{"id":84423,"date":"2025-05-28T16:02:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T20:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=84423"},"modified":"2025-05-28T16:02:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T20:02:52","slug":"french-open-day-4-womens-recap-upsets-epic-battles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/05\/28\/french-open-day-4-womens-recap-upsets-epic-battles\/","title":{"rendered":"French Open Day 4 Women’s Recap: Upsets and Epic Battles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first half of the second-round women’s matches were completed on Day 4 of the French Open<\/a>. Much drama occurred, including some notable names being knocked out of the tournament. Four-time champion Iga Swiatek<\/a> and world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka were among those who competed. This article reviews who played well, which players struggled, and chooses one of the three-set battles as match of the day.<\/p>\n

Who Looked Good<\/h4>\n

Defending champion Iga Swiatek produced one of her best performances of the season. She defeated 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu<\/a> 6-1 6-2 and played at a high level from start to finish. The score was harsh on Raducanu, who did not play badly and came close to winning a few more games. Swiatek’s impressive display will give her a welcome boost after a challenging few months before the French Open.<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka overcame a slow start before dominating against Jil Teichmann on Day 2. The two-time Australian Open<\/a> winner fell 1-3 0-30 behind after a loose start that contained several unforced errors. However, the Swiss was left helpless when her illustrious opponent found her range. Sabalenka only dropped one more game from 1-3 to triumph 6-3 6-1.<\/p>\n

Last year’s runner-up, Jasmine Paolini, progressed more comfortably than in the previous round. The Italian Open champion recovered from 2-3 in the deciding set against Xinyu Wang on Sunday, but did not face that stress against former Wimbledon quarterfinalist Ajla Tomljanovic. Paolini produced a solid if unspectacular performance to prevail 6-3 6-3.<\/p>\n

Olympic Gold Medalist Qinwen Zheng defeated Emiliana Arango 6-2 6-3 in the French Open second round. Although the final score was convincing, Zheng had to overcome much gritty defense from the Colombian. The WTA Finals runner-up kept her composure well and was mostly clinical when she had opportunities to finish the point. Zheng could win the French Open<\/a> if she keeps building her level.<\/p>\n

Elena Rybakina played much better than a few days ago. The 2022 Wimbledon winner<\/a> was two games away from losing against Julia Riera in the opening round. Hugely talented 17-year-old Iva Jovic did not have the luxury of facing a struggling Rybakina and fell to a 3-6 3-6 loss after a brave effort on Court Simmone-Mathieu.<\/p>\n

Who Looked Bad<\/h4>\n

11th seed Diana Shnaider was the second-highest ranked women’s seed(after Emma Navarro) to exit the French Open. The 20-year-old lost 5-7 5-7 to the former Australian Open semifinalist Dayana Yastremska. Although the Ukrainian’s aggressive style is challenging to cope with when it thrives, Shanidr did not produce her best. She usually defends well on clay, but found the pace and trajectory of Yastremska’s shots hard to adjust to.<\/p>\n

Viktorija Golubic did not mount much resistance to Amanda Anisimova<\/a>. Due to her massive firepower, the 2019 French Open semifinalist was an overwhelming favorite before the match. That being said, Golubic played poorly in Ansimova’s 6-0 6-2 triumph. The American won that easily without being close to her best.<\/p>\n

Anastasia Potapova’s performance was better than Shnaider’s and Golubic’s, but the former world No. 21 still slightly underperformed against Yuliia Starodubtseva. A closely fought opening set was decided on a tiebreak that went Starodubtseva’s way. Potapova’s level dropped after that, and her usually strong defense did not come close to stopping the Ukrainian from sealing a 7-6 6-2 win.<\/p>\n

Match of the Day<\/h4>\n

Several women’s contests could have been chosen as the best on Day 4 of the French Open. Despite only lasting two sets, the level in Victoria Mboko and Eva Lys’ match was exceptional. Lys lost 4-6 4-6 to the 18-year-old even though she played very well. Olga Danilovic defeated Danielle Collins for a second consecutive year at the tournament, triumphing 6-4 3-6 6-4. 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko<\/a> had some trademark outbursts during her high-quality encounter with Caroline Dolehide, but seemed to use them as inspiration to salvage a 5-7 6-3 6-3 win.<\/p>\n

Donna Vekic being upset by Bernarda Pera is picked ahead of those matches. Although Pera plays her best tennis on clay, she still massively outperformed her ranking of No. 83. Vekic, who won a Silver Medal at Roland Garros last year, could not cope with Pera’s consistency in the opening set. The American swiftly took it 6-2.<\/p>\n

Pera also went up an early break in the second set. Vekic’s game then kicked into gear, and she broke twice without losing her own serve again to win the second 6-4 and confirm a decider. After six consecutive holds, Pera broke to love, including a stunning forehand return winner off a first serve on the second point. It seemed like the 30-year-old might have missed her opportunity after being broken when serving for the match at 5-4. Vekic then held to pile on the pressure.<\/p>\n

Rather than wilt, Pera regained her composure and dominated the final stages of the match. She held serve before winning the deciding ten-point tiebreak 10-3 to knock out the 18th seed. It was a brutal defeat for Vekic, whose fightback in the second and third sets proved to be in vain.<\/p>\n

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

The first half of the second-round women’s matches were completed on Day 4 of the French Open. Much drama occurred, including some notable names being knocked out of the tournament. Four-time champion Iga Swiatek and world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka were among those who competed. This article reviews who played well, which players struggled, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4708,"featured_media":68089,"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":[5,2,9,4],"tags":[42933,4130,2746,1526,1766,2480,3124,2773,3193,18504,1248,5595,15201,11218,17899,4315,42396,5319,473,4537,3940,16942,18059,288,41978],"class_list":["post-84423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-french-open","category-featured","category-news","category-wta","tag-2025-french-open","tag-ajla-tomljanovic","tag-amanda-anisimova","tag-anastasia-potapova","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-bernarda-pera","tag-caroline-dolehide","tag-danielle-collins","tag-dayana-yastremska","tag-diana-shnaider","tag-donna-vekic","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-emiliana-arango","tag-emma-raducanu","tag-eva-lys","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-iva-jovic","tag-jasmine-paolini","tag-jelena-ostapenko","tag-jil-teichmann","tag-olga-danilovic","tag-qinwen-zheng","tag-victoria-mboko","tag-viktorija-golubic","tag-yulia-starodubtseva"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84423","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\/4708"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84423"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84445,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84423\/revisions\/84445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}