The Coupe des Mousquetaires and the Coupe Suzanne-Lenglen, trophies awarded to the boys’s and ladies’s French Open champions, had been on show, guarded by safety, close to the Courtroom Philippe-Chatrier on Thursday morning. It was no shock that they gathered fairly a crowd.
Two weeks from Saturday (les femmes) and from Sunday (les hommes) they are going to be held aloft by a girl and a person celebrating victory in arguably the hardest tennis match on the earth.
The pathway to success within the 2023 Les Internationaux de France was outlined on the draw ceremony held within the L’Orangerie pavilion on the Roland-Garros web site Thursday afternoon.
From the Canadian perspective it didn’t take lengthy for the surprises to emerge. The preliminary laptop rollout of the unseeded participant revealed that each Bianca Andreescu and Leylah Fernandez could be enjoying seeded gamers. It didn’t take lengthy, because the seeds had been drawn from the Coupe Suzanne-Lenglen by French Nationwide Rugby crew captain Antoine Dupont, to find that there could be a jaw-dropper first spherical between Andreescu and 18th seeded Victoria Azarenka.
A couple of moments later the token belonging to No. 21 seed Magda Linette of Poland was picked out to play Fernandez.
This was at all times going to be a chance as a result of neither the No. 41-ranked Andreescu (above on Thursday with coach Christophe Lambert within the background) or No. 51 Fernandez had the safety afforded by being one of many 32 seeds.
It will likely be a primary assembly between two-time Australian Open champion Azarenka (2012-13) and 2019 US Open winner Andreescu. Roland-Garros has traditionally been the weakest of Azarenka’s Grand Slam occasions – she has solely as soon as gone previous the third spherical (spherical of 16 in 2021) since she reached the semi-finals 10 years in the past in 2013. Up to now in 2023 she has a modest 13-9 document and is simply 2-2 on clay in Charleston, Madrid and Rome, the place she pulled out of her second match towards Madison Keys with a proper leg damage.
Andreescu, who suffered two tears in her left ankle in Miami in March, has solely performed two matches on clay – dropping 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 to No. 65 Wang Xiyu in Madrid after which 6-0, 6-1 to 2019 Roland-Garros finalist Marketa Vondrousova in Rome.
However everybody is aware of Andreescu’s pedigree and she or he seemed sharp in an up-tempo observe session with a hitting associate on Courtroom 3 at Roland-Garros on Thursday.
The draw – above top-seed and defending champion Iga Swiatek made an look after the boys’s draw was accomplished – may even have been kinder to Fernandez, who’s 4-5 on clay in 2023. That features a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 loss to No. 69 Peyton Stearns of the U.S. within the second spherical of the WTA 250 match in Rabat, Morocco, this week.
She has a 1-1 document towards the 31-year-old Linette, a shock semi-finalist on the Australian Open in January – Linette successful in Charleston in 2022 and Fernandez prevailing within the opening spherical of Roland-Garros in 2020.
Like Fernandez, Linette, seeded No. 21, misplaced within the second spherical of her occasion this week, the WTA 250 in Strasbourg. She was overwhelmed 6-3, 6-2 by No. 96-ranked Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Fernandez will likely be hoping to realize inspiration from her efficiency a 12 months in the past in Paris. Then she appeared destined to succeed in the semi-finals however misplaced a quarter-final to Martina Trevisan when she injured her proper foot early within the match however carried on. It turned out later to be a stress fracture and stored her off the tour for nearly two months.
Rebecca Marino, 32, is enjoying simply her third Roland-Garros since 2011, the 12 months she received her solely two matches within the match. Now ranked No. 79, she faces 19-year-old Diana Shnaider. The left-handed Russian made fairly a breakthrough on the 2023 Australian Open when she reached the second spherical as a qualifier. She had an general document of 55-17 document in 2022 and is at the moment enrolled at North Carolina State College.
Marino has solely performed one occasion on clay this season – in Madrid final month the place she defeated No. 39 Zhu Lin 7-6(1), 6-4 earlier than dropping 6-3, 6-1 to No. 29 Elise Mertens.
It will likely be a primary assembly for Marino and Shnaider, who has a constructive and outgoing character.
Not like Andreescu and Fernandez, Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov had been seeded and each seem to have fairly beneficial attracts.
Auger-Aliassime (above his match-up is blown out through the draw ceremony) will play temperamental Italian Fabio Fognini. The 35-year-old, ranked No. 130, is a little bit of a fading power as of late. However he beat No. 42 Andy Murray and No. 37 Miomir Kecmanovic in Rome lately earlier than dropping 6-4, 6-2 to No. 7 Holger Rune.
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Auger-Aliassime is 1-0 versus Fognini – a win in Rio de Janeiro in 2019 – however every part is up within the air now that he pulled out of a quarter-final match on the ATP 250 occasion in Lyon towards Arthur Fils on Thursday with a shoulder challenge.
Auger-Aliassime may have good reminiscences of the 2022 French Open – reaching the spherical of 16 earlier than dropping in 5 units to eventual champion Rafael Nadal.
If he’s capable of play, this might be Auger-Aliassime’s fourth Roland-Garros and he would enter it with an general 3-3 document.
Shapovalov – seen above practising on Thursday on Courtroom No. 16 on the excessive finish of the Roland-Garros grounds – enters Roland-Garros ranked No. 31 however because the No. 26 seed. He has solely performed three matches on clay this spring – beating No. 155-ranked qualifier Jozef Kovalik in Barcelona earlier than dropping 6-3, 6-2 to No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas after which exiting Madrid 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(1) in a match towards No. 99 Zhang Zhizhen.
He’ll renew acquaintances with Brandon Nakashima within the first spherical at Roland-Garros. The 21-year-old American received their solely earlier assembly 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(6) within the second spherical at Wimbledon final 12 months.
Shapovalov entered 2023 ranked No. 18 and might be lucky to have solely dropped to No. 31 together with his lacklustre 7-9 document up to now this season.
MARVELLOUS MIRRA
Mirra Andreeva is the brand new “it lady” on the WTA Tour. The 16-year-old (April 29, 2007) Russian has compiled a 19-2 document for 2023, together with successful two ITF occasions and reaching the round-of-16 on the WTA 1000 earlier this month in Madrid with wins over No. 49 Fernandez, No. 14 Beatriz Haddad Maia and No. 19 Linette.
On Thursday she made it to her first Grand Slam essential draw, attracting a full home crowd to Courtroom 7 for her 7-6(8), 6-4 victory excessive seed within the qualifying, No. 84-ranked Camila Osorio of Colombia.
Though liable to moments of frustration, the tall Andreeva has a regal presence on court docket and the look of a future celebrity.
The watering of the Roland-Garros courts, because the gents within the image above display, is one thing of an artwork kind.
It usually looks like the Roland-Garros ballkids are in a perpetual state of movement. Whether or not it’s outdoors their assigned courts getting warmed up – or operating on and off through the matches, they’re an lively, athletic bunch.
