Monday, June 3, 2024

New generaration Fighting Italian reaches her first major quarterfinal

After Jasmine Paolini reached her first major round of 16 at this French Open, she followed up that feat by reaching her first major quarterfinal. The 12th seeded Italian player defeated Elina Avanesyan to make it to the final eight, and she is now set to face 4th seed Elena Rybakina.That is, of course, a huge task, but whatever happens, the 2024 Dubai champion has shown herself to be worthy of her heritage. 

For her part, Rybakina defeated 15th seed Elina Svitolina. Also, 2nd seed Aryna Sabalenka defeated 22nd seed Emma Navarro, and 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva defeated Varvara Gracheva.

There was a very big upset yesterday that received hardly any attention. Top doubles seeds Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens were upset in the second round by the unseeded team of Emma Navarro and Diana Shnaider, two former U.S. university competitors.

Here is the singles quarterfinal draw:

Iga Swiatek (1) vs. Marketa Vondrousova (5)
Coco Gauff (3) vs. Ons Jabeur (8)
Jasmine Paolina (12) vs. Elena Rybakina (4)
Mirra Andreva vs Aryna Sabalenka (2)

Both Vondrousova (2019) and Gauff (2022 have reached the French Open final before. Swiatek, of course, has won the event three times, and is the two-time defending champion. 

Swiatek is 3-0 against Vondrousova, and 1-0 against her on clay--that win was at the 2020 French Open. Gauff is 4-2 against Jabeur, and 2-1 against her on clay. Paolini is 2-2 against Rybakina; they have never competed on a clay court. Sabalenka is 2-0 against Andreeva. Both of their matches were played on clay, and both were played in Madrid.

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