The growing number of seeded players exiting the French Open is making the women’s tour more interesting according to world No. 4 Garbine Muguruza.
Ten seeds have already crashed out of the tournament, including three top-10 players (Roberta Vinci, Victoria Azarenka due to injury and Angelique Kerber). The trend of the higher ranked players leaving the early rounds of a tournament is one that is becoming a regular occurrence on the WTA Tour. Earlier this year at the Australian Open, only eight players ranked inside the top-16 managed to reach the fourth round in Melbourne.
Speaking about the current state of the women’s game, Muguruza labelled it as ‘erratic‘ as she bids to win her maiden grand slam title in Roland Garros.
“Well, it’s interesting, because when you look at the recent tournaments, things have been very erratic and unpredictable.” The world No.4 said.
“I don’t think it’s like the men, when you play Djokovic you know you’re going to lose. It’s not the same thing in women’s singles at all.”
Earlier this year Muguruza described the WTA Tour as ‘a little bit crazy’ and said that every match is tough. She made those comments during the Dubai Open, where all of the seeded players failed to reach the quarterfinals.
The series of shocks in the women’s draw is a sharp contrast to the men’s. Since 2010, only two men outside of the ‘big four’ has been able to win a major title. Stan Wawrinka won titles at the 2014 Australian Open and the 2015 French Open. Meanwhile, Marin Cilic won a shock title at the 2014 US Open.
The women’s game has not always been so open in major tournaments. World No.1 Serena Williams won four consecutive grand slam titles before her run came to an end at last year’s US Open. Despite the growing group of dangerous underdogs on the tour, there is still no player that has the ability to replace Williams as the leader of the women’s game. Some tipped Kerber to be a likely replacement, but her recent French Open loss is evident that she still has far to go.
Muguruza is another contender for the top of the rankings once the Williams era ends. The 22-year-old dropped only two games during her 6-2, 6-0, win over Myrtille Georges in the second round of the tournament. Next up for the Spanish No.1 will be Belgium’s Yania Wickmayer.
It is impossible to say what the future of women’s tennis will bring, but there is one way to prepare. Always expect the unexpected to happen when the ladies take to the court.
The 2016 French Open women’s seeds (players in bold are still in the draw)
- 1. Serena Williams
- 2. Agnieszka Radwańska
- 3. Angelique Kerber (First round)
- 4. Garbiñe Muguruza
- 5. Victoria Azarenka (First round, retired)
- 6. Simona Halep
- 7. Roberta Vinci (First round)
- 8. Timea Bacsinszky
- 9. Venus Williams
- 10. Petra Kvitová
- 11. Lucie Šafářová
- 12. Carla Suárez Navarro
- 13. Svetlana Kuznetsova
- 14. Ana Ivanovic
- 15. Madison Keys
- 16. Sara Errani (First round)
- 17. Karolína Plíšková (First round)
- 18. Elina Svitolina
- 19. Sloane Stephens
- 20. Johanna Konta (First round)
- 21. Samantha Stosur
- 22. Dominika Cibulková
- 23. Jelena Janković (First round)
- 24. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
- 25. Irina-Camelia Begu
- 26. Kristina Mladenovic
- 27. Ekaterina Makarova (Second round)
- 28. Andrea Petkovic
- 29. Daria Kasatkina
- 30. Barbora Strýcová
- 31. Monica Niculescu (First round)
- 32. Jeļena Ostapenko (First round)