With no action taking place at all on Monday from the 2016 French Open, tournament organizers didn’t seem to be too keen on letting another day pass by. Numerous matches in the men’s and women’s singles draw saw at least some action unfold in what was very wet and soggy conditions.
Completed matches were few, however, two of the women’s high seeds both saw elimination in the fourth round. For starters, Simona Halep went out to Sam Stosur while Agnieszka Radwanska went out to Tsvetana Pironkova. In my view, both of these upsets can be explained in terms of the wet conditions that the matches were played under.
In rain, the tennis ball is slightly heavier than normal as it absorbs some water. Due to that, you would think that a heftily-built tennis player would have an advantage over the much more common slimmer-built players when it comes to shot control.
Halep and Radwanska do not fit the bill when it comes to being power lifters and that may be what took them out of the tournament. Stosur, on the other hand, takes the cake on tour as the most muscular woman not named Serena. In regard to Pironkova, she’s no Stosur, but she looks a lot physically stronger than Radwanska.
Stosur and Pironkova both had come-from-behind wins on Tuesday in matches that originally began on the weekend. Stosur trailed by one break at the start of the day, but in the wet conditions she stormed to a straight-sets victory. Pironkova had a ton of work to do in her match as she was down a set and a break at the start of the day. However, she rallied to win 12 of the 14 games that were played and secured a three-set victory. The two players, Stosur and Pironkova, will meet in the quarterfinals with the former being the more experienced player when it comes to winning big matches on tour.
No other matches saw completion in the men’s and women’s singles. At the suspension of play Marcel Granollers and Dominic Thiem were tied 1-1, Novak Djokovic lead Roberto Bautista-Agut 3-6, 6-4, 4-1, Ernests Gulbis lead lead David Goffin 3-0, while David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych were on serve early.
All the courts have loaded schedules for Wednesday as Roland Garros is supposed to be completed by Sunday evening. There’s no law of nature preventing them from playing on Monday though and often finals of the US Open are played a day late.
If there are any kind of damp conditions to deal with on Wednesday then I think Serena Williams will have an edge due to it, Stan Wawrinka will have an edge, and Andy Murray will have an edge. Each of those players is much more built for keeping a heavier ball under control, keeping in mind that Grand Slam tennis doesn’t afford much margin for error in the mid-to-late rounds.