French Open draw delivers possible Serena vs Henin quarter-final
The French Open draw has placed favourites Serena Williams and Justine Henin on collision course for a quarter-final showdown, while Venus Williams faces a potential rematch against Madrid Open titlist Aravane Rezai in the fourth round.
It’s a potential match-up that could halt top seed Serena’s campaign for a second French Open title, and a first calendar-year Grand Slam, three wins shy of her goal and one that denies fans what might have been a dream decider between the World No. 1 and four-times French Open champion Henin in the final.
Elena Dementieva, who drew the short straw at the Australian Open and faced Henin in the second round, will be pleased to avoid the diminutive Belgian until what would be a potential final between the pair, should the fifth seed begin to find some form on clay at Roland Garros and reach the third Grand Slam final of her career.
She may have to fight past 2009 US Open giant-killer Melanie Oudin in the second round and a potentially awkward fourth-round match against Italian Open champion María José Martínez Sánchez to feature in the second week of the action, however.
Second-seeded Venus faces a potentially testing first-round match against veteran Patty Schnyder, though the unseeded veteran is less apt to serve up an upset these days than she was a few years ago, before a potential rematch against Rezai in the round of 16.
Rezai, who overpowered Venus in the final in Madrid, still needs to prove she can deliver that same fearless and hard-hitting brand of tennis for two weeks in a Grand Slam but if she does, in the first three rounds (which may include a third round match up against the most in-form of the Russians, Nadia Petrova) then the world No. 2 won’t be looking forward to her fourth-round match at all.
The draw has been kinder to Jelena Jankovic, who despite facing former world No. 8 Alicia Molik in the first round, shouldn’t have too many tricky match-ups on her way to the second week of the tournament. Last year’s runner-up, and this year’s ninth seed, Dinara Safina, is a potential quarter-final opponent for the in-form Serb but in her return from a chronic back injury, the Russian may have her hands full just getting through the earlier rounds of the competition.
Safina opens her tournament against 39-year-old Kimiko Date Krumm and faces a potential third-round match against 21st seed Vera Zvonareva, a finalist at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston during April. Survive that and the reward could be a fourth-round encounter with either 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic or eighth seed Agnieszka Radwanska.
Ivanovic has found her feet on clay over the past two tournaments as she looks to put the demons of the past 18 months behind her, but a potential third-round match against Radwanska, who has inflicted consecutive defeats on the world No. 41 this spring will be a true test of just how far she’s come.
Svetlana Kuznetsova, her ordinary form almost rendering the defending champion as the forgotten woman at Roland Garros this year, has drawn world No. 34 Sorana Cirstea as her first-round opponent and Australian Open quarter-finalist Maria Kirilenko potentially lurks in the third round.
If Kuznetsova survives all that, a potential quarter-final against third seed Caroline Wozniacki looms, provided the ankle the Dane injured in Charleston holds up, and that’s no certainty after her quarter-final retirement at the Polsat Warsaw Open this week.
The players, of course, will tell us they’re taking things one match at a time. As observers though we have the luxury of getting ahead of ourselves and while the dream of a final between Serena and Henin has been dashed by the draw, there’s plenty to look forward to at Roland Garros over the next couple of weeks.
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