes her a dangerous proposition at greatest.
Verdict: Badosa to win in straight units 7/10
This will likely be their first profession assembly. Badosa simply possesses an excessive amount of high quality on these surfaces to exit to Boulter. The Brit- regardless of her greatest efforts- seems to be like she is in quicksand when she units foot on clay. I feel Badosa’s physique will in all probability maintain out for the primary week of this yr’s Slam.
Yulia Putintseva 72/100 | Sloane Stephens 21/20
My two longshot choices to compete at this yr’s French Open have been drawn to face one another within the first spherical of this yr’s championships, with the vastly improved Yulia Putintseva developing in opposition to match specialist Sloane Stephens.
29-year-old Kazakh Yulia Putintseva has improved tremendously since hiring Matteo Donati in the direction of the tip of final season, rediscovering that model of in-your-face cockiness that got here to outline the early a part of her profession.
She adopted a spherical of 16 run in Miami with back-to-back quarter-finals in Miami and Madrid. 1 / 4-finalist on this occasion again in 2016 and 2018, the Kazakh is a robust baseliner who seems to be to dictate rallies along with her devastating forehand.
She will be able to get pissed off into forcing the difficulty at instances and has the tendency to leak unforced errors if her sport wobbles.
It’s simple to label Sloane Stephens as one thing of a disappointment. The 2017 US Open champion and 2018 Roland Garros runner-up simply hasn’t been capable of forge a constant place for herself within the higher reaches of the sport.
To be frank, her extraordinarily defensive counterpunching method simply began to really feel outdated on this age of power-based tennis. Nonetheless, Stephens has nonetheless managed to take care of a reasonably sensational document on this particular occasion. She has reached the fourth spherical or higher in 9 of her earlier eleven appearances, clearly fishing runner-up all the way in which again in 2018.
She has additionally tasted victory on clay this season, profitable the inaugural staging of the Open de Rouen. Her type has fallen off fairly badly since then however she is going to really feel assured to be again on these surfaces. She makes use of her athleticism to chase down misplaced causes and she is going to all the time supply cussed resistance on the market.
Verdict: Stephens to win in three units 42/10
This has truly been a really intense and intently fought rivalry, with the Kazakh at present edging the American 4-3. She eased previous the American after they just lately met in Rome. Nonetheless, it was the American who gained their solely earlier French Open encounter, seeing off the Kazakh in a fiercely fought three-set match final season.
Putintseva will look to be the aggressor whereas Stephens will look to counterattack when attainable. And I feel I give the American the sting purely attributable to her sturdy Roland Garros type. Stephens has gained a formidable 74% of her profession matches right here and I feel she is going to as soon as once more discover a means. However this may very well be a seesaw affair and I may be tempted to go for over 22.5 video games at 11/10.
