{"id":67777,"date":"2024-05-27T16:23:42","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T20:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=67777"},"modified":"2024-05-27T16:23:42","modified_gmt":"2024-05-27T20:23:42","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-roland-garros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/05\/27\/aryna-sabalenka-roland-garros\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Aryna Sabalenka Add Roland Garros to her Trophy Cabinet?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a grueling three-setter against Karolina Muchova at the French Open<\/a> last season, Aryna\u00a0Sabalenka had yet again fallen at the semifinal hurdle on the Grand Slam stage.\u00a0It was a frustrating afternoon\u00a0which seemed to be turning into\u00a0somewhat of an unwelcome pattern for the Belarusian.\u00a0It marked her fifth Slam out of the last\u00a0eight\u00a0where she came just one match from the final.<\/p>\n

A year is a long time,\u00a0though.\u00a0Fast forward twelve months and she\u00a0has\u00a0doubled\u00a0her Grand Slam tally in Melbourne and earned a\u00a0runner\u2019s-up medal at New York in the US Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her memories in Paris\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0overly\u00a0positive though. Last\u00a0year\u2019s\u00a0semifinal was the first time in six attempts that she managed to get past Round 3. You sense\u00a0though\u00a0that\u00a0the former World #1 has considerably grown in the last 18 months and is a different proposition to the player who used to struggle so\u00a0greatly\u00a0on the clay.<\/p>\n

What she said<\/h3>\n

Looking ahead to the tournament,\u00a0she\u00a0said on the official\u00a0Roland Garros\u00a0website<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cI’m\u00a0super happy to be back. I love playing here, and I had a couple of good results in Madrid and Rome.\u00a0Feel\u00a0quite confident going to Roland-Garros.\u00a0I’m\u00a0just super excited, as always, to start playing here.<\/p>\n

I’m\u00a0focusing on myself, not own goals, but on things I have to improve and get better at so I have a chance against Iga on the clay court and especially here at Roland-Garros.\u201c<\/p>\n

Sabalenka has enjoyed a pretty solid clay court campaign up until now. She struggled in Stuggart\u00a0losing\u00a0early to Vondrousova. Although, with personal events of the\u00a0court\u00a0that\u00a0could be understood.<\/p>\n

In Madrid, she came into her element\u00a0gaining\u00a0a pair of comeback wins against the in-form Danielle Collins (4-6 6-4 6-3) and Elena Rybakina (1-6 7-5 7-6). She would lose in the final to Iga Swiatek in all-time classic 7-5 4-6 7-6(7).<\/p>\n

Rome would be the real test,\u00a0though. Due to the altitude of the Madrid courts, they play differently from the traditional red clay and\u00a0aren\u2019t representative of what to expect at Roland Garros. The Rome courts are a better gauge.<\/p>\n

She was excellent in Italy\u00a0up\u00a0until the final,\u00a0losing\u00a0just two sets overall against quality opponents such as Elina Svitolina, Jelena Ostapenko, and Collins. However, in the final\u00a0Swiatek\u00a0hammered her 6-2 6-3\u00a0proving\u00a0on the clay the Pole has\u00a0Sabalenka\u2019s\u00a0number.<\/p>\n

Now, we are at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n

A look ahead to Roland Garros<\/h3>\n

Sabalenka\u2019s draw is relatively fuss-free until the semifinal stage. Her probable line-up is Paula Badosa Round 3, Madison Keys Round 4, Maria Sakkari in the quarterfinal, Elena Rybakina in the semifinal, and Swiatek in the final.<\/p>\n

Up until Rybakina,\u00a0you\u00a0have to say that run suits her. The likes of Badosa, Keys, and Sakkari are all\u00a0aggressive\u00a0powerful\u00a0players.\u00a0They like to have time on the ball\u00a0and\u00a0strike\u00a0it well\u00a0and\u00a0dictate on their own terms.\u00a0Unlucky for them\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0also\u00a0Sabalenka’s\u00a0checkmate.<\/p>\n

We saw\u00a0how\u00a0Sabalenka struggled against Coco Gauff at last\u00a0year\u2019s\u00a0US Open. The American played a more defensively tricky game,\u00a0which\u00a0ultimately frustrated Sabalenka.<\/p>\n

Elena Rybakina,\u00a0of\u00a0course, is the mouth-watering tie. This season\u00a0they\u00a0are one win apiece.\u00a0However, with the fitness of the Kazakhstani\u00a0unclear\u00a0you would have to say Sabalenka goes into that one favorite. If she meets\u00a0Swiatek\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0when it gets\u00a0tough.<\/p>\n

Since winning in Madrid last\u00a0season,\u00a0she trails 5-1 in the previous six head-to-heads.\u00a0Sabalenka\u2019s\u00a0power is unmatchable, but that becomes slightly muted on the clay courts\u00a0in comparison\u00a0to grass and hardcourt.\u00a0Swiatek\u2019s movement and counter-punching are the best we’ve seen in a long time and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0that profile that Sabalenka often struggles against (see back to Coco Gauff).<\/p>\n

Sabalenka is definitely in with a shout of winning her first Roland Garros title. If Swiatek\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0manage,\u00a0then she is the next favorite\u00a0in\u00a0my opinion.\u00a0However,\u00a0the World #1 seems invincible on the Paris clay<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0it\u00a0will take a massive effort and considerable improvement to knock her from her perch.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a grueling three-setter against Karolina Muchova at the French Open last season, Aryna\u00a0Sabalenka had yet again fallen at the semifinal hurdle on the Grand Slam stage.\u00a0It was a frustrating afternoon\u00a0which seemed to be turning into\u00a0somewhat of an unwelcome pattern for the Belarusian.\u00a0It marked her fifth Slam out of the last\u00a0eight\u00a0where she came just one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4404,"featured_media":57013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,4],"tags":[42021,18984,2747,42120,5595,394,4315,473,3716,63,305,12171],"class_list":["post-67777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-french-open","category-wta","tag-2024-french-open","tag-aryna-sabaleneka","tag-coco-gauff","tag-danielle-collina","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-elina-svitolina","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-jelena-ostapenko","tag-karolina-muchova","tag-madison-keys","tag-maria-sakkari","tag-paula-badosa"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}