Qualifying gets underway tomorrow for the second Grand Slam of the year. There are two qualifying rounds. Hep Oluwadare is in a tough section with the 2021 Les Petits As winner up first, and if successful then the top qualifying seed Tyra Grant, who won a J300 recently. Hannah Klugman appears to have a less daunting section. Along with Charlie Robertson our trio are aiming to join Henry Searle, Oliver Bonding, Ranah Stoiber, Ella McDonald and Mimi Xu in the main draw.
Mathilde Carré may seem a daunting task but she has barely played in the last 9 months or so.
From August 2022 to end-April 2023, she didn't play a single ITF event.
I think she has some freak ankle injury last summer. And then moved to an academy in Barcelona, so decided to train, rather than play competitions.
And when she came back she was rather rusty, getting knocked out early in all events.
Her talent and potential is still there but she's not really 'on form' (although she might be getting it back together, of course)
Tyra Grant has had an amazing run recently. Although got knocked out in Belgium yesterday, like Hannah.
Thanks for the insight into Mathilde's woes - i wasn't aware of them, but you were right that she is not 'on form' and Hep has just won 6-2 6-2. i suspect Tyra wasn't too bothered about losing early in Belgium, as she has had plenty of warm-up matches on the clay, and would not have wanted to miss out on Roland Garros. She duly won 6-0 6-0 today
Simple filles (Tableau final)
1. Daphnée MPETSHI PERRICARD (FRA) / Wild-card circuit France juniors
2. Sarah ILIEV (FRA) / Wild-card circuit international juniors
3. Sarah RAKOTOMANGA (FRA)
4. Astrid LEW YAN FOON (FRA)
5. Eleejah INISAN (FRA)
6. Margot PHANTHALA (FRA)
7. Lucie PAWLAK (FRA)
8. Sol Ailin LARRAYA GUIDI (ARG) / Roland-Garros Junior Series
Eleejah is the 14 year-old who just beat Ranah in Belgium who I rate.
And Daphnée is the other 14 year-old - terribly tall and strong - who I've been going on about
Sarah Iliev is very highly-rated by a lot (but not a fave of mine)