How right those folks were.
Home hope Kristina "Kiki" Mladenovic faces the next tough test of her French Open credentials when she takes on American Shelby Rogers on Court Suzanne Lenglen in a third round encounter on Friday.
Defending French Open champion Garbine Muguruza has done better than most fans would have thought.
A year after showing so much resolve while winning the French Open, Muguruza fell apart down the stretch.
I like Mladenovic to advance to the French Open semifinal.
"Everything wasn't ideal. There were a few concerns", Mladenovic said, before joking: "I made about 35 double-faults today, but everything's [okay]!"
If head-to-head records are anything to go by, Mladenovic has a slight edge, having won their only encounter, in Marrakech in 2015, but she needed two tiebreaks to come out on top.
But the Spaniard has been repeatedly answering questions recently about whether expectations are different now that she is a major champion and whether that sort of pressure might affect her on court.
The 31-year-old Nadal is chasing his 15th Grand Slam title and first since 2014 - when he won at Roland Garros.
"It's not ideal, there are little problems but I fight as I can. you give me so much strength", added the 24-year-old. She lost the next 11 points, and by then, it was anyone's match.
As a result, this year's tournament is guaranteed to produce a first-time victor.
Roland Garros-2017: Murray and Wawrinka has qualified for the 1/8 finals
But Rafael Nadal needed just 90 minutes to wrap up a 6-0 6-1 6-0 win against Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili. Murray seized his lifeline, a 4th ace giving him a two-set lead.
"It's a very painful defeat here in the French Open", she said afterwards.
She reached the final at the Madrid Open, Stuttgart and in Mexican Open and the semi-finals at the Indian Wells and based on current form, Mladenovic is expected to get past Muguruza.
Wozniacki took the first set 6-2 but Bellis will resume at 5-2 up in the second on Saturday.
The Spaniard clearly did not enjoy the pro-Mladenovic vocal crowd, who were quick to chide her when she ambled to the net to have a glance at a ball mark when one of her backhands sailed just wide of the tramline late in the match.
Here are the results from the men's singles tournament at Stade Roland Garros on Sunday, June 4.
Title favourite Simona Halep is putting worries over her ankle injury behind her and defeated Germany's Tatjana Maria 6-4 6-3 but it was a different story for Eugenie Bouchard.
"I love this tournament no matter what happens", she added.
Muguruza dinked a forehand into the net on the first match point after just under two hours.
Muguruza left the court visibly unhappy with the partisan crowd, and afterwards the tearful Spaniard admitted that they had made it extra hard for her.
Rafael Nadal has looked incredible on the clay of Roland Garros, and that streak continued on Sunday.
Comments