Our Sara Errani @ Roland Garros 2016 with coach Pablo Lozano ©Tonelli
The Grand Slam Tournament that officially validated the presence of our warrior Sara Errani in the tennis history books in front of the whole world has been repeatedly knocking the door of the Tour. Unfortunately, it brings along not so easygoing guests.
Finally we are in Paris, the city of love, luxury food…and clay of course. As usual this time of the year the French capital gets ready to host the second Grand Slam event after the Australian Open: the Parc des Princes, home of the PSG football team, that usually stands tall on its quieter relative throughout the whole season, leaves the spotlight in favour of the Roland Garros!
As we just said, 2016 edition is very likely to start on the left foot, as is its turn – right after the internazionali BNL d’Italia – to face the consequences of a abnormal cyclone that is not willing to stop until the end of the first week of play. Paris, just like Rome, hasn’t got a roof to play under safe conditions and someone didn’t miss the chance to point that out in front of the whole Tour on Twitter yesterday.
Besides the shenanigans between Grand Slam’s Directions, the focus point for us is knowing to notice how the rain will affect Sarita’s playing conditions. The courts are apparently heavier this year and the humidity in the air gets along with the new balls by Babolat – seemingly way softer than the former ones.
Nevertheless, here comes a good news from Singles draw at last: our Sarita will be the n.16 seed thanks to the absence of Flavia Pennetta – officially retired – and the Swiss Belinda Bencic, still facing some back pains. Relying on this ranking upgrade the Queen of Dubai can crash into the toughest part fo the draw way more gently and secure a much safer first round against Tsevetana Pironkova: the Bulgarian – n.106 in world rankings – would affirm she have experienced better seasons (nd. like 2010 when she managed to close the year as WTA’s n.35), but still, she can be proud of a good semifinal achieved in San Antonio and a main draw reached in Dubai starting from Qualifications.
The two never confronted on clay, however, there are already 3 meetings in their match record, and it goes to our Sara Errani (2-1), who defeated her opponent early this year in Qatar, Doha, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3. Even thought Sarita’s first match has been scheduled tomorrow on Court10 as 3rd match starting from 11am, the weather forecast is rather skeptical about it.
