The road to the 2020 French Open

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

The road to the 2020 French Open

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

The FFT announced their WCs today, and they went to:

MDWC:
1 BOUCHARD Eugenie (CAN)
2 BUREL Clara (FRA)
3 JACQUEMOT Elsa (FRA)
4 PAQUET Chloé (FRA)
5 PARMENTIER Pauline (FRA)
6 PARRY Diane (FRA)
7 PIRONKOVA Tsvetana (BUL)
8 TAN Harmony (FRA)

QWC:
1 ALBIE Audrey (FRA)
2 ANDRIANJAFITRIMO Tessah (FRA)
3 DROGUET Aubane (FRA)
4 HESSE Amandine (FRA)
5 JANICIJEVIC Selena (FRA)
6 MONNET Carole (FRA)
7 PONCHET Jessika (FRA)
8 YEROLYMOS Margot (FRA)

Nice to see Pironkova get a MDWC after her fantastic US Open run, and fair play to the FFT for doing so. Looks like the reciprocal WC arrangement between the FFT, TA, and USTA has been scrapped, at least for now, it might get back to normal by RG 2021, so they are still offering their usual allocation of 6 local ones, but they could have easily offered 2 more to French players.

It was probably already in the bag, but I wonder if Carole Monnet's hammering of Sam yesterday, and then backing up that win by qualifying for the W80 today had anything to do with securing her QWC?

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Monday 14th of September 2020 06:39:46 PM

flamingowings · All-time great

Yes, very good of the French to give WC's to Pironkova and Bouchard for their especially good runs recently.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

I mean Bouchard has been inundated with WCs for quite some time now that she has slid down the rankings, but at least she did make that final last week, so there is a sense that her on court work earned this, rather than just her profile.

I suppose she is a former RG SF, fluent French speaker (if that helps at all), and still one of the more recognisable names in the women's game, so yeah, not a bad choice, all things considered.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Ace Ventura wrote:
The FFT announced their WCs today, and they went to:

MDWC:
1 BOUCHARD Eugenie (CAN)
2 BUREL Clara (FRA)
3 JACQUEMOT Elsa (FRA)
4 PAQUET Chloé (FRA)
5 PARMENTIER Pauline (FRA)
6 PARRY Diane (FRA)
7 PIRONKOVA Tsvetana (BUL)
8 TAN Harmony (FRA)

QWC:
1 ALBIE Audrey (FRA)
2 ANDRIANJAFITRIMO Tessah (FRA)
3 DROGUET Aubane (FRA)
4 HESSE Amandine (FRA)
5 JANICIJEVIC Selena (FRA)
6 MONNET Carole (FRA)
7 PONCHET Jessika (FRA)
8 YEROLYMOS Margot (FRA)

Nice to see Pironkova get a MDWC after her fantastic US Open run, and fair play to the FFT for doing so. Looks like the reciprocal WC arrangement between the FFT, TA, and USTA has been scrapped, at least for now, it might get back to normal by RG 2021, so they are still offering their usual allocation of 6 local ones, but they could have easily offered 2 more to French players.
It was probably already in the bag, but I wonder if Carole Monnet's hammering of Sam yesterday, and then backing up that win by qualifying for the W80 today had anything to do with securing her QWC?

The French carry on their strategy of giving a real boost to their youngsters.

In the MD, Elsa J is born 2003, Diane P is 2002, Clara B is 2001....

Nice to see, though, that 34 year-old Parmentier also has one.

I think Carole was pretty much guaranteed a wildcard of some sort anyway, even before this week - she's been champion of France in juniors, top Tennis Europe player, and is very high profile in France.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Ace Ventura wrote:
The FFT announced their WCs today, and they went to:

MDWC:
1 BOUCHARD Eugenie (CAN)
2 BUREL Clara (FRA)
3 JACQUEMOT Elsa (FRA)
4 PAQUET Chloé (FRA)
5 PARMENTIER Pauline (FRA)
6 PARRY Diane (FRA)
7 PIRONKOVA Tsvetana (BUL)
8 TAN Harmony (FRA)

QWC:
1 ALBIE Audrey (FRA)
2 ANDRIANJAFITRIMO Tessah (FRA)
3 DROGUET Aubane (FRA)
4 HESSE Amandine (FRA)
5 JANICIJEVIC Selena (FRA)
6 MONNET Carole (FRA)
7 PONCHET Jessika (FRA)
8 YEROLYMOS Margot (FRA)

Nice to see Pironkova get a MDWC after her fantastic US Open run, and fair play to the FFT for doing so. Looks like the reciprocal WC arrangement between the FFT, TA, and USTA has been scrapped, at least for now, it might get back to normal by RG 2021, so they are still offering their usual allocation of 6 local ones, but they could have easily offered 2 more to French players.
It was probably already in the bag, but I wonder if Carole Monnet's hammering of Sam yesterday, and then backing up that win by qualifying for the W80 today had anything to do with securing her QWC?
The French carry on their strategy of giving a real boost to their youngsters.
In the MD, Elsa J is born 2003, Diane P is 2002, Clara B is 2001....
Nice to see, though, that 34 year-old Parmentier also has one.
I think Carole was pretty much guaranteed a wildcard of some sort anyway, even before this week - she's been champion of France in juniors, top Tennis Europe player, and is very high profile in France.

I can't find anything official, but I'm sure I read somewhere earlier this year that PP was going to be calling it a day this year, and there's a lot of talk of that on TennisForum, so if that's the case, then it's more understandable, and a kind of bow out after 17 successive RG main draws.

It's a decent mix - a couple of external choices, and I'd imagine the Pironkova pick would be universally popular. Some good youngsters as you say in the 3 you highlight, a potential send off for Parmentier, Tan's was apparently performance based in a 'race' type, which I am a fan of.

At 26, Paquet's kind of at that age and stage of her career where she'll probably fluctuate between 150-225, and not really 'happen', but at 182 she'd be comfortably in qualifying, so if they have remaining WCs, and are keen to use them all (unlike some...) then I think that's justified. We don't really have a GB equivalent, maybe Harriet in a couple of years (although hopefully not), or maybe Katy D if she'd stayed injury free these past couple of years, but if Chloe was British then I'd be happy for her to have a Wimbledon MDWC with her credentials.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

I've also just realised that Rome finishes on Monday 21st, so I'm not sure if the Rome results will be included in determining RG seeds - probably not?

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Monday 14th of September 2020 10:35:16 PM

Andy Parker · Strong Club Player

Does anyone know why Katie B hasn't used her Protected Ranking for this?

I had heard that the plan was that she would skip the US Open to concentrate on the French, so it was a surprise to not see her in the draw.

I rate her and Katie Swan as tremendous prospects, but I am concerned at how few events either of them are playing as tennis opens up again. I don't know whether Katie B coming from Leicester has complicated things, as it has been one of the areas under greater restrictions. I thought that Katie B would pretty much shoot straight back into the top 100, but the longer that things goes on, the greater the chances are that her protected ranking will run out with her still marooned in the lower echelons of tennis and having to fight her way back up to the top will me much tougher if that happens. Others tend to know far more of the inside stories than me and it would be interesting to hear from anyone who knows anything.

Like others, I was very pleased to see Pironkova in the wildcards - having taken out a 2 week Amazon subscription, I very much enjoyed her battles in the US Open, and she looks as strong as I have ever seen her play - mostly the French only give wildcards to French players, so it is an achievement for her to get one.

-- Edited by Andy Parker on Wednesday 16th of September 2020 02:17:03 PM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

I was initially surpried to see Katie B not on the RG entry list as well Andy, but I think the general consensus on here was that she may have had another set back. There was mention that she pulled out of a number of ITF events recently, and she had posted pics of training on clay a few weeks ago with 'bambi on ice' taglines, so it would be a bit strange for her to practice on a surface she's not that comfortable on, if she's not going to actually play on it. I think she's also more based in London these days than Leicester, she's often referencing it (London) as her city.

I'm not sure about the status of her PR. You can use it to 2 grand slams (she's already used one at the 2020 AO), and in normal times you can't use it at the same grand slam the following year, but these obviously aren't normal times, and everyone has missed out on a slam this year, so she may well be able to use it again at the 2021 AO, but someone on here will probably be more clued up on the new rules than me. Does anyone know the status of her PR in this COVID era?

dodrade · Satellite level

Alicia Barnett appears to be fit on Instagram but doesn't seem entered anywhere. Is her ranking too low?

the addict · Tennis legend

Lissey didn't enter any tournaments for this week - W/C 14/09/20 - or next week, according to the acceptance lists
She withdrew from all three ITF tournaments starting on 28/09, where she would have made qualifying or the main draw, although there were a lot of entries in front of her pre-withdrawal deadline.

Could be a number of reasons, not wanting to travel being a good one !

dodrade · Satellite level

the addict wrote:
Lissey didn't enter any tournaments for this week - W/C 14/09/20 - or next week, according to the acceptance lists
She withdrew from all three ITF tournaments starting on 28/09, where she would have made qualifying or the main draw, although there were a lot of entries in front of her pre-withdrawal deadline.

Could be a number of reasons, not wanting to travel being a good one !

She posted this implying she wanted to play soon which made me wonder about the lack of entries.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Heather has pulled out of Strasbourg but her training videos suggests she will be ok for Paris.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

I was just thinking that there hadn't been many main draw withdrawals for this, but a big one just now (Osaka):

www.instagram.com/p/CFQefidpZ20/

Sevastova withdrew earlier today.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Spiceboy has provided a few more updates over on TF, and at the moment, #232 (at the time) Mrdeza is the final Q entrant, so Naiktha definitely not involved. The next 10 Q alts are Jakupovic, Ce, Galfi, Baptiste, Liu, Satralova (formerly Allertova), Gerlach, Ivakhnenko, Okamura, and Zakharova (#245).

I wonder if Naiktha is regretting not being in / coming to Europe during this period? I see on Tennisexplorer.com she has played 13 echo matches in the Covid era, but she's been restricted to Brisbane/Queensland based players, so has only actually played 4 or 5 different player in that time, and has played some of them 3 times. She could have been in the first BT event, Progress Tour, BOTB II, could have given SGH a go one week, possibly qualified for the Classic Week, and then would have been in Europe for that Prague 128 event, a few other ITF events, especially the W60 an W80 in France, and then of course RG quals. Seems a bit of a shame to have been restricted to playing the likes of Da Silva Fick 3 times, but then I guess plans do go out of the window in these times, and she may generally just be happy / safe enough staying in Aus.

Fellow Aus players Cabrera and Inglis (who Naiktha has played both as part of her 13) went to the US and are now both in France, so it wouldn't have been a case of being travel restricted.