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Sunday, September 27, 2020

RG.1- Simona Halep Day

Simona Halep is (newly) 29 years old, still undefeated in the Restart... and coming for you, Coupe Suzanne-Lenglen.



Every year, Backspin awards the Coupe La Petit Taureau on June 1, Justine Henin's birthday, during Roland Garros to the player who best exhibits traits similar to, a drive to win in Paris comparable with that of, and/or just about anything or anyone that might bring to mind the Belgian Hall of Famer -- the very first "Face of Backspin" -- on that particular day. Well, needless to say, since it's currently late September and they're playing clay court tennis on the terre battue, that wasn't going to be the case in 2020. (Thanks, 2020.)

Ah, but never underestimate Simona Halep.

Arriving in Paris undefeated and having collected two clay court titles during the recent tennis Restart, the Romanian assumed the #1 women's seed due to the ongoing absence of top-ranked and defending RG champ Ash Barty. As things would have it, Halep was scheduled to play on Day 1. Oh, yeah... and September 27th in Simona's 29th birthday.

(I think you can see where this is going, eh?)

In the first women's match to take place (second overall) underneath the new roof on Court Chatrier on Sunday, Halep opened her play for the eleventh time in a Roland Garros women's singles draw, this time against Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo. In the super heavy conditions, the Romanian was a little slow in adjusting to the new environment. Oh, but when she did.



After falling behind 3-1, Halep made her special day a celebratory occasion. When it was all over a short time later, she'd won eleven of the final twelve games, including the last nine to win 6-4/6-0 and improve her career mark in Paris to 29-9, extending her career-best winning streak to 15 matches (11-0 in the Restart) dating back to her pre-shutdown title run in Dubai in February.

The streak matches Barty's season-best streak from 2019, with both being the longest on tour since Victoria Azarenka won 16 in a row back in '16. Prior to that, the best seen on the WTA landscape is Serena Williams' 34-match (!!) run in 2013.

So, yeah, Simona gets the Coupe LPT, after all. On Justine Henin Day, umm, "Simona Halep Day."



Ah, but is just *one* cup enough for Simona this year? One would think not. Thus, I repeat...

Coupe S-L, she's coming for you...





The rest of the field is now officially tasked with preventing said rendezvous, a fateful second meeting that would also return the Romanian to the #1 ranking for the first time since January of last year.

Good luck (and happy birthday) to Simona. And good luck to all the rest.





=DAY 1 NOTES=
...while Halep was the first woman to win on Chatrier in 2020, Russian qualifier Kamilla Rakhimova was the first woman to post a MD win at this year's Roland Garros.



Just two days after qualifying to reach her maiden slam MD, in just her second career tour-level MD match (after Jurmala in July of last year), the 19-year old make quick work of Shelby Rogers 6-2/6-3 to win her first official WTA match. Rogers is a former RG quarterfinalist (2016), and also reached the Final 8 at this year's U.S. Open. The win pushes Rakhimova into the Top 150 (previous CH #177) for the first time in the live rankings.

It's been an exciting few days for the GenPDQ Hordette...



...on a cold, wet and heavy day in Paris, #10-seeded Victoria Azarenka was cold and wet, and saw her 1st Round match with Danka Kovinic stopped (albeit briefly) after just three games because of it. But the Belarusian woman allowed just three games to the Montenegran, then bundled up in her winter coat (well, maybe not a coat fit for a *Belarusian* winter, but still) and left Court Suzanne Lenglen, hoping for a little more sun to (literally) shine down on her the next time she appears on the terre battue



After having arrived at Flushing Meadows five weeks ago without a tour-level singles win in a year, Azarenka has since racked up a total of fifteen. It was thought (not in this corner, but in some) that she *may* face Venus Williams -- her third Williams Sisters match-up in recent weeks -- in the 2nd Round.

But that won't be happening. Instead it'll be Vika's first Schmiedy.



Playing with a protected ranking, and coming off a WTA 125 Series QF in Prague and her first MD tour win (in Istanbul) since, well, she defeated Venus Williams in Monterrey in March, Anna Karolina Schmiedlova offed the 40-year old future Hall of Famer again, 6-4/6-4, to improve her record in their head-to-head to 3-1. AKS also delivered Venus' RG walking papers in Paris in 2014 en route to the 3rd Round, so she's now sort of a "Pironkova lite" figure in Venus' career bio. The win ends the Slovak's 12-match slam MD losing streak and is her first in a major since the 2015 U.S. Open.

For Williams, it's her third straight 1st Round loss in a slam, and her fifth in the last six majors. With her 0-3 season record in slams, 2020 (being all 2020-like) marks the first season in Venus' slam career in which she didn't record a MD win in the AO, RG, SW19 *or* U.S.. Actually, she's gotten at least *two* per year for the past 23 seasons, dating back to 1997. Her previous few was two wins in 2012. Williams won as many as a combined 20 as recently as 2017, and had a career-best 22 back in 2002.

...after five seeds had managed to advance on Day 1, #17 Anett Kontaveit ended the chalky run as the first Pastry to post a win in Paris this year -- Carolina Garcia -- made the Estonian the First Seed Out. Garcia ousted #1 seed Karolina Pliskova in the 2nd Round at the recent U.S. Open.



Garcia rallied from a break down twice in the 3rd set to win 6-4/3-6/6-4 today, ending what had been a good recent stretch in majors from Kontaveit. The Estonian reached her maiden slam QF at this year's Australian Open, and had reached at least the 3rd Round in eight of twelve slams, including her first U.S. Open Round of 16 in five years earlier this month.

...the first Top 10 women's seed was ousted late in the afternoon, as 16-year old Coco Gauff, the '18 RG girls champ making her RG women's debut, knocked off #9-seeded 2019 semifinalist Johanna Konta, 6-3/6-3.



Konta's career run at Roland Garros: 1r-1r-1r-1r-SF-1r.

via GIPHY



...last year, Australian Ash Barty surged to her maiden slam title at Roland Garros. But with the former cricketeer (and recent title-winning golfer) sitting out the whole of the Restart, Aussies went 0-5 at this year's U.S. Open, with former winner Sam Stosur also absent after deciding to stay at home with her and her partner's new infant.

The same scenario presents itself at this *second* Restart slam, so was it possible the nation from which the WTA's current #1 hails might go *two* majors without a victory? It seemed logical that that *wouldn't* be likely to happen again. In fact, the thought turned out to be Astra-logical. (wink, wink)

Of course, in the form of the veritable spirit animal of 2020, it took a lucky loser (and Vanderbilt NCAA product) to lift Australian tennis off the unexpected scrap heap, as Astra Sharma posted just her second career MD win in a major (in eight slam matches) on Sunday by edging Russian Anna Blinkova via a late break of serve to win 6-3/2-6/7-5.



The RG MD opened with four Aussies, and Ajla Tomljanovic and Maddison Inglis both lost today (but not the fourth... more on that in a second).

Sharma was the only lucky loser of the 2020 slam season, what with none coming about in Melbourne, then Wimbledon being cancelled and the U.S. Open cutting the Q-rounds. Her win extends the streak to eighteen WTA seasons (since 2003) in which at least one LL has posted a MD win at a major. The last to reach the 3rd Round was Bernarda Pera at the '18 AO, and the last to do so in Paris was Ons Jabeur in '17 (she was the first since '96). The last to reach the Round of 16 was Argentina's Maria Jose Gaidano at the '93 U.S. Open.

The *fourth* Aussie -- Dasha Gavrilova (in w/ a protected ranking in her first slam since last year's U.S. Open) -- pulled off her biggest win in ages, upsetting #24 Dayana Yastremka on Court 10 in a late-in-the-day match via a 6-4/6-3 score for her first slam win in two years, and tour-level MD win in fourteen months.



She'll next face wild card Genie Bouchard, who defeated Anna Kalinskaya 6-4/6-4, coming back from a break down in both sets to record her first MD win in Paris since 2017. The Canadian reached the semifinals in 2014, but had gone just 2-4 (and lost in the Q1 another year) since.



Qualifier Martina Trevisan notched her first career slam win when fellow Italian Camila Giorgi retired in the 2nd set, as did fellow qualifier Nadia Podoroska (ARG) with a victory over Greet Minnen.

...on the ITF circuit, Beatriz Haddad Maia reached her fourth straight challenger final in her return from suspension, winning title #3 in the $15K Porto, POR event with a 6-3/6-2 win over fellow Brazilian Ingrid Gamarra Martins.



In Prerov, CZE it was Bannerette Grace Min defeating Georgina Garcia Perez (the player who defeated Haddad in that fourth final a few weeks ago, saving multiple MP) 6-3/0-6/7-5 for her 12th career circuit win.

...once again, I'm going the "unnamed semifinalist predictions" route since it worked out so well at the U.S. Open. None of my four picks -- three of which are double-digit seeds, by the way -- exited today. I'll update as things go (or they go out, whichever comes first).




...COME ON, ROLAND GARROS (and Daniela), YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT ON DAY 1:


...LIKE ON DAY 1:

Fit for Court Lenglen... even if it was on Simonne-Mathieu.




...WONDERING ON DAY 1:

...if doing a Wimbledon "And finally..." with Beatles covers would be interesting.



..."WHEN IS ELECTION DAY, AGAIN?" ON DAY 1:


..."WHEN IS ELECTION DAY, AGAIN?" ON DAY 1:


...LIKE ON DAY 1:


...THIS GOVERNOR SHOULDN'T BE A UNICORN... ON DAY 1:

But that's what happens when a political party turns into a cult of personality, I guess.



...I GUESS WE NOW HAVE DIRECT EVIDENCE REGARDING WHY ROLAND GARRO IS PLAYED IN THE SPRING ON DAY 1:

Meanwhile, 42% of U.S. voters (and 95% of Republicans) now apparently believe that Roland Garros should be played in November every year.



...STILL THE MOST ASININE TENNIS TV IDEA ON DAY 1:

That, even with an off-schedule Roland Garros (the only slam not covered by ESPN in the U.S.), Tennis Channel continues to force people to commit to a $100+ one-year subscription to Tennis Channel Plus in order to get all-court coverage during this major, rather than a two-week (or even one-month) short-term buy that would *surely* garner *more* subscriptions to the service than it could ever possibly get by forcing people to pay for twelve months (two or three of which will be almost live tennis-free during the offseason).

Oh, and now the new ads have the gall to note that with a subscription you'd get "next year's Roland Garros," as if it's some sort of bonus or something. As long as the 2021 RG is held in the spring, as it usually would be, it'd fall within the year-long window anyway.

...Hmmm... ON DAY 1:

Is it the "traditional Sunday start," or the "non-tradional" one?


...LIKE ON DAY 1:

On Tennis Channel, Martina Navratilova being shocked as she remembered that there's no final set tie-break at Roland Garros, and then her irritation in noting that the rules are different at all four majors.

I actually like that little detail. Tennis was 2020 before 2020 was 2020.

...SLIGHT WORRY ON DAY 1:

Like Court Chatrier, Court Suzanne Lenglen is also set to have a retractable roof in 2023, in order to host matches during the Summer Olympics in Paris the following year. Seeing the totally different feel -- and dark atmosphere -- of a closed-roof Chatrier on television, I wonder if such a thing will ruin the smooth, clean asthetic that Lenglen (much like its namesake) currently sports.



Roland Garros itself calls Lenglen "the most intimate" of the tournament's show courts, but there's a fine line between "intimate" and "claustrophobic."

...LIKE ON DAY 1:

The Catch II.




...LIKE ON DAY 1:




Dogs, cats and Papa! Oh my!
Dogs, cats and Papa! Oh my!











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*RECENT RG "FIRST VICTORY" HONORS*
2009 Li Na/CHN (d. Domachowska/POL) & A.Pavlyuchenkova/RUS (d. Olaru/ROU)
2010 Dominika Cibulkova/SVK (def. Ivanova/RUS)
2011 Simona Halep/ROU (def. Kudryavtseva/RUS)
2012 Samantha Stosur/AUS (def. Baltacha/GBR)
2013 Sara Errani/ITA (def. Rus/NED)
2014 Aga Radwanska/POL (def. Sh.Zhang/CHN)
2015 Teliana Pereira/BRA (def. Ferro/FRA)
2016 A.Pavlyuchenkova/RUS (def. Sorribes Tormo/ESP)
2017 Petra Kvitova/CZE (def. Boserup/USA)
2018 Ekaterina Makarova/RUS (def. Sai.Zheng/CHN)
2019 Petra Martic/CRO (def. Jabeur/TUN)
2020 Kamilla Rakhimova/RUS (def. Rogers/USA)

*RECENT RG "FIRST SEED OUT"*
2005 #25 Dinara Safina/RUS (Razzano/FRA)
2006 #18 Elena Likhovtseva/RUS (Sprem/CRO)
2007 #31 Severine Bremond/FRA (Krajicek/NED)
2008 #15 Nicole Vaidisova/CZE (Benesova/CZE)
2009 #19 Kaia Kanepi/EST (Shvedova/KAZ)
2010 #10 Victoria Azarenka/BLR (Dulko/ARG)
2011 #19 Shahar Peer/ISR (Martinez-Sanchez/ESP)
2012 #30 Mona Barthel/GER (Davis/USA)
2013 #11 Nadia Petrova/RUS (Puig/PUR)
2014 #25 Kaia Kanepi/EST (Niculescu/ROU)
2015 #31 Caroline Garcia/FRA (Vekic/CRO)
2016 #32 Alona Ostapenko/LAT (Osaka/JPN)
2017 #31 Roberta Vinci/ITA (Puig/PUR)
2018 #9 Venus Williams/USA (Q.Wang/CHN)
2019 #5 Angelique Kerber/GER (Potapova/RUS)
2020 #17 Anett Kontaveit/EST (Garcia/FRA)

*RECENT BEST SLAM "LUCKY LOSER" RESULTS*
2003 WI: Arantxa Parra-Santonja, ESP (2nd)
2004 AO: Lindsay Lee-Waters, USA (2nd)
2005 WI: Severine Beltrame, FRA (2nd)
2005 US: Maria Antonia Sanchez Lorenzo, ESP (2nd)
2006 US: Nicole Pratt, AUS (2nd)
2006 RG: Kirsten Flipkens, BEL (2nd)
2007 WI: Alize Cornet, FRA (2nd)
2008 US: Mariana Duque-Marino, COL (2nd)
2009 RG: Mariana Duque-Marino, COL (2nd)
2009 WI: Kristina Kucova, SVK (2nd)
2010 RG: Bethanie Mattek-Sands, USA (2nd)
2011 WI: Stephanie Dubois, CAN (2nd)
2012 RG: Sesil Karatantcheva, KAZ (2nd)
2013 US: Patricia Mayr-Achleitner, AUT (2nd)
2014 AO: Irina Falconi, USA (2nd)
2015 US: Dasha Kasatkina, RUS (3rd)
2016 WI: Duan Yingying, CHN (2nd)
2017 RG: Ons Jabeur, TUN (3rd)
2018 AO: Bernarda Pera, USA (3rd)
2019 WI: Lauren Davis, USA (3rd)
2019 US: Kirsten Flipkens, BEL (2nd)
2020 RG: Astra Sharma, AUS...in 2nd Rd.

*MOST RECENT SLAM 3rd Rd.+ "LL" RESULTS*
=AO=
3rd Rd. - Sandra Kleinova, CZE (1997)
3rd Rd. - Bernarda Pera, USA (2018)
=RG=
3rd Rd. - Veronika Martinek, GER (1995)
3rd Rd. - Gloria Pizzichini, ITA (1996)
3rd Rd. - Ons Jabeur, TUN (2017)
=WI=
3rd Rd. - Tine Zwaan, NED (1974)
3rd Rd. - Lauren Davis, USA (2019)
=US=
4th Rd. - Maria Jose Gaidano, ARG (1993)
3rd Rd. - Dasha Kasatkina, RUS (2015)

*Coupe LA PETIT TAUREAU WINNERS*
2016 Yulia Putintseva, KAZ
2017 Elina Svitolina, UKR
2018 Mihaela Buzarnescu, ROU
2019 Simona Halep, ROU
2020 Simona Halep, ROU

*2020 ITF TITLE LEADERS
3 - BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA, BRA
3 - Nadia Podoroska, ARG
3 - Zheng Qinwen, CHN
2 - Nefisa Berberovic, BIH
2 - Cindy Burger, NED
2 - Federica Di Sarra, ITA
2 - Ingrid Gamarra Martins, BRA
2 - Yuliya Hatouka, BLR
2 - Maddison Inglis, AUS
2 - Nina Potocnik, SLO
2 - Ankita Raina, IND
2 - Clara Tauson, DEN

*2020 WEEKLY BACKSPIN PLAYERS OF THE WEEK*
Week 1: Serena Williams, USA
Week 2: Ash Barty, AUS
AO Q: Ann Li, USA
AO: Sofia Kenin, USA
Fed Cup WG MVP: Aliaksandra Sasnovich, BLR
Fed Cup Zones MVP: Dayana Yastremska, UKR
Week 6: Kiki Bertens, NED
Week 7: Simona Halep, ROU
Week 8: Aryna Sabalenka, BLR
Week 9: Elina Svitolina, UKR
Restart Week 1: Fiona Ferro, FRA
Restart Week 2: Jennifer Brady, USA
Off-week: Diede de Groot, NED (WC)
Restart Week 3: Victoria Azarenka, BLR
Restart Wk.4/5: Patricia Maria Tig, ROU
US Open: Naomi Osaka, JPN
Restart Week 6: Simona Halep, ROU
Restart Week 7: Elina Svitolina, UKR





TOP QUALIFIER: Mayar Sherif/EGY (first EGY woman in slam MD)
TOP EARLY-ROUND (1r-2r): xx
TOP MIDDLE-ROUND (3r-QF): xx
TOP LATE-ROUND (SF-F): xx
TOP QUALIFYING MATCH: Q1: #17q Barbara Haas/AUT def. Diana Snigur/UKR 6-0/5-7/7-5 [Haas led 6-0/5-0 40/30, then DF; won on 4th MP on 5th attempt to serve out match]
TOP EARLY-RD. MATCH (1r-2r): xx
TOP MIDDLE-RD. MATCH (3r-QF): xx
TOP LATE-RD. MATCH (SF-F/Jr.): xx
=============================
FIRST VICTORY: Kamilla Rakhimova/RUS (def.Rogers/USA)
FIRST SEED OUT: #17 Anett Kontaveit/EST (1st Rd./Garcia)
FIRST SLAM MD WINS: Podoroska/ARG, Rakhimova/RUS, Trevisan/ITA
UPSET QUEENS: xx
REVELATION LADIES: xx
NATION OF POOR SOULS: xx
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: Day 1 wins: Podoroska, Rakhimova, Trevisan (+LL Sharma)
LAST WILD CARD STANDING: Day 1 wins: Bouchard
PROTECTED RANKING WINS: Day 1 wins: Gavrilova, AK.Schmiedlova
LAST PASTRY STANDING: Day 1 wins: Garcia
Ms. OPPORTUNITY: xx
IT "??": xx
COMEBACK PLAYER: xx
CRASH & BURN: xx
ZOMBIE QUEEN OF PARIS: xx
DOUBLES STAR: xx
VETERAN PLAYER (KIMIKO CUP): xx
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: xx
Légion de Lenglen HONOREE: Nominee: Chatrier court roof
LADY OF THE EVENING: potential award in first year where night tennis possible
Coupe LA PETIT TAUREAU: Simona Halep/ROU [not able to be awarded on LPT Day/June 1, Justine Henin's birthday -- but Halep wins on Day 1 on *her* own birthday]




All for Day 1. More tomorrow.
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