Friday, May 25, 2012

The Dance Cards Are Public

by Savannah

Photobucket

Invites to the Big Dance have been sent. Some are still banging on the doors trying to get in. But those who were guaranteed admittance know who their partners will be.

The Women's Draw

Victoria Azarenka BLR (1) vs Alberta Brianti ITA
Caroline Garcia FRA vs Unknown
Unknown vs Aleksandra Wozniak CAN
Alize Cornet FRA vs Jie Zheng CHN (31)

Lucie Safarova CZE (20) vs Anastasiya Yakimova BLR
Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez ESP vs Unknown
Vania King USA vs Galina Voskoboeva KAZ
Kristina Mladenovic FRA vs Dominika Cibulkova SVK (15)

Sabine Lisicki GER (12) vs Bethanie Mattek-Sands USA
Ekaterina Makarova RUS vs Sloane Stephens USA
Mathilde Johansson FRA vs Anastasia Rodionova AUS
Simona Halep ROU vs Petra Cetkovska CZE (24)

Nadia Petrova RUS (27) vs Iveta Benesova CZE
Laura Pous-Tio ESP vs Chanelle Scheepers RSA
Irina Falconi USA vs Edina Gallovits-Hall ROU
Elena Baltacha GBR vs Samantha Stosur AUS (6)


Agnieszka Radwanska POL (3) vs Bojana Jovanovski SRB
Venus Williams USA vs Paula Ormaechea ARG
Unknown vs Kateryna Bondarenko UKR
Mirjana Lucic CRO vs Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS (26)

Sara Errani ITA (21) vs Casey Dellacqua AUS
Melanie Oudin USA vs Johanna Larsson SWE
Stephanie Dubois CAN vs Shahar Peer ISR
Unknown vs Ana Ivanovic SRB (13)

Angelique Kerber GER (10) vs Unknown
Romina Oprandi SUI vs Olga Govortsova BLR
Anna Tatishvili GEO vs Unknown
Su-Wei Hsieh TPE vs Flavia Pennetta ITA (18)

A. Medina Garrigues ESP (29) vs Silvia Soler-Espinosa ESP
Kai-Chen Chang TPE vs Irena Pavlovic FRA
Petra Martic CRO vs Michaella Krajicek NED
Unknown vs Marion Bartoli FRA (8)


Na Li CHN (7) vs Sorana Cirstea ROU
Barbora Zahlavova Strycova CZE vs Stephanie Foretz Gacon FRA
Christina McHale USA vs Unknown
Unknown vs Mona Barthel GER (30)

Roberta Vinci ITA (17) vs Sofia Arvidsson SWE
Unknown vs Mandy Minella LUX
Tamarine Tanasugarn THA vs Carla Suarez Navarro ESP
Timea Babos HUN vs Vera Zvonareva RUS (11)

Francesca Schiavone ITA (14) vs Kimiko Date-Krumm JPN
Tsvetana Pironkova BUL vs Yanina Wickmayer BEL
Varvara Lepchenko USA vs Ksenia Pervak KAZ
Patricia Mayr-Achleitner AUT vs Jelena Jankovic SRB (19)

Monica Niculescu ROU (32) vs Nina Bratchikova RUS
Vera Dushevina RUS vs Claire Feuerstein FRA
Pauline Parmentier FRA vs Urszula Radwanska POL
Ashleigh Barty AUS vs Petra Kvitova CZE (4)


Serena Williams USA (5) vs Virginie Razzano FRA
Arantxa Rus NED vs Jamie Hampton USA
Elena Vesnina RUS vs Qualifier
Lucie Hradecka CZE vs Julia Goerges GER (25)

Kaia Kanepi EST (23) vs Alexandra Panova RUS
Irina-Camelia Begu ROU vs Aravane Rezai FRA
Jarmila Gajdosova AUS vs Magdalena Rybarikova SVK
Eleni Daniilidou GRE vs Caroline Wozniacki DEN (9)

Maria Kirilenko RUS (16) vs Victoria Larriere FRA
Klara Zakopalova CZE vs Lesia Tsurenko UKR
Anne Keothavong GBR vs Melinda Czink HUN
Greta Arn HUN vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS (22)

Shuai Peng CHN (28) vs Tamira Paszek AUT
Marina Erakovic NZL vs Lourdes Dominguez Lino ESP
Polona Hercog SLO vs Ayumi Morita JPN
Alexandra Cadantu ROU vs Maria Sharapova RUS (2)

Remember when the big fight was over whether Venus Williams and Serena Williams would be put on the same side of the draw? Seems like ages ago doesn't it?

Now the argument rightly centers on who fell where in the draw and how they'll fare.

There were some surprises for me. For one I didn't realize Vera Zvonareva was still ranked high enough to get the 11th seed. I don't slavishly pour over rankings so this was big news for me.

Other news on the women's draw:

Someone up there really, really likes Ana Ivanovic.
Unless something drastic happens Samantha Stosur should also be lighting candles to the draw gods. So should Victoria Azarenka.
Michaella Krajicek is coming off of knee surgery.
Aga Radwanska has a nice quarter even if Venus is in there. Venus looked a little worse for wear during her last outing and while she's had time to rest clay is not her favorite surface and this clay may demand more than she can give. Not that she won't fight mind you. I just don't think she'll be able to play hard court tennis on what should be a heavier court.

Now let's look at the seeds in the bottom half of the draw.

Defending Champion [7] Li Na has [30] Mona Barthel in her section.
[17] Roberta Vinci and [11] Vera Zvonareva are in the same section.
Former Champion [14] Francesca Schiavone and [19] Jelena Jankovic are in the same quarter.
[32] Monica Niculescu ROU is seeded with [4] Petra Kvitova
[5] Serena Williams has [25] Julia Goerges in her quarter
[23] Kaia Kanepi EST is seeded with former WTA #1 [9] Caroline Wozniacki
[16] Maria Kirilenko has [22] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
[28] Peng Shuai is in [2] Maria Sharapova's section.

Off the top I expect absolutely nothing from Francesca Schiavone. I was embarrassed for her during her last match. I don't know if Fran is back partying or if she's okay with having one Slam under her belt. She did not show the focus or drive to go far in Paris. As for Petra Kvitova I don't know what's going on in her head. She would alternate between good play and play so mind bogglingly bad all you could do was shake your head. I've read on fanboards that Wozniacki's father is making noise about her winning the French. Parental support is good. Toss a coin between Pavs and MaKiri. If good MaKiri shows up she can make it interesting. Peng Shuai seems to have lost her way.
I didn't forget Serena. She played well on that stuff in Madrid and many see her as the favorite to win this event. We'll see. If the weather is dry she stands a good chance. If the weather is damp the entire story line changes.
As for Li Na all I have to say is 6-4, 4-0 and losing to Pova. Some are saying after Serena Sharapova may be in the best form. If your opponent is up by the score Li was and gifts you the match we're talking about accepting the gift that falls into your lap. Li was up when she made Sharapova move. When she stopped doing that Sharapova began to feast.

Why didn't I break down the seeds in the top half? Because people are saying the bottom half is stronger and more competitive than the top half. I really don't see much difference to be honest. Sure there are out and out gift sections in the top half but I don't see a clear cut favorite on any side of the draw. The WTA part of the tournament is up for grabs in my opinion. The French is known as the oddball Slam. Whoever hoists the women's trophy could come as a complete surprise.

As usual I won't go into detail about the men's draw except to say Andy Murray and Richard Gasquet must have been very, very good boys.

Novak Djokovic SRB (1) vs Potito Starace ITA
Blaz Kavcic SLO vs Lleyton Hewitt AUS
Qualifier vs Qualifier
Qualifier vs Jurgen Melzer AUT (30)

Andreas Seppi ITA (22) vs Nikolay Davydenko RUS
Mikhail Kukushkin KAZ vs Ernests Gulbis LAT
Qualifier vs Gilles Muller LUX
Steve Darcis BEL vs Fernando Verdasco ESP (14)

Gilles Simon FRA (11) vs Ryan Harrison USA
Xavier Malisse BEL vs Brian Baker USA
Pablo Andujar ESP vs Victor Hanescu ROU
Flavio Cipolla ITA vs Stanislas Wawrinka SUI (18)

Viktor Troicki SRB (28) vs Thomaz Bellucci BRA
Fabio Fognini ITA vs Adrian Mannarino FRA
Cedrik-Marcel Stebe GER vs Joao Souza BRA
Qualifier vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA (5)


Roger Federer SUI (3) vs Tobias Kamke GER
Adrian Ungur ROU vs David Nalbandian ARG
Frank Dancevic CAN vs Martin Klizan SVK
Nicolas Mahut FRA vs Andy Roddick USA (26)

Radek Stepanek CZE (23) vs Qualifier
Arnaud Clement FRA vs Alex Bogomolov Jr. RUS
Karol Beck SVK vs Lukasz Kubot POL
Qualifier vs Feliciano Lopez ESP (15)

Juan Martin Del Potro ARG (9) vs Albert Montanes ESP
Edouard Roger-Vasselin FRA vs Vasek Pospisil CAN
Juan Carlos Ferrero ESP vs Jonathan Dasnieres De Veigy FRA
Qualifier vs Marin Cilic CRO (21)

Kevin Anderson RSA (31) vs Rui Machado POR
Eric Prodon FRA vs Qualifier
Michael Llodra FRA vs Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ESP
Dudi Sela ISR vs Tomas Berdych CZE (7)


David Ferrer ESP (6) vs Lukas Lacko SVK
Benoit Paire FRA vs Albert Ramos ESP
Ivan Dodig CRO vs Robin Haase NED
James Blake USA vs Mikhail Youzhny RUS (27)

Marcel Granollers ESP (20) vs Qualifier
Malek Jaziri TUN vs Philipp Petzschner GER
Paul-Henri Mathieu FRA vs Bjorn Phau GER
Qualifier vs John Isner USA (10)

Alexandr Dolgopolov UKR (16) vs Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR
Filippo Volandri ITA vs Qualifier
Donald Young USA vs Grigor DiMitrov BUL
Qualifier vs Richard Gasquet FRA (17)

Bernard Tomic AUS (25) vs Qualifier
Santiago Giraldo COL vs Alejandro Falla COL
Jarkko Nieminen FIN vs Igor Andreev RUS
Tatsuma Ito JPN vs Andy Murray GBR (4)


Janko Tipsarevic SRB (8) vs Sam Querrey USA
Jeremy Chardy FRA vs Yen-Hsun Lu TPE
Dmitry Tursunov RUS vs Go Soeda JPN
Qualifier vs Julien Benneteau FRA (29)

Philipp Kohlschreiber GER (24) vs Matthew Ebden AUS
Olivier Rochus BEL vs Leonardo Mayer ARG
Juan Ignacio Chela ARG vs Marcos Baghdatis CYP
Paolo Lorenzi ITA vs Nicolas Almagro ESP (12)

Juan Monaco ARG (13) vs Guillaume Rufin FRA
Lukas Rosol CZE vs Carlos Berlocq ARG
Qualifier vs Benjamin Becker GER
Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo ESP vs Milos Raonic CAN (19)

Florian Mayer GER (32) vs Daniel Gimeno-Traver ESP
Qualifier vs Ivo Karlovic CRO
Igor Kunitsyn RUS vs Denis Istomin UZB
Simone Bolelli ITA vs Rafael Nadal ESP (2)

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