2018 Williams Watch- It's French Open Time!

The arrival of the month of May also means it's time for the second Grand Slam on the professional tennis calendar in the French Open

It starts tomorrow, and it's also the first Grand Slam tourney that Serena Williams will play in since she gave birth to her daughter Alexis back in September.   She was ranked number one in the world when she went on maternity leave, and is now ranked number 22 in the WTA rankings.

Knowing Little Sis, won't take her long to get back in the Top 10 or number one in the world

She's chasing her fourth French Open title and her 24th Grand Slam title of her career.   But the terracotta clay courts of Stade Roland Garros are not her best surface, and as of yet she hasn't demonstrated she's back at playing Serena level tennis.

To add to the challenge she's facing, she's unseeded in this tournament and will start first round play against Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic.   Should she successfully clear that match, she'll face the winner of the Ashleigh Barty- Natalia Vikhlyantseva match.

Some of the seeded players in Little Sis' section of the bracket includes number 6 seeded Karolina Pliskova,   number 11 seed Juliana Gorges, number 17 seed Ashleigh Barty and number 28 seeded Maria Sharapova   

But never underestimate Serena.   The French Open also has a pattern of many of the major seeds falling in the first two rounds.  If that pattern repeats itself and Serena is still standing as we reach Saturday, don't bet against holding up another Coupe Suzanne Lenglen when the tournament concludes on June 10 

Speaking of Top 10 players, one of them is her sister Venus Williams.  Big Sis is ranked number 9 in the WTA rankings, just above number 10 Sloane Stephens as she and Little Sis prepare for their business trip to Paris. 

Venus is also in search of her first French Open title since 2002.   She will start first round play against Qiang Wang of China.   If she handles her tennis business, she'll face in the second round the winner of the Petra Marcic-Yafan Wang match.

Venus is also in the bottom half section of the draw that contains number 5 seed and 2017 French Open defending champ Jelena Ostapenko, number 22 seeded Johanna Konta, number 26 seeded Barbora Strycova and unseeded Yulia Putintseva and Victoria Azarenka. 

The Williams sisters will also play doubles in Paris, having been granted a wildcard entry into the doubles tournament.   They have won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, with two of them occurring at the French Open in 1999 and 2010. 

The last time they played doubles at the French Open they fell in the third round in 2016 and in the first round in 2013. 

We'll see how they fare on this business trip to Paris in the singles and doubles draw.   

2017 Williams Watch- Venus Is Out At 2017 French Open

Aww, I was hoping with all the upsets that included defending 2016 French Open champ Garbine Muguruza, that 10th seeded Big Sis would get to make a serious run at winning her second French Open title, but it was not to be,

She got off to a great start against 30th seeded Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland, taking the first set of the match, but you have to win two to advance to the next round, and it fell apart for her.  

Venus lost 7-5, 2-6, 1-6 to end her run at Roland Garros.

Oh well, 'Williams'-don starts on July 3,  Maybe she'll have better results on the other side of the Channel  when they go to her and Serena's personal tennis playground at the All England Club.

We'll see in a few weeks .    

2017 Williams Watch- Venus Rising

Since Little Sis announced that she was pregnant, and won the 2017 Australian Open title while with child, me seeing Serena complete a calendar year Grand Slam sweep is over for 2017, so I wasn't paying attention when the French Open started at Stade Roland Garros back on May 22.

While Little Sis is counting the days until she has her first child, I forgot for a minute that Big Sis is still playing, ranked number eleven in the world WTA rankings, and at age 36 (until June 17) is still kicking butt and taking names while repping the greatest tennis playing sister act of all time.

Venus started this 2017 edition of the French Open in search of her second title and her first since 2002 as the tenth seed in this tournament.

As usual in Paris, some big name seeded players on the women's singles tennis side have already been knocked out and are looking to have better luck across The Pond at The Championships.

Number one seeded Angelique Kerber, Johanna Konta (7), Coco Vandeweghe (19), Lauren Davis (25), Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (22) and Roberta Vinci (31) all were one match and done in the first round.

The second round at Roland Garros claimed sixth seeded Dominika Cibulkova, Madison 'I'm Not Black' Keys (12), Petra Kvitova (15), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (16), Kiki Bertens (18), Barbora Strycova (20), and Ana Konjuh (29)

The seeded players that fell in the third round are ninth seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, Elena Vesnina (14), Daria Kasatkina (26), Yulia Putintseva (27) and Zhang Shuhai (32).

But back to French Open tenth seeded Big Sis and how she's doing in this edition of the French Open who is in section four of the top half of the women's draw which has been decimated by the upsets and presents an opportunity for Big Sis to possibly win this title.

In the first round she dispatched China's Qiang Wang in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) to set up her second round match with Kurumi Nara of Japan.  

Big Sis sent Nara quickly packing with another straight set 6-3,  6-1 win to propel her into the third round against Belgium's Elise Mertens, who also got sent to the Roland Garros sidelines in that same straight sets 6-3, 6-1 score.

That win over Mertens sets up her fourth round match with 30th seeded Swiss miss Timea Bacsinszky.  Should Venus prevail, she would face off in the quarters against the winner of the match between 2016 defending French Open champ Garbine Muguruza (4) and French homegirl Kristina Mladenovic (13)

Good luck the rest of the way Big Sis!
   

2016 Williams Watch- Serena To The French Open Finals!

It has been a French Open at Roland Garros in which they have battled through rain delays, cold temperatures and the field being decimated by upsets and injuries, but Serena Williams has survived.

She dispatched the red hot Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands in straight sets at Court Philippe Chatrier to punch her ticket to the French Open finals 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 but she had to fight for it.

Trailing 4-2 and noting that Bertens was hobbled a bit by a strained left calf, Little Sis zeroed in on that to flip the match script.  While everyone on tour knows that she can hit with power and is undeniably the best shotmaker in the women's game, many people forget that she can also hit an amazing deft drop shot, and she repeatedly deployed it against Bertens to get back in the match..

Like the great champion she is, Serena survived and advanced.  She's now made it to her 27th Grand Slam final and her second consecutive French Open final.  Serena is also playing for her 22nd Grand Slam title to pass Steffi Graf and get her closer to Margaret Court's 24 Grand Slam titles.

Standing in her way of making more tennis history is number four seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain, who dispatched 21st seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 in the other semifinal at Court Suzanne Lenglen.

If that name sounds familiar, she was the player responsible for shockingly knocking Serena out in the 2012 French Open second round in lopsided fashion, which Little Sis beating her in last year's Wimbledon final in straight sets.

But tomorrow Williams will be playing her fourth straight match while Muguruza will be playing her third straight one  because of all the rain delays.  

Will she handle her business tomorrow and make this business trip to Paris a successful one?   We'll see.

2016 Williams Watch-Serena To The French Open Semis!

It took her three sets, but number one seed Serena Williams fought through a bad day at the office and a short rain delay  to prevail over a determined Yulia Putintseva  5-7, 6-4, 6-1 to punch her ticket to the French Open semifinals.

Serena got off to a slow start in large part to the 24 unforced errors she sprayed all over Court Philippe Chatrier in the first set.  Despite that display of error infused tennis, she was serving at 5-5 in the first set up 40-love but got broken, then Putintseva took advantage of the huge gift to serve out the set and become the first person in this edition of the French Open to take a set from the tournament's number one seed.  

Williams ended up with 43 unforced errors to just 16 for Putintseva, but offset that with 36-16 advantage in winners.  Little Sis woke up just in time at 4-4 to rally and take that second set with some timely assistance from Putintseva.  She was down two break points but held serve to take a 5-4 lead, then broke Putintseva to take the second set to even the match when Putintseva double faulted.

Serena then found her A game and blew out Putintseva in the third set to take the match.

She will face the red hot Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, who is on a roll and has taken down four seeded players in number 3 Angelique Kerber, number 25 Daria Kasatkina, number 15 Madison Keys and number 8 Timea Bacsinszky on the way to the semifinals and qualifying for the Dutch Olympic tennis team .

 Fourth seeded Garbine Muguruza and 21st seeded Samantha Stosur will square off in the other women's semifinal.match

2016 Williams Watch- One Sister Still In The French Open, One Sister Is Out

It has been a rainy few days in Paris during this 2016 edition of the French Open that has not only seen rain delays that have wiped out whole days of play, but many of the seeded players falling on the women's side.

That pattern continued in the fourth round after two days of rain delayed play once again in which number two seed Agnieszka Radwanska, number 4 seed Garbine Muguruza, number 6 seed Simona Halep and number 12 seed Carla Suarez-Navarro all fell.

So did number 9 seeded Venus Williams in straight sets to number 8 seeded Timea Bacsinzsky 2-6, 4-6 to end her time at Roland Garros.

But 'Williams'-don will be cranking up on June 27-July 12 on the other side of the Channel.  See you then Big Sis.

Meanwhile, number one seeded Serena cruised to the quarterfinals after blitzing Elina Svitolina in straight sets 6-1, 6-1 to set up her quarterfinal match with Yulia Putintseva, who upset Carla Suarez-Navarro in a hard fought 7-5, 7-5 straight set match.

Should Little Sis prevail against Putintseva, she would take on the winner of the Timea Bacsinzsky-Kiki Bertens match.   Bertens is on a roll, and now that she has qualified for the Dutch Olympic tennis squad in Rio by getting past the third round in a emotional 6-2,3-6,10-8 three set win over Daria Kasatkina, the pressure on her entering the tournament has been lifted.   She could be a dangerous opponent for the eighth seeded Bacsinzsky.  

But once again, you have to play the matches.

2016 Williams Watch-Rolling To The Fourth Round

My fave tennis playing sisters are having a marvelous business trip to Paris so far as we cruise into the second week of the French Open.

Serena is chasing history and another French Open title as usual, while Venus is striving to get back to the elite level of tennis she was playing before she was diagnosed with the autoimmune ailment that has sidetracked her for several years.

This 2016 French Open women's tournament has already witnessed nine seeded players fall in the first round, two in the second and another nine in the third round.   But two of the ten seeded players still left in this 2016 edition of the French Open women's tourney have the last name Williams, and eight of them are bumping heads in the fourth round.

Serena, the tournament's number one and still world number one ranked player is handling her French Open business, and so far hasn't dropped a set on the way to the fourth round and hopefully her fourth French Open title.

She took out Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova in straight sets 6-2, 6-0 in her opening round match,  Brazil's Teliana Pereira 6-2, 6-1, and 26th seeded French homegirl Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, 7-6 (12-10). She will face 18th seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in her fourth round match.  .

Should she get past Svitolina, she would face in the quarters the winner of the match between 12th seeded Carla Suarez-Navarro of Spain and Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva.

Ninth seeded Venus is trying to win her first ever French Open title in her illustrious career.  But her road to that first title and the fourth round has been tougher.  Big Sis has had to play several tiebreakers on the way to her fourth round match with number eight seeded Swiss miss Timea Bacsinszky.

She played a tough opening round match with Estonia's Anett Kontaveit, prevailing in straight sets 7-6 (7-5),7-6 (7-4).   Big Sis then sent fellow American qualifier Louisa Chirico to the sidelines by beating her in straight sets 6-2 , 6-1.

In the third round, like Little Sis, she faced a French homegirl in Alize Cornet.   But unlike Serena, it took her three sets to win this match.

Venus captured the first set 7-6 (7-5), dropped the second set 1-6, and blitzed Cornet in the third set 6-0 to punch her ticket to the fourth round match with Bacsinszky.

Should Venus survive this match, she would take on in the quarters the winner of the match between the Netherlands Kiki Bertens and 15th seeded Madison (I'm not Black) Keys

Should my fave tennis playing sibling survive their quarterfinal matches, they would play each other in the semifinals..

The Williams sisters were also entered in the French Open doubles this year, but were knocked out in the third round of the doubles tournament by Kiki Bertens and Johanna Larsson in straight sets 3-6, 3-6.

Oh well, there's always the 'Williams'-don doubles in a few weeks. .

We'll see how this second week of their Paris business trip plays out and if one of them is holding the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen on Saturday.

2016 Williams Watch-Time For The French Open

We are still in the month of May, and that means it's time for the second Grand Slam tournament on the professional tennis calendar.  It's the 2016 French Open, and the clay courts of Paris' Roland Garros await as the tournament is scheduled to run from May 22-June 5

The big story as usual is world number one Serena Williams and her attempt to win her 22nd Grand Slam title.  Little Sis has unfortunately been upset in her last two attempts to get that title, falling in the 2015 US Open semis and in this year's Australian Open title match.

So you know the defending French Open champ is ready and eager to get this milestone done and over with Williams-don and the Rio Olympics looming.

She's seeded number one in this 115th edition of the French Open, and Serena kicks off her title defense with a first round match against Serbia's Magdalena Rybarikova.   should she handle her tennis playing business she gets the winner of the Teliana Pereira- Kristyna Pliskova match.

Venus Williams is also in this tournament, and she's seeded number 9.  She faces off in the first round against Estonia's Anett Kontaveit.   Should Big Sis win this opening round match, she'll face the winner of an all-American first round battle between Louisa Chirico and Lauren Davis.

Unfortunately the Williams sisters are in the same half of the draw, and would potentially meet in the semis should both sisters go on extended runs during their time at Roland Garros.

Here's hoping my fave tennis playing siblings have a successful business trip to Paris, and Serena finally gets her 22nd Grand Slam title to tie her with Steffi Graf and add another Coupe Suzanne Lenglen to her trophy case..

2015 Williams Watch-Serena Has Flu, Makes Opponent Sick

The French Open women's semifinals were earlier today, and Serena was playing Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky for a spot in the finals.against Lucie Safarova.

She was hoping to avoid a troubling pattern in this French Open tournament in which she has dropped the first set, but roared back to win the next two and the match.  

With her quarterfinal straight set dispatching of Sara Errani, it looked like she was back to being the brutally efficient and dominant player she usually becomes when a title is in her reach.

What people didn't know before this match was that Serena was battling a nasty flu bug, and it showed in the first set that she dropped 4-6 to Bacsinszky.  But trailing 2-3 in the second set, coughing and struggling during the changeovers, Serena summoned once more that tremendous will to win that set her apart from most of the women on the tour and kicked up her game another level..   

She won not only the next game to even the second set at 3-3, but the next nine consecutive game to close out the second set and even the match at 6-3, then closed out the third set to win it and the match 6-0.

She said in a post match interview with Darren Cahill:

"I don’t think I’ve ever been this sick – I didn’t expect to win that, and I can’t believe I won.  I got the flu after my third-round match and I haven’t been getting better. Hopefully this is the worst and I’ll get better.  I really thought I was going to lose, and I thought: if I’m going to lose, I might as well go for winners. I was so tired, and I just fought for every point."

Serena may have been ill, but the only one who is probably sick at the lost opportunity to knock her out of the French Open and get to the final is Timea Bacsinszky.

Serena will have a day off to rest, and will be playing for all this history on Saturday.   If he pulls this off, it will be her third career French Open title and her 20th career Grand Slam title.   That will put her only two behind tying Steffi Graf..  

Speaking of two, she will be halfway to a calendar year Grand Slam, with her fave tournaments 'Williams'don and the US Open coming up.on the Grand Slam calendar.    It will also be the third straight Grand Slam she has won since the 2014 US Open.and put her one away from a 'Serena Slam'

Speedy recovery Serena and hope you make that happen.