Sloane Stephens
Yulia Putintseva will take on Sloane Stephens of the US in the third round of the French Open
Sloane Stephens has come into this tournament at the back of some really good form during the clay-court season. She won the WTA 125K Saint Malo tournament earlier in May and reached the Semi-finals of the Morocco Open last week. The American has carried forward the good form to Paris and has made a good start to her French Open campaign.
She began her journey with a 6-0, 6-4 win against No.16 seed Karolina Pliskova in the first round. The former World No.3 then went on to get the better of Russia’s Varvara Gracheva in a convincing fashion to progress to the third round.
Stephens’ best-ever result at the French Open was the runners-up finish in 2018 and she will be aiming to better that feat. However, she is not quite in her prime and it remains to be seen if her body can cope with the demands of the elite level as she continues to progress deeper into the tournament.
Putintseva has been impressive so far at the French Open. She began her campaign with a convincing 7-5, 7-6 victory against Maryna Zanevska and followed it up with a commendable win over No.19 seed Qinwen Zheng. The Kazakhstan star is currently ranked World No.51 in women’s singles and she has certainly given a good account of herself in Paris. However, the job only gets tougher from here on and it remains to be seen if Putintseva has what it takes to progress further in the tournament.
Date – Friday, 2nd June
Court Type – Clay outdoor surface
Telecast – Tennis Channel
Start Time – To be Announced
Location – Paris
Match details – Third Round
Stephens and Putintseva have played each other five times before on the WTA tour. Both players know each other’s game pretty well. All matches have been closely fought but Putintseva has the slight upper hand and leads 3-2 on head to head. It’s a difficult match to call as both players have similar playing styles and the performance on that particular day is likely to make a difference. We are predicting an intense encounter with Sloane Stephens eventually coming out on top in three sets.
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