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Thursday, May 28, 2026

RG.5- The Other Teenager in Paris



While her fellow Top 20 teens -- Andreeva and Mboko -- have found themselves more often in the spotlight and the winners of bigger titles at this point in their careers, 18-year old Iva Jovic has continued her rise up the tennis ladder.

A year ago in Paris, Jovic gained her MD spot via a wild card, while this year she's all the way up to the #17 seed.

She started 2025 just inside the Top 200, and was at #129 by the time RG rolled around. After cracking the Top 50 after the U.S. Open, she finished at #35, having notched her first tour title at the Guadalajara 500 in September. The Top 20 beckoned after this year's Australian Open, where she reached her maiden QF at a major (and recorded her first Top 10 win).

So far, she's reached just one final in '26 (Hobart), but has two additional SF and four 3rd Round+ results (w/ a 4r in Rome) in 1000-level events this year. Thus, there's still more room to grow in the coming months for the U.S. #4 , currently situated in the top-heavy Bannerette rankings behind a Top 3 that are lined up in order at the WTA's #4, #5 and #6 (Gauff, Pegula and Anisimova) positions, and Jovic seems more than ready to take on still more.



Having already recorded an opening round win for the sixth time in her seven career slam MD appearances with a 1st Round victory over Alex Eala, Jovic went about reaching her second straight major 3rd Round today, eliminating her countrywoman, Starsbourg champ Emma Navarro, by a 6-0/6-3 score. Through two rounds, Jovic has dropped just nine total games, tied for the fifth-least in the women's Final 32.

Of note, last week when these two met it was Navarro who'd prevailed on the court. It was little different this time around.



One of three teenagers still alive in the women's draw, along with the aforementioned two, when Jovic returns to the court she'll be the youngest woman seeking consecutive second week runs at a major on the season.







=DAY 5 NOTES=
...(cue up the walk-in music)




So far, so good *between the lines*, as well, for the #16 seeded Naomi Osaka, whose 7-6(1)/6-4 win today over Donna Vekic takes her into her first 3rd Round in Paris since 2019.



A year ago, Osaka suffered a 1st Round loss to Paula Badosa at Roland Garros, but then managed to at least prove a point (after previously having said she was truly trying to improve her results on the dirt) by advancing to and winning the final of a 125 event in Saint-Malo held during's RG's second week. It was the first clay court final and title of her career. Osaka carried over that momentum into the summer, reaching her biggest post-maternity leave final in Montreal and posting her best major result since 2021 with a SF at the U.S. Open.

In 2026, Osaka has been solid, just not spectacular, with three 1000 4th Round results, including on the dirt in both Madrid and Rome, but was hampered by an abdominal injury that led to her withdrawing from the AO before her 3rd Round match. She missed a month and a half of action before she returned in Indian Wells.

She'll face Iva Jovic next, with the winner going up against the Sabalenka/Kasatkina victor in the Round of 16.

Osaka is 1-3 vs. Top 20 competition in '26 (1-5 since reaching the U.S. semis last summer w/ three straight wins over Top 20 foes in NYC, giving her six straight such wins at the time), but will get another chance at a "quality result" in two days.

...there are five U.S. women in the Final 32, more than any other nation, but coming in second is Ukraine's four, continuing a trend of high-level results for the nation's women this season.

Oleksandra Oliynykova added her name to the list of 3rd Rounders today, outlasting Kimberly Birrell by winning a match-concluding MTB in which the Ukrainian took a 5-1 lead, saw the Aussie tie things up a 5-5, then Oliynykova run off the last five points to win 6-3/0-6/7-6(10-5).



Of course, now we'll be subjected to Oliynykova's side hustle, as her next opponent will be #25 seeded Russian Diana Shnaider, who defeated McCartney Kessler. Shnaider has participated in the Northern Palmyra Trophies exhibition in Saint Petersburg that Oliynykova has wielded as a club against any WTA players by name who ever participated (though, I don't think she's done so with the ATP competitors, which would be interesting since one of them is Daniil Medvedev, who I somehow doubt would take the accusations of being complicit in battlefield deaths as silently as Oliynykova's tour counterparts have).

Oliynykova has already taken to pulling out an underarm serve (she used it today on MP), just like Marta Kostyuk, and two days ago even followed up Kostyuk's showing of photos on her phone in her post-match press conference by doing the same with hers when she got *her* turn at the microphone not long afterward.

So, the wait began. It didn't take long...



...elsewhere, the resurgent Sakk Attack moved on, as Maria Sakkari's 6-7(7)/6-3/6-3 victory today over qualifier Claire Liu sends the Greek into her first slam 3rd Round since Wimbledon '24, and her first at RG since her 2021 run to the semifinals.



...Camila Osorio's clay season wasn't up to her usual standards this year. Her usual annual run in Bogota ended in the 2nd Round, and she went 1-2 in Madrid/Rome. Only a 125 SF in Parma, and then a quick pre-Paris trip to Rabat (she reached the QF), offered her a life preserver the last two weeks.

Apparently, she's taken her second chance to heart, and today played her way into the RG 3rd Round for the first time in her career. It's her best result at a major since her 3rd Round at Wimbledon back in 2021. That run came in just second major MD, *nineteen* slam events ago.

The Colombian took out #14 Ekaterina Alexandrova in the 1st Round, and today outlasted Yulia Putintseva in a 3:30 marathon in the Parisian heat.

It didn't *have* to take so long, as Osorio held three MP at 5-4 in the 2nd set, then rallied from 4-2 down in a TB to have MP #4 at 6-5. Putintseva won the breaker 8-6 to force a 3rd set. The Kazakh took a 5-3 lead in the decider, and served for the match (getting within two points at 30/30). But the sixth break of serve in the first nine games of the 3rd kept Osorio alive.

Putintseva then went on to drop serve again two games later, allowing Osorio to serve out the win, converting MP #5 for a 7-5/6-7(6)/7-5 win that makes her the *second* South American (w/ ARG's Solana Sierra) in the Final 32.



...and, after an exceedingly slow start, the French are *finally* having their say. While one of the new stars of the tournament has turned out to be a *male* French teenager in the men's singles, the Pastries have started to at least collect a few W's of their own in the women's draw (though it'll still take some work for the collective group win total to match the five claimed by Lois Boisson alone last year).

After Elsa Jacquemot and Diane Parry posted 1st Round wins on Tuesday -- sandwiching that day's one-and-out exit from Boisson a year after reaching the semis -- following France's 0-6 1st Round start, both returned to action today. Jacquemot fared well, though ultimately fell to #1 Aryna Sabalenka 7-5/6-2, but it was Parry who claimed the "Last Pastry Standing" honors by reaching her second career RG 3rd Round (2022) with a 6-3/6-4 win over #30 seed Ann Li.



The 23-year old grabbed a 125 title in Paris, and got a 1st Round win in Strasbourg, before heading to the Roland-Garros grounds, and is now 8-1 in her last nine clay matches after beginning her spring on the dirt at 0-4.

...the Final 32 includes women from eighteen different nations, one more than was the case this year in Melbourne, with the U.S. (5), Ukraine (4), Poland (3), Russia (3), Switzerland (3) and the Czech Republic (2) with multiple competitors still alive.

Three (Chwalinska, Korpatsch and Oliynykova) are first-time 3rd Round participants at a major, while eleven are repeats from last year's RG. Sixteen also reached this stage at AO26.

The group is made up of eighteen seeded players, along with eleven unseeded, two qualifiers (Chwalinska, Wang Xiyu) and one in the MD using their protected ranking (Teichmann).

Through two rounds, the woman who's lost the fewest games (not counting Amanda Anisimova, who has lost four but has only played three sets due to Julia Grabher retiring after a love 1st set today) is Viktorija Golubic, with just six. Sorana Cirstea follows with seven, with Poles Iga Swiatek and Chwalinska with eight, and Coco Gauff, Belinda Bencic and Iva Jovic with nine.





...SO SINNER WAS GIVEN PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT THAT, THOUGH IT MIGHT SEEN REASONABLE OUT OF CONTEXT FROM AFAR, HAS NOT BEEN AFFORDED TO "REGULAR" PLAYERS WHO HAVE FOUND THEMSELVES IN THE EXACT SAME SITUATION, YOU SAY? Well, it's not like it's the continuation of a pattern of tennis officials bending over backward to..., oh, wait... nevermind... ON DAY 5:



And, on another note, is it really a "greatest upset" contender if it only happened because the higher-ranked had a medical issue and couldn't move for two and a half sets, basically giving the winner a "soft walkover" the rest of the way?




...Hmmm, Boris Becker, Michael Chang, (w/ a touch of) Yannick Noah. THERE'S A PRECEDENT FOR SOMETHING REMARKABLE HAPPENING... ON DAY 5:




...MEANWHILE... ON DAY 5:



The aftermath of which would double as an "I-Told-You-So" Gala, hosted by the "Numbers Guy."


...THE MOST UNSURPRISING "SURPRISE" OF THE DAY... ON DAY 5:




...SOME WILL CONTINUE TO POINT OUT SOME SEEMINGLY MISSED CALLS ON CLAY EVEN *WITH* ELECTRONIC LINE CALLING... ON DAY 5:

But, at this point, isn't the alternative something close to anarchy?





...UGH... ON DAY 5:




...MEANWHILE... ON DAY 5:

Why do they include the teeny-tiny little flags next to the players' names in the scorebox in the lower left corner of the screen during matches? Maybe in and out of breaks I could see, by why the entire match? Unless it's a super-familiar one, they're really too small to make out, and are totally unimportant to the action outside of the Olympics or BJK. Why not somehow -- at least sometimes -- including the players' current ranks, which are even more noteworthy than their seeding much of the time.

They can't even include a "(Q)" next to a qualifier's name, which is surely of note, but we never have a moment where we don't get the flags. Or *no* flag, which is even more ridiculous.


















Again, don’t be afraid to let your characters define themselves in as uncertain terms as possible to your readers. - Chapter 15 #writing #writersky #fantasywriters #characterwriting #wip #subtextisforcowards

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— CG Stewart ๐Ÿ–‹️ ๐Ÿซœ (@nightoffallengods.com) January 1, 2026 at 1:23 PM


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This fills me with rage lol www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/b...

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— Erik Hane (@erikhane.bsky.social) May 28, 2026 at 7:46 AM

Wrong to the point of malpractice

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— Erik Hane (@erikhane.bsky.social) May 28, 2026 at 7:59 AM









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*RECENT RG "LAST PASTRY STANDING"*
2017 Caroline Garcia & Kristina Mladenovic (QF)
2018 Caroline Garcia (4th)
2019 C.Garcia, K.Mladenovic & D.Parry (2nd)
2020 Fiona Ferro & Caroline Garcia (4th)
2021 F.Ferro, C.Garcia, K.Mladenovic, H.Tan (2nd)
2022 A.Cornet, L.Jeanjean & D.Parry (3rd)
2023 O.Dodin, C.Garcia, L.Jeanjean & D.Parry (2nd)
2024 Varvara Gracheva (4th)
2025 Lois Boisson (SF)
2026 Diane Parry (in 3r)





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I just don't think it's unreasonable for art to be the line drawn in the sand regarding AI. Art should be made by humans.

— Cozy Eb (@ebonielon.bsky.social) May 27, 2026 at 10:52 PM


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Carl Sagan, writing in 1995, warned that soon America would be ruled by illiterate elites wielding “awesome technological powers,” and that most people, their brains broken by screens, would be unable to resist. We are living in the nightmare that Sagan foresaw.

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— Boze the Library Owl (@sketchesbyboze.bsky.social) November 8, 2025 at 4:45 PM











TOP QUALIFIER: Claire Liu/USA
TOP EARLY-ROUND (1r-2r): #3 Iga Swiatek/POL
TOP MIDDLE-ROUND (3r-QF): x
TOP LATE-ROUND (SF-F): x
TOP QUALIFYING MATCH: Q1: Oceane Dodin/FRA (PR) def. Kayla Day/USA 6-4/2-6/7-6(15-13) - saved 2 MP in TB, wins on MP #5
TOP EARLY-RD. MATCH (1r-2r): 1st Rd. - #7 Elina Svitolina/UKR def. Anna Bondar/HUN 3-6/6-1/7-6(10-3) - Bondar, who def. in Madrid, led 3-1 in 3rd set; Rome champ Svitolina avoids first 1st Rd. loss in RG career)
TOP MIDDLE-RD. MATCH (3r-QF): x
TOP LATE-RD. MATCH (SF-F/Jr.-WC): x
=============================
FIRST VICTORY: #27 Marie Bouzkova/CZE (def. Bronzetti/ITA)
FIRST SEED OUT: #21 Clara Tauson/DEN (1r - lost to Snigur/UKR)
FIRST SLAM MD WINS: Susan Bandecchi/SUI (1st MD), Marina Bassols Ribera/ESP (2nd MD), Francesca Jones/GBR (7th MD), Oleksandra Oliynykova/UKR (2nd MD), Kaitlin Quevedo/ESP (1st MD), Antonia Ruzic/CRO (3rd MD)
UPSET QUEENS: Switzerland
REVELATION LADIES: Poland (4-0 1st Rd. in consecutive '26 majors)
NATION OF POOR SOULS: FRA (none of 14 in Q-draw reach MD; wild cards go 0-6 year after WC Boisson to SF; 2-7 1st Rd.; Boisson out 1r)
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: in 3r: Maja Chwalinska/POL, Wang Xiyu/CHN
LUCKY LOSER WINS: --
LAST WILD CARD STANDING: 0-8 in 1st Rd. (including 0-5 FRA)
PROTECTED RANKING WINS: Jil Teichmann/SUI (in 3r)
LAST PASTRY STANDING: Diane Parry (in 3r)
Ms./Mademoiselle OPPORTUNITY: x
IT "??": x
COMEBACK: Nominees: Sakkari, Teichmann
CRASH & BURN: #5 Jessie Pegula/USA (1r- lost to #83 Birrell, who'd lost 9 con. slam 1r matches and 3-13 career; Pegula led by 6-1/2-1 w/ break; second 1r loss in major since RG20) and #2 Elena Rybakina/KAZ (AO champ out 2r in 3rd set TB to #55 Starodubtseva)
ZOMBIE QUEEN OF PARIS: Nominees: Svitolina (1r- trailed Bondar 3-1 in 3rd; avoided first 1r RG loss in 13 app.); Sierra (2r- trailed Paolini 6-4/4-2); Osorio (2r- Putintseva served 5-3 3rd; Osorio had 4 MP 2nd, on #5 in 3rd)
DOUBLES STAR: x
VETERAN PLAYER (KIMIKO CUP): Nominees: Cirstea, Svitolina, Linette, Keys
Mademoiselle/Madame OF THE EVENING: --
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: x
Legion de Lenglen: 100th anniversary of Suzanne Lenglen's last "grand slam" titles (RG WS/WD/MX sweep) in 1926 (she'd retire after controversial Wimbledon withdrawal and join professional tour that summer)
Coupe LA PETIT TAUREAU: (award given on Henin's birthday, June 1)








All for Day 5. More tomorrow.
Posted by at

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

RG.4- Down and Out in Paris (so, see ya soon, London)










=DAY 4 NOTES=
...aside from all the "extracurricular activity," 2026 has been a very good year for the Ukrainian women. Despite being lesser in numbers than many top tennis nations, the country is at or near the top of nearly every noteworthy collective and/or individual statistical measure of success this season.

There have been more Ukrainian women in tour singles finals (9) than from any other nation, while their four titles are tied for the most (w/ the U.S.). The five different women who've reached those finals are tied with the five different U.S. women who've done it for the most on tour this year, while the fourteen Ukrainian semifinal berths in '26 are second behind only the U.S.'s twenty. Both of this spring's 1000 event clay singles champions hail from Ukraine, with Marta Kostyuk taking Madrid and Elina Svitolina winning in Rome, and earlier this season we saw the WTA's first all-UKR singles final in Rouen, when Kostyuk faced off with Veronika Podrez (after a 125 final between the nation's Anhelina Kalinina and Oleksandra Oliynykova had previously this season been the biggest such all-UKR match-up ever). Svitolina and Kostyuk have both won two tour titles, behind only Aryna Sabalenka's three crowns.

Meanwhile, Svitolina's six SF lead the tour (by two). She's also tied (w/ Elena Rybakina, with 7) for the most Top 10 wins in 2026, with Kostyuk tied (w/ 3 others) for the next most with five. The group has combined for six Top 10 wins on clay this spring, tied with the U.S. for the most by any nation.

Five Ukrainian women reached the 2nd Round at this RG, with four of them in action on Day 4.

While Daria Snigur, who'd knocked off the first seed (Clara Tauson) at this RG, was eliminated by Peyton Stearns today, the two highest-ranked women were not, remaining on course for a possible QF match-up down the road.



Kostyuk had to rally from a set down against Katie Volynets, dropping a 1st set TB before winning 6-7(4)/6-3/6-3 to notch her tour-best 14th straight victory on the dirt this spring; while Svitolina ousted Spaniard Kaitlin Quevedo love & 4 to join Kostyuk in the 3rd Round, something the veteran five-time RG quarterfinalist (w/ her first in 2015) has done in her last eleven MD appearances in Paris. For Kostyuk, it's her first RG 3rd Round since her Round of 16 finish in 2021.

But the biggest thump of the day came by the hand of yet another Ukrainian, as Yuliia Starodubtseva felled the tallest tree in the RG forest of seeds to go down so far at this major, upsetting #2 Elena Rybakina in a three-set battle in which she rallied from an early deficit and then held on late as the reigning AO champ threatened to find an escape hatch leading out of the 2nd Round and onto the next.

The 26-year old Old Dominion University (in Virginia) product has been a part of the MD at the last ten majors, reaching the 3rd Round in Paris a year ago. Earlier this spring, she reached her first tour-level final in Charleston, a loss to Jessie Pegula.

Today, after Rybakina won a 6-3 1st, Starodubtseva, took control in the 2nd set, winning it 6-1 and racing to a double-break lead at 3-0 in the decider. Then things got a bit trickier.

Starodubtseva gave one of the breaks back, but held BPs for 4-1 on Rybakina's serve to get it back. The Kazakh held for 3-2, then saw a BP of her own a game later to get back to even. Starodubtseva denied her and got the hold for 4-2, but the Rybakina surge was on. She broke to tie the score at 4-4.

But it was then that Starodubtseva held firm. After losing serve in game 8, the Ukrainian lost just one combined *point* in her last two service games in the set, forcing a match tie-break for the 3rd Round.

Things were tied up there at 2-2, but it was the errors (mostly on her forehand side) of Rybakina that ultimately closed the door on the Kazakh in the match, opening it wide for the Ukrainian, who soon led 6-2. Starodubtseva reached *sextuple* MP at 9-3, and on her second opportunity saw Rybakina throw in one final forehand error to end the 10-4 MTB. Starodubtseva won 3-6/6-1/7-6(10-4), posting her first career Top 10 win.



After getting off to a great start to the clay season with a title run in Stuttgart early in the spring, Rybakina couldn't replicate the result once things moved outdoors. Losses to Anastasia Potapova (Madrid 4r) and Svitolina (Rome QF) preceded this disappointing finish, once again pushing back Rybakina's chances to potentially contend for the #1 ranking. Aryna Sabalenka will *at least* stay around 600 points up on her closest competitor in the rankings.

Rybakina's 2nd Round exit makes this the earliest the reigning AO champ has lost in Paris since Naomi Osaka went out in the 2nd Round in 2021. She's the eighth woman's AO champ in the Open era to lose in the 1r/2r at RG.

Next stop: the grass courts of London.

The last remaining Ukrainian to play her 2nd Round match will be Oliynykova, who'll face Pegula-conqueror Kimberly Birrell tomorrow. Birrell is Australian, so Oliynykova will have to win and hope #25 Diana Shnaider does the same in order for her to return to "her element" once again where she'll be able to disparage her opponent both before and immediately after the match, then accuse her of war crimes (or complicity in them) when she's in front of cameras (or alone w/ her phone) well afterward. As is her wont.

BTW, Oliynykova was at it again yesterday after her 1st Round win, declaring that fellow competitors must either comment loudly enough to risk their and their family's lives and/or uproot their existence or else be declared to be responsible for the many deaths in a war they didn't start and can't stop because, well, because she says so. Oh, and she's also back to insufferably stating that those players shouldn't be able to have a tennis career, either. I won't link to or post everything that she said, but you can easily search and find it if you wish.

I must say, though, it's hard to imagine any similar situations -- say, be it race-based or focused on a particular religion, or centered on conflicts/incidents in which either or both of those issues are crucial -- in which a player could do this sort of thing and not face any sort of public or official condemnation from either the tour or other athletes. Yet, here we are. I guess it'll take something really bad happening to a player during a match or on a tournament's grounds (or after they leave them), orchestrated by a "fan" or political actor with similar sentiments that could be traced back to any of the inciting comments and accusations made by Oliynykova, for *someone* with some pull to decide to do anything about it. Of course, by then it'd already be too late.

Personally, I'm still amazed by the incredible restraint shown by the Russian and Belarusian players, and those of other nationalities, who've been targeted in this way for now going on multiple years for something they have no control over, and very little wiggle room when it comes to the things they *can* do. I guess that some haven't lashed out in response to this sort of thing shows how much better *they* understand the situation than those who very loudly declare that *their* way is the *only acceptable* way.

...anyway. Next up, in Iga News...



#3 seed Swiatek's early-round slam prowess continued unsurprisingly today with a 6-2/6-3 win over Sara Bejlek that improved the four-time champion's career RG mark to 42-3, tying Chris Evert for the best start in a woman's first 45 matches in Paris in the Open era.

The *bigger* news concerned her 3rd Round opponent, or more specifically who that person *won't* be.

As (someone) predicted, the potential first RG meeting between Swiatek and #29 Alona Ostapenko will *not* happen, as the '17 champion -- with a 6-0 career mark vs. Swiatek -- fell today to a different Pole, Magda Linette, by a 6-2/2-6/6-2 score.



One would think this development is a good one for Swiatek, and it just might be. But let's not forget that it was countrywoman Linette who ended Swiatek's long streak of opening round matches back in March with a three-set 2nd Round upset in Miami. The two are tied 1-1 on hard court, but have not yet played on clay.

...all right, controversy in 3-2-1... bam.

And, no, it didn't include the aforementioned Ostapenko. It involved Tamara Korpatsch, no stranger to being angered by opponets (or doubles partners) who don't meet a certain standard (hers), and #32 seed Wang Xinyu, (I don't believe) with no real history of skirting rules and/or angering anyone.

Korpatsch's ultimate three-set victory didn't include a post-match handshake -- though their hands were tantalizingly close, maybe out of habit -- because the German was still angry about her Chinese opponent crossing over onto her side of the court to look at and argue a line call (Wang received an unsportsmanlike penalty), with the monent having a *bit* of a shade of the time when Martina Hingis (also at RG) did the same thing quite a while ago.



Well, at least Korpatsch, right or wrong, had a specific, (legitimately) personal (game-related) reason for not wanting to offer Wang the simple competitive courtesy of a handshake. So there's that.

...meanwhile, after saving three MP in the 1st Round vs. Barbora Krejcikova, it was ironically #26-seeded Hailey Baptiste who left this RG today with an injury, retiring down 5-4 in the 1st to qualifier Wang Xiyu (who improves to 26-2 on the year) after falling and crumpling over in pain with a leg injury in the back of the court.

It's Wang's second career slam 3rd Round result (w/ '22 US).



Hopefully Baptiste will be ready to return soon, especially with the North American summer ard court season not that far away.

...well, #13 Jasmine Paolini got a brief reprieve from her '26 match-winning difficulties. But, well, it was *only* brief.



The '24 finalist led Solana Sierra 6-4/4-2 today, but couldn't hold back the Argentine, who came on strong to win six straight games, taking the 2nd set 6-4 and going up 2-0 in the 3rd. Paolini made a stand right then and there, forging six BP opporturtunities in game 3 before Sierra held for a 3-0 edge. Still, the Italian got things back on serve with a break two games later, pulling to within 3-2, only to give the break lead back to Sierra in the following game.

Serving up 5-3, 40/love, Sierra completed the upset on her third MP, reaching the 3rd Round for the first time in Paris with a 4-6/6-4/6-3 victory. Last summer, she reached the Round of 16 at Wimbledon as a lucky loser, but before this RG she'd been a combined 0-4 in her outings at the other three slams.

Sierra posted her first 1000 4th Round result earlier this spring in Madrid, then followed up with a 3rd Round in Rome. Today's win lifts the '22 RG junior finalist over .500 for the season (16-15) and improves her current clay court run to 9-3 since she opened her dirt season with a 1st Round exit in Charleston (which turned out to be the close of what had been an early-season 1-7 slide for the 21-year old).








...27 YEARS AGO... ON DAY 4:

...there was so much more than just Hingis crossing the net to argue a line call.




After that final, Hingis never won another slam singles crown (she'd won five coming into the '99 RG final, including three straight AO), going 0-5 in the last five major singles finals of her career before her *first* retirement in 2002 (which was followed by another in 2007, then another in 2017).

Of course, Hingis ultimately put together a doubles career that was *also* Hall of Famer worthy all on its own even if she'd never played singles. She was enshrined in Newport in 2013.


...ALL HAIL THE QUEEN BEE (coincidentally with the initials "B.B."?)... ON DAY 4:



































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*WORST RG RESULTS BY AO CHAMP IN OPEN ERA*
=1st Round=
1978 Chris O'Neil
1979 Barbara Jordan
2000 Lindsay Davenport
2014 Li Na
2016 Angelique Kerber
=2nd Round=
1987 Hana Mandlikova
2004 Justine Henin
2011 Kim Clijsters
2021 Naomi Osaka
2026 Elena Rybakina

*RECENT RG "CRASH-AND-BURN"*
2018 Alona Ostapenko, LAT (1st Rd., earliest RG DC since '05)
2019 Alona Ostapenko, LAT (1st Rd.; zero RG wins before/after '17 title)
2020 U.S. Open '20 SF (Osaka DNP, Brady 1r, Serena w/d 2r, Azarenka 2r - in 24 hrs)
2021 Ash Barty, AUS and Naomi Osaka, JPN (#1 seed ret. 2r; #2 seed w/d 2r)
2022 Barbora Krejcikova, CZE (1st/DC) and Ons Jabuer, TUN (hottest non-Iga on clay)
2023 Barbora Krejcikova, CZE (0-2 at RG since winning '21 title)
2024 Maria Sakkari, GRE (1st Rd. in 4 of 5 slams)
2025 Emma Navarro, USA (1st Rd.; #9 wins just 1 game vs. Bouzas Maneiro)
2026 #5 Jessie Pegula/USA (1st Rd.) and #2 Elena Rybakina (2nd)

*SWIATEK - RG CAREER HEAD-to-HEAD (42-3)*
3-0 - Coco Gauff, USA
2-0 - Lesia Tsurenko, UKR
2-0 - Marketa Vondrousova, CZE
1-0 - Sara Bejlek, CZE
1-0 - Genie Bouchard, CAN
1-0 - Marie Bouzkova, CZE
1-0 - Cristina Bucsa, ESP
1-0 - Jaqueline Cristian, ROU
1-0 - Beatriz Haddad Maia, BRA
1-0 - Hsieh Su-wei, TPE
1-0 - Selena Janicijevic, FRA
1-0 - Leolia Jeanjean, FRA
1-0 - Emerson Jones, AUS
1-0 - Kaja Juvan, SLO
1-0 - Dasha Kasatkina, RUS
1-0 - Sofia Kenin, USA
1-0 - Anett Kontaveit, EST
1-0 - Marta Kostyuk, UKR
1-0 - Danka Kovinic, MNE
1-0 - Claire Liu, USA
1-0 - Karolina Muchova, CZE
1-0 - Naomi Osaka, JPN
1-0 - Jasmine Paolini, ITA
1-0 - Jessie Pegula, USA
1-0 - Rebecca Peterson, SWE
1-0 - Nadia Podoroska, ARG
1-0 - Anastasia Potapova, RUS
1-0 - Monica Puig, PUR
1-0 - Emma Raducanu, GBR
1-0 - Alison Riske-Amritraj, USA
1-0 - Elena Rybakina, KAZ
1-0 - Rebecca Sramkova, SVK
1-0 - Elina Svitolina, UKR
1-0 - Martina Trevisan, ITA
1-0 - Wang Qinwen, CHN
1-0 - Wang Xinyu, CHN
1-0 - Zheng Qinwen, CHN
1-1 - Simona Halep, ROU
0-1 - Aryna Sabalenka, BLR
0-1 - Maria Sakkari, GRE
--
7-0 - USA
5-0 - CZE
4-0 - UKR
3-0 - CHN
2-0 - FRA
2-0 - ITA
2-0 - RUS
1-0 - ARG
1-0 - AUS
1-0 - BRA
1-0 - CAN
1-0 - ESP
1-0 - EST
1-0 - GBR
1-0 - JPN
1-0 - KAZ
1-0 - MNE
1-0 - PUR
1-0 - SLO
1-0 - SVK
1-0 - SWE
1-0 - TPE
2-1 - ROU
0-1 - BLR
0-1 - GRE

*LONG WTA (MD+BJK only) WINNING STREAKS - 2020s*
37 - Iga Swiatek (2022)
21 - Iga Swiatek (2024)
18 - Iga Swiatek (2023-24)
17 - Simona Halep (2020)
16 - Coco Gauff (2023)
16 - Madison Keys (2025)
15 - Danielle Collins (2024)
15 - Aryna Sabalenka (2024)
15 - Aryna Sabalenka (2026) 14 - MARTA KOSTYUK (2026, through 2nd Rd.)





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Saw someone say the world is a boring place because there are no elves or dragons, so I'm legally obliged to share this:

[image or embed]

— Boze the Library Owl (@sketchesbyboze.bsky.social) March 17, 2026 at 7:24 PM


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They stole the internet’s knowledge and all the work that went into it and they want to sell it back to us for a fee. What a business model.

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— Denny Carter (@dennycarter.bsky.social) May 26, 2026 at 3:45 PM











TOP QUALIFIER: Claire Liu/USA
TOP EARLY-ROUND (1r-2r): x
TOP MIDDLE-ROUND (3r-QF): x
TOP LATE-ROUND (SF-F): x
TOP QUALIFYING MATCH: Q1: Oceane Dodin/FRA (PR) def. Kayla Day/USA 6-4/2-6/7-6(15-13) - saved 2 MP in TB, wins on MP #5
TOP EARLY-RD. MATCH (1r-2r): x
TOP MIDDLE-RD. MATCH (3r-QF): x
TOP LATE-RD. MATCH (SF-F/Jr.-WC): x
=============================
FIRST VICTORY: #27 Marie Bouzkova/CZE (def. Bronzetti/ITA)
FIRST SEED OUT: #21 Clara Tauson/DEN (1r - lost to Snigur/UKR)
FIRST SLAM MD WINS: Susan Bandecchi/SUI (1st MD), Marina Bassols Ribera/ESP (2nd MD), Francesca Jones/GBR (7th MD), Oleksandra Oliynykova/UKR (2nd MD), Kaitlin Quevedo/ESP (1st MD), Antonia Ruzic/CRO (3rd MD)
UPSET QUEENS: Switzerland
REVELATION LADIES: Poland (4-0 1st Rd. in consecutive '26 majors)
NATION OF POOR SOULS: FRA (none of 14 in Q-draw reach MD; wild cards go 0-6 year after WC Boisson to SF; 2-7 1st Rd.; Boisson out 1r)
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: in 2r: Susan Bandecchi/SUI, Marina Bassols Ribera/ESP(L), Maja Chwalinska/POL, Alina Korneeva/RUS, Claire Liu/USA, Kaitlin Quevedo/ESP(L), Mayar Sherif/EGY, Wang Xiyu/CHN(W)
LUCKY LOSER WINS: --
LAST WILD CARD STANDING: 0-8 in 1st Rd. (including 0-5 FRA)
PROTECTED RANKING WINS: Jil Teichmann/SUI (in 3r)
LAST PASTRY STANDING: in 2r: Elsa Jacquemot, Diane Parry
Ms./Mademoiselle OPPORTUNITY: x
IT "??": x
COMEBACK: x
CRASH & BURN: #5 Jessie Pegula/USA (1r- lost to #83 Birrell, who'd lost 9 con. slam 1r matches and 3-13 career; Pegula led by 6-1/2-1 w/ break; second 1r loss in major since RG20) and #2 Elena Rybakina/KAZ (AO champ out 2r in 3rd set TB to #55 Starodubtseva)
ZOMBIE QUEEN OF PARIS: Nominees: Svitolina (1r- trailed Bondar 3-1 in 3rd; avoided first 1r RG loss in 13 app.); Sierra (2r- trailed Paolini 6-4/4-2)
DOUBLES STAR: x
VETERAN PLAYER (KIMIKO CUP): x
Mademoiselle/Madame OF THE EVENING: --
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: x
Legion de Lenglen: 100th anniversary of Suzanne Lenglen's last "grand slam" titles (RG WS/WD/MX sweep) in 1926 (she'd retire after controversial Wimbledon withdrawal and join professional tour that summer)
Coupe LA PETIT TAUREAU: (award given on Henin's birthday, June 1)








All for Day 4. More tomorrow.
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