28-year-old Anna Karolina Schmiedlova has reached the fourth round of a grand slam event for the very first time in her career. The Slovak, ranked as high as No. 26 back in 2015, had reached three previous third rounds at slams, two of them in Paris.
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Opening her draw
Schmiedlova was a sizeable underdog in her first-round match against Veronika Kudermetova. The Slovak went 2-4 in non-qualifying clay matches leading up to Paris and dropping down a level did not help either as she lost in the second round of her home ITF event in Trnava to 18-year-old Lucie Havlickova and followed it up with a loss to Ylena In-Albon in Florence. Kudermetova was coming off of back-to-back semifinals in Madrid and Rome but Schmiedlova, sporting Ukrainian colors for that match especially, swept the Russian off the court in a resounding 6-3 6-1 victory. This was the Slovak’s first Top 12 win since she beat Roberta Vinci at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, and she was just getting started. After taking the seed out, the draw opened up for Schmiedlova, facing lucky loser Aliona Bolsova. Bolsova had just taken out Schmiedlova’s countrywoman Kristina Kucova 6-2 6-1 after losing to former semifinalist Tamara Zidansek in the final qualifying round. The 28-year-old took care of business again with a routine 6-3 6-4 win.
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Facing Day
Up next for Schmiedlova was American qualifier Kayla Day. The 23-year-old was meant to receive the reciprocal U.S. wild card as she finished second in the USTA challenge behind Emma Navarro who narrowly made it into the main draw with her ranking but for unknown reasons, the wildcard stayed attached to Navarro with the next-ranked player entering instead, condemning Day to qualifying. The American dropped just seven games across the first two rounds and battled past Elina Avanesyan, who reached the fourth round as a lucky loser, 10-7 in the deciding set tiebreak. Day then took out experienced names like Kristina Mladenovic and Madison Keys, taking full advantage in her Roland Garros main draw debut. Schmiedlova saved two break points and held to start the match, breaking Day in the very next game and taking control of the first set. The Slovak would break Day’s serve again, this time to love and went 5-1 up, serving out the set at 6-1. She continued her momentum and broke again to start the second set, though Day broke back for 2-2. Schmiedlova answered with another break for 3-2, saving a break point to confirm it for 4-2. Day went 15-40 down on her serve in the next game but held on, Schmiedlova set up 5-3 with an easy hold. When Day went down 15-40 on her serve again, Schmiedlova did not let her come back and took the first match point, winning 6-1 6-3 after just one hour and 21 minutes. Schmiedlova will now face sixth seed Coco Gauff, who overcame 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva in three sets.
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
