The 2019 WTA Tour continues with the French Open Friday 30 May 2019. Check out our preview of the women’s games below.
2019 WTA Tour
French Open
Roland Garros, Paris, France, (Outdoor Red Clay)
Selected Round of 32 Matches | 31 May 2019
Johanna Konta (26) (6/10)
vs Viktoria Kuzmova (12/10)
The re-emergence of Johanna Konta this season has come as a bit of a surprise to me. Her downfall over the course of the last few seasons had been quite dramatic and I had real reservations that she could reclaim her momentum. The two-time Grand Slam semi-finalist reached the quarterfinal stage in Mexico prior to a major breakthrough in fortune on the clay. She reached the final in Morocco, which would have surely given her a huge confidence boost. She battled to the final 32 in Madrid before a remarkable turnaround in Rome. She seized on the clay-court season’s last major appetizer to Roland Garros. She made it all the way to the Rome Final in what has been a season of head-scratching feats- think Bianca Andreescu and Danielle Collins. She will be hoping to give Britain, even more, to shout about during this golden period for English sport.
Viktoria Kuzmova is one of the more intriguing off-court personalities on the ladies tour. She is currently studying for a degree in international relations and diplomacy and has a penchant for the work of Shakespeare: she is currently reading Hamlet for the 5th time. The Slovakian has been in a state of steady improvement recently, with a round of 16 showing in Madrid pointing to a clay-court aptitude. She has appeared in five clay-court finals on the lesser branches of the tour. The 21-year-old also won the Prague Open on clay in double’s competition. Kuzmova is the beneficiary of Kiki Bertens’ withdrawal due to illness.
I really think that Johanna Konta has the ability to make a real impression at this year’s French Open. She seems to have cut out some of those unforced errors that have plagued her of late. She looks a solid bet as favourite here and as a potential dark horse to go deeper in the event.
Belinda Bencic (15) (13/20)
vs Donna Vekic (23) (23/20)
Swiss star Belinda Bencic has done much to emulate her hero Martina Hingis. Much like Hingis, she is a Swiss player of Slovakian descent- she even now shares Hingis’ old coaching staff. And this season has seen an upturn in form that has lent more credence to that old comparison. Bencic started the year with Hopman Cup success alongside Roger Federer. But it was her victory in Dubai that really signalled her rebirth on the tour. She followed that up with a tremendous semi-final at Indian Wells. Bencic has always been more noted for her performances on the harder surfaces, so it was really quite a surprise to see her potent form continue on the clay. She reached the semi-finals in Madrid, yet again making a deep run at an elite field event. She needed three sets to be Siegemund last time out and will need to up her game again as she meets a similarly revitalised Donna Vekic.
Croatian Donna Vekic has really started to let her tennis do the talking after years of underachievement and off-court distractions. She reached the semi-finals in Brisbane prior to defeat in the St Petersburg Open Final. Another semi-final in Mexico followed in what was slowly developing into her most consistent ever career form. Donna Vekic is the statuesque Sharapova type, usually far more at home on faster surfaces. But a quarterfinal showing in Stuttgart hinted at a growing maturity on clay. She then was forced to retire in the final 16 of the Madrid Open, where she was trailing to eventual champion Karolina Pliskova. Vekic will go into this match as the underdog
This will be their first encounter in quite some time, with Bencic beating Vekic twice in 2014. I just have the strangest feeling that Vekic could offer some value here. While not quite as eye-catching as Bencic, her recent form has been extremely solid and there’s a rugged professionalism there that has perhaps been lacking in the past.
