2 dark-horse candidates to watch for in the women’s draw of the French Open
The second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open, is set to begin in less than a week, as the tournament kicks off in Paris on the 30th. There are plenty of big names in the women’s field, which include defending champion Iga Swiatek, 2019 French Open champion Ash Barty, and 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams.
Even with these big names in the tournament, there is no clear favorite, and there is a strong likelihood that there will be a ton of upsets, and that we could see a few players outside the top 20 in the world make a run to the quarters or semis. Here are two players in specific that are outside the top 20 that I believe can make a deep run and will be dark horses to watch out for at the French.
Coco Gauff
This is a fairly easy pick to make, as Gauff is currently playing like a top 10 player in the world. I can definitely see Coco Gauff making the quarters or semis of this tournament and give her a small possibility of actually winning the French.
Gauff is playing the best tennis of her career right now, and is coming off of her second career title, and first of 2021, taking the title in Parma at the Emilia-Romagna Open. On her way to the title, she defeated many high-quality players which included Kaia Kanepi, Amanda Anisimova, and Qiang Wang. Gauff only dropped one set the entire tournament, which came in the semi-finals to Katerina Siniakova. Gauff also won the title in the doubles, playing alongside best friend Catherine McNally.
Gauff has only played the French Open once in her career, which was last year where she made the second round, losing to qualifier Martina Trevisan. Gauff did have a big win in the first round though, where she took out the nine seed Johanna Konta in straight sets.
Her results in her last two tournaments should give Gauff a ton of confidence coming into the French. She has won nine of her last 10 matches, with the only loss coming in the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 event in Rome, where she lost to the eventual champion Iga Swiatek. I believe that the only players that are currently in a better form coming into the French Open are Swiatek and Barty, and are the only players that can beat Gauff right now even if she is playing her best tennis. I think Gauff will use the momentum of her last two tournaments to make a deep run at the French. Although I do not expect her to win, I think there is a good chance she will make her first career Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Paula Badosa
One name that is probably not on most people’s radars, but should be, is Paula Badosa. She is a 23-year-old from Spain, and her ranking has shot up as of late as she continues to play well on clay in 2021.
Badosa is currently at her career high ranking of number 34 in the world, jumping 10 spots in this week’s rankings after winning the title in Belgrade at the Serbia Ladies Open. It was Badosa’s first career title and will give her plenty of confidence going into next week’s French Open.
In the three tournaments she has played on clay this year, she has made it to at least the semi-finals in each one. She already has a ton of big wins on clay this year, defeating Belinda Bencic, Anastasija Sevastova, Jil Teichmann, and world number one Ash Barty. At the beginning of the clay court season, she was ranked 71 in the world, and now heading into the French Open not even two months later, she has cut her ranking in half.
Badosa did not perform her best in the Australian Open this year, losing in the first round, but has already had a great performance at the French. In last year’s tournament, Badosa made a run all the way to the round of 16, defeating Sloane Stephens and Jelena Ostapenko before losing to Laura Siegemund. I believe we will see a similar deep run from the 23-year-old and believe that she will top last year’s run by making it to the quarterfinals.