Julia Glushko def. Kirsten Flipkens 6-4 3-6 6-4
The horror year continues for Flipkens as she suffers another early round exit in Roland Garros. She and Lisicki are guilty of not fully utilizing their elevated rankings to get consistent results, and will most probably be dropping out of the top 40 after Wimbledon. Kirsten seems to be confused at the moment, doing different things that gave her this ranking. She should continue to deploy her slice as not a lot of players on tour can handle that. Let's hope she can have better results on grass.
Schedule of play:
http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/scores/schedule/index.html
Match focus:
Dominika Cibulkova vs. Samantha Stosur
Cibulkova must be cursing at her rotten luck having drawn Stosur in her third round. The Slovak hasn't found any solutions to the Stosur puzzle and will probably go down tamely as usual. With the top half of the draw collapsing, Stosur might have a chance to go far in this tournament. That is provided she can upset Sharapova though. Nevertheless, Stosur can breath a sigh of relief as Dominika just doesn't trouble her. A 4th round showing will be good enough for the Aussie.
Pick: Stosur in 2 sets
Daniela Hantuchova vs. Angelique Kerber
Players all aim to peak at the right tournament and these 2 are doing exactly that. In their warm-up tournaments, they were posting horrid results and looked poised for an early upset. Surprisingly, they chose this tournament to shrug off the bad form, both living to their seed status. Daniela's best surface will never be clay, but neither is Kerber's. Daniela does have some good wins on the red stuff, and is capable of creating an upset once in a while. I still believe Angelique's grinding game will cause Daniela to go for too much and make the errors. It might get close though.
Pick: Kerber in 2 tight sets
Taylor Townsend vs. Carla Suarez Navarro
Taylor Townsend proved to be delight to watch as she displayed her powerful game (on a show court nontheless) against Alize. Even though she's carrying extra weight, her movement isn't that compromised, and she showed some fine power and delicate touch as well. Carla will need to be on alert as Taylor is fearless and has nothing to lose. The Spaniard's form isn't exactly stellar so far, but she has been doing enough to win her matches. Let's see if she does enough to tame the youngster.
Pick: Suarez Navarro in 3 sets
Pauline Parmentier vs. Mona Barthel
Sometimes, crowd support can give you the advantage you need, like in the case of Pauline Parmentier. The French crowd was obviously behind her, but the way they abused Shvedova in their second round was disgraceful. No player deserved to be jeered like that. On a bigger court, I think the crowd will be less partisan, so I believe Mona can finish the job without being affected. Parmentier has done practically nothing this year, so it's a huge surprise to see her outlasting Alize, the highest ranked French player. She'll need a lot of help from the crowd if she wants to win this.
Pick: Barthel in 2 sets
Sure win bets: Agnieszka Radwanska, Maria Sharapova, Eugenie Bouchard
Upset alert: Dominika Cibulkova
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