After Scare Against Osaka, Swiatek’s Bid For 3-Peat Still Alive
The 2024 Roland Garros Women's Update Has Two-Time Defending Champion Swiatek Leading The Charge
Talented American Gauff Hopes to Make A Run At First French Open Title
If the Iga Switek-Naomi Osaka and Mirra Andreeva-Victoria Azarenka matches are an indication of what is to come in the women’s singles draw at the French Open, get ready to be entertained.
The 2024 Roland Garros women’s update saw Maria Sakkari, Jelena Ostapenko, Daria Kasatkina, and American Danielle Collins among the upset victims through the first two rounds of the tournament while Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova overcame losing the first set to American Katie Volynets to reach the third round.
More than half the seeded players lost by the end of the second round. If the seeds hold up, it would be Swiatek against Coco Gauff in one semifinal while Aryna Sabalenka would meet up with Elena Rybakina in the other.
Iga Swiatek is the favorite according to the French Open outrights in her bid to join Justine Henin and Monica Seles as the only WTA players in the open era to win three consecutive Grand Slam titles.
Swiatek Hangs On for Dear Life
There are few second-round matches at Roland Garros in recent memory that were as anticipated as the one between two-time defending French Open champion Iga Swiatek and former World No. 1 Naomi Osaka.
Osaka hadn’t regained the form that made her such a dynamic force on the WTA tour in her comeback. That all changed in the showdown with Swiatek.
Osaka barely advanced past Lucia Bronzetti in the first round. She certainly raised the level of her play against the top-seeded Swiatek with Swiatek winning 7-5 in the third set. When looking at the tennis scores, it is pretty hard to top the entertainment value of that match.
Ekaterina Alexandrova, Barbora Krejcikova, and Veronika Kudermetova all lost in the first round meaning that Swiatek won’t meet up with a seeded player until the quarterfinals at the earliest. Swiatek is looking good in the 2024 Roland Garros women’s update at -200 to add to her French Open title collection.
Vondrousova (+4000 to win the French Open) could be waiting in the quarterfinals for Swiatek. One major obstacle is gone for the 2023 Wimbledon champion as the red-hot Collins is out of the tournament.
Swiatek might need to contend with Vondrousova as she looks to win her third straight title at Roland Garros. That would give her a chance to tie the women’s tennis record of four straight French Open titles set by Jeanne Matthey from 1909 to 1912 and matched by Suzanne Lenglen from 1920 to 1923.
Sabalenka Rolling Right Along
No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka had little drama in her first two matches as she dropped a total of seven games in wins over Erika Andreeva and Moyuka Uchijima. Things could get more interesting in the next match against Paula Badosa, who was second in the WTA rankings just two years ago and reached the 2021 French Open quarterfinals. That is another of the matches to keep an eye on when it comes to the 2024 Roland Garros women’s update.
Sabalenka is second at +400 in the French Open outrights. Badosa is tied for 10th at +6600.
With a win, Sabalenka would face an American in the next match as Madison Keys and Emma Navarro collide in the third round after they both posted a pair of straight-set wins. Keys has the fifth-shortest odds to win the French Open at +2800.
No. 6 seed Maria Sakkari, No. 10 Daria Kasatkina, and No. 19 Victoria Azarenka all stumbled meaning that an unseeded player will advance to the quarterfinals. Mirra Andreeva does not look like an unseeded challenger as the teenager rebounded from being broken late in her match with Azarenka by breaking right back and taking out Azarenka in three entertaining sets. Andreeva is tied for the sixth-shortest odds at +3300 to win the French Open.
Gauff Ready to Make Some Noise
The American hopes took a hit when Jessica Pegula was forced to withdraw from the tournament and then Collins suffered a surprising loss.
Perhaps Keys or Navarro can pull off the upset of Sabalenka. If not, the quarter of the draw featuring Coco Gauff (+850 in the French Open outrights).
The No. 3 seed took out qualifiers Julia Avdeeva and Tamara Zidansek in straight sets to reach the third round.
Next up is a showdown with Dayana Yastremska, who like Gauff reached the Australian Open semifinals in January. Although No. 13 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia was upset in the first round, No. 17 Liudmila Samsonova is still a threat. She had no issues dispatching of American Amanda Anisimova.
There is another American left in that portion of the draw.
American Sofia Kenin took out No. 21 seed Caroline Garcia while No. 9 seed Jelena Ostapenko fell to Denmark’s Clara Tauson to set up an unlikely third-round match. The winner of that match will face either No. 8 Ons Jabeur (+4000 to win the French Open) or No. 21 Leylah Fernandez.
Rybakina Could be Challenged
No. 4 seed Elena Rybakina is one of the four players in her quarter who are seeded in the top 16 and are still in contention.
Qinwen Zhang-Jasmine Paolini and Rybakina-Elina Svitolina could be compelling Round of 16 matches.
Rybakina (+800), who moved ahead of Gauff in the French Open outrights, could run into seeded players the rest of way beginning with Elise Mertens in the third round. Rybakina hasn’t dropped a set in her last three matches against Mertens. Svitolina has won two of the three meetings with Rybakina. However, their last match came in 2021.
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