Lob and Smash
Fansided

French Open: Women’s QF Predictions

By Jake Fletcher

facebooktwitterreddit

French Open: Who will take their chance? Bacsinszky or Uytvanck?

The quarter finals of the top half of the French Open are set. American, Serena Williams will play Italian, Sara Errani and believe it or not, the Swiss, Timea Bacsinszky will face Belgian, Alison Van Uytvanck. Unsurprisingly, I only predicted Williams to reach the quarters.

Here are my predictions as to who will reach the semi finals.

(Rank/Seed)

(1/1) Serena Williams vs (17/17) Sara Errani

Serena should think about becoming an escapologist when she retires. For a third straight time this tournament she was forced to recover from a set behind, beating Sloane Stephens 16 75 63 in the 4th round. It looked as if Williams was half asleep through the first set and a half and was forced to hold serve to remain in the event. Still, the former two time champion survived again and it seems only a matter of time before everything slots into place.

Once again, Sara has rekindled her best form in Paris, reaching at least the quarters for a fourth successive year. As I predicted, she was much too solid for Julia Goerges in the 4th round, causing the German to run out of ideas as she ploughed through 62 62.

Serena dominates the head to head 8-0, including five clay court meetings. However, when they met recently on the clay during the Fed Cup in Italy, Errani won a set from Serena for only the second time and was just two points away from winning the match when serving at 64 5-4. She went on to lose 46 76(3) 63.

More from French Open

I feel that now’s the time Serena will start taking this event seriously and up her game. Errani’s serve is extremely attackable and without a big weapon, I just don’t see how the Italian will be able to make any impression. She will have to hope that Serena continues to play zombie-like tennis, otherwise it will be curtains for Sara.

Prediction- Serena Williams

(24/23) Timea Bacsinszky vs (93/-) Alison Van Uytvanck

Timea must feel like pinching herself. Last year, she was ranked 112 and lost as a qualifier in the 2nd round to Carla Suarez Navarro. Now, she’s guaranteed herself a place in her first Grand Slam quarter final and the top 20. In the 4th round, Timea ousted Wimbledon champion, (4/4) Petra Kvitova 26 60 63. Despite a rough first set, Timea never gave in. Playing more aggressively, she caused Petra to feel ill at ease, the Czechs power game completely breaking down as control and imagination deserted her.

If Timea’s dreaming, then Alison must be living a fairy-tale. Who’d have thought she’d somehow work her way through to the quarters, when she’d only ever won one main draw match in a slam before? Following in the footsteps of her great compatriots, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, she was calm and collected in the 4th round, handling the occasion better than another surprise package, Andreea Mitu to win 61 63.

The two have never met before. Timea has much more tour level experience, having won 3 titles, compiled a 15 match winning streak earlier this year and beaten the likes of Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova and Li Na. However, can she handle the pressure of being the favourite against a relative unknown?

Either way, both women should just enjoy this opportunity and make the most of it. After all, who’d envisaged either player as a potential French Open semi finalist?

Prediction- Timea Bacsinszky

Next: French Open: Women's QF Predictions- Top Half

More from Lob and Smash

Home/French Open