The Australian Open champion and third seed Angelique Kerber bowed out of Roland Garros at the first round stage. She fell to the in-form Nurenberg title holder Kiki Bertens in three sets today. Meanwhile, another big seed later in the day would falter as Victoria Azarenka retired from 3-6 7-6 0-4 down to returning Italian Karin Knapp.
Kerber and Azarenka Lose Early in Paris
Both Kerber and Azarenka had been two of the most in-form players in women’s tennis in 2016. The German won a clay court title in Stuttgart on an indoor clay surface in April, while also winning the first Grand Slam of the season at the Australian Open–her first Grand Slam title of her career. Azarenka achieved the rare double title win in Miami and Indian Wells in back to back weeks and had only tasted defeat once all season coming into Rome in the clay build up events to Roland Garros. With all that being said, do the early losses of both Kerber and Azarenka have a major impact on the rest of the draw now?
It can be argued that the two in-form 2016 players weren’t necessarily having significant effects on the clay season overall and perhaps on the face of things aren’t great believers in their games on this particular surface of red clay. Traditionally Azarenka can play on this surface, but she has talked about falling out of love of the clay in previous interviews–it’s a surface she’s competent on but she’d prefer to be firing forehands and backhands on a hard court, that’s for certain.
Victoria Azarenka withdrew from Madrid having won two rounds comfortably over Laura Robson and Alize Cornet before withdrawing minutes prior to her Round of 16 match against young American Louisa Chirico. In Rome, she lost early to Irina Camelia-Begu. The manner of the victory suggested that perhaps she was playing through the back injury and was solely focused on getting more minutes on clay before the big dance at Roland Garros.
Even with Azarenka’s credentials on a clay surface being fairly limited in comparison to her hard court prowess, it’s very likely that the likes of Serena Williams would have been content with avoiding a potential match up with the World No 5 Azarenka in potentially the quarterfinal. Azarenka ran Serena very close this time last year at Roland Garros and actually got the better of Serena in the final of Indian Wells. So as much as Azarenka’s powers are lessened at Roland Garros, she’s still a competitor that strikes fear in many of her opponents because of how great of a competitor she is.
Angelique Kerber’s absence from the draw also completely blows wide open the bottom section of the top half of the Women’s draw. Kerber’s game doesn’t necessarily translate greatly to a clay court, but her approach to fight to the bitter end in every tennis match sets her apart from a lot of her opponents. With Kerber’s loss, the likes of Daria Kasatkina, Julia Goerges, Eugenie Bouchard, and Timea Bacsinszky will be optimistic for an even greater tournament as all four have clay court pedigree judging by their exploits at Roland Garros and at many other clay events. Kasatkina, a Roland Garros junior champion in her own right, has played some fantastic tennis in 2016 and climbed the rankings with some impressive results–namely in Charleston on the green clay, where she made the quarterfinals. Bouchard and Bacsinszky both credible Roland Garros semifinalists in the past and with no Kerber would be expecting to come close to what they achieved previously. Also Julia Goerges, who has been in the tennis wilderness for quite some time now, may have her sights set on reaching the second week, particularly after dismantling a seed in Johanna Konta earlier today in the first round.
Kerber and Azarenka’s disappearance from the draw may not have an immediate effect on the expectations and ambitions of the rest of the draw, but as the draw progresses we might just see the arrival of a new star that has benefited from the No. 3 and No. 5 seed both going out very early in the second Slam of the year.
