Vera Zvonareva did today what seemed inevitable--she withdrew from the French Open. As a rule, the withdrawal of a seeded player from a major would require quite a bit shuffling of matches, but apparently--since the withdrawal occurred after the initial order of play had been established--there will be no shuffling at all. Katie O'Brien steps into Zvonareva's place, giving Olga Govortsova a break.
My guess is that Zvonareva hoped, up until the last moment, that she could enter. It certainly won't be the same without her--I thought she had a good chance to take home the trophy. Her inability to compete is sad. Here's hoping she will soon fully recover.
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And she'd been placed in a nice little spot in the draw, too. Now, without her, the likely contenders for the semifinalist spot from her quarter are Venus Williams, Nadia Petrova, Maria Sharapova, Amelie Mauresmo, Li Na, Dominika Cibulkova, Alona Bondarenko, Agnes Szavay and (maybe, if she's healthy) Sabine Lisicki. All could do quite well, but all are also just as likely to be dumped out of the tournament in the first week by having a bad day. I have a feeling a surprise semifinalist might just come out of that quarter, and in the 20th anniversary tournament following Sanchez's surprise '89 title, too.
Kanepi reached the quarters last year, and she's in that section of the draw. Hmmm...
As much as I want Sabine to do well--even if she's fully recovered from everything--she still hasn't had any real match play since Charleston, and I don't think we should expect too much. A pity, too--I really wanted to see how far she could go.
Clay is hardly Li's best surface, Bondarenko is a mess, and Cibulkova is always likely to be injured.
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