Monday was a second day of Roland Garros 2023 with another 20 WTA matches played to complete the first round in bottom half, and start the competition in top half of the main draw.
The fortune finally smiles to Osorio
Camila Osorio was the unluckiest player from whole the qualifying field. The Colombian has needed to play against an exciting in-form player Mirra Andreeva in the final round of qualies, despite being seeded as the number one here. The top seed should be also be some kind of guarantee in terms of looking for the opportunity to jump into main draw as the lucky loser. Unfortunately, the Colombian was just the only one of 6 players considered as possible LLs not to make it through until Monday's morning. Then, Caty Mcnally has withdrawn just ahead of her match against Ana Bogdan, and the Colombian could finally find her place in the main draw of this year's Roland Garros in quite a winnable match-up for her. Osorio was a pre-match favorite related to odds, but lost the opening set 3-6. Bogdan was even leading with a break in second set, but the Colombian has fought back from the score 1-2* to win a set 6-3 and force the decider.
Third set was a true rollercoaster. Osorio has seemingly capitalized the momentum and moved into the comfortable 5-1 lead. The Romanian did not give up though, and won 4 games in a row, defending two matchpoints within Osorio's serve in 10th game as well. The momentum has switched again for the favour of the world's number 86 a while later, as she won two last games of the match easily and moved into second round after a really exciting match. Elise Mertens will be Osorio's opponent in the next round after defeating another lucky loser Viktoria Kuzmova in straight sets.
Unsuccessful comeback of Bencic
Belinda Bencic has missed the majority of clay season due to the injury issues. The Swiss has needed to pull out from all the European tournaments just after the run in to final in WTA 500 Charleston Open, 7 weeks ago. Bencic was still a banker favorite against the qualifier Elina Avanesyan, being rated with a pre-match odd 1.12. Despite this, the match has started much better for Avanesyan, who won the opening 4 games and delivered the win in opening set, 6-3. Bencic has tried to come back from this and started to play better. Second set was much better performance from the 12th seed, who won it 6-2. Bencic has seemingly got back the control of whole the match, leading 4-2 in the decider.
The favorite has slipped away this advantage though, as Avanesyan won 4 games in a row since then to perform the shocking upset on Bencic, who was very close to make it through despite a poor performance on this day. The match was not a super quality spectacle, as Bencic has mad 49 unforced errors in compare to just 19 winners. Avanesyan was not much better in this case, ending up the match with a ratio 18-42.
Trevisan falls down in the ranks
Martina Trevisan was staying in front of a difficult mission to defend the majority of her ranking points after winning last year's WTA 250 in Rabat and sensationally advancing into semifinals of the Roland Garros in 2022. The Italian has withdrawn in the quarterfinal match in Morocco last year and had not so much luck in the draw for French Open, as she got paired against Elina Svitolina. The Ukrainian, who won the WTA 250 event in Strasbourg on Saturday, has confirmed the comeback to a great form, giving just no chance to Trevisan and losing 6-2 6-2. Trevisan will surely fall down in the rankings, as she will be out of the top 60 after Roland Garros. Svitolina has a chance to move further in Paris, as she is a favorite of the second round match against the doubles specialist Storm Hunter.
Garcia survives on Chartier
Caroline Garcia was looking forward to bounce back ahead of the home crowd on the biggest stage in Roland Garros, playing against Xiyu Wang on the Philippe Chartier's main court. The world's number 5 was a pre-match favorite, but has needed to overcome quite a luck of confidence after the unsuccessful clay campaign, where she managed to win just 3 matches in 3 consecutive tournaments during the European swing. This match was also a tough one, as Garcia was trying to deny the first round exit till the end and prevailed to do so. It was a tight battle with diligent serve performance from both. The Chinese caused a lot of trouble for the home crowd's favorite.
The score was open till the end, as both players shared two opening sets and was leveled 4-4 in the decider. Garcia moved up into 5-4 lead and gained the only one break in third set during 10th game, when Wang was serving under the pressure to stay alive in this match. Whole the match was staying on quite a good level. The fans could witness just 4 breaks in general during the 2:41 hours showdown. Both players have commited 35 unforced errors, but scored some amount of winners as well, with 29 winning shots made by Garcia and 27 from Wang. Anna Blinkova is the next opponent for Garcia after defeating Ysaline Bonaventure in straight sets.
Early exit for Kvitova, Pliskova and Kudermetova
It was definitely not a good day in the office for the experienced and entitled Czech players, who approached Paris after quite a miserable clay season so far. Kvitova was out of the competition since winning the WTA 1000 in Miami and played just once on clay, suffering an upset from Jule Niemeier in the opening round of WTA 1000 in Madrid, a month ago. The 10th seed was just a slight pre-match favorite against Elisabetta Cocciaretto, but came up short to the Italian, who won it easily 6-3 6-4.
Karolina Pliskova advanced into quarterfinals in Stuttgart, but missed the Madrid Open and got eliminated in her first match in Rome, losing to Anna Bondar. The 16th seed had a tough draw, as she got paired against Sloane Stephens. The American was enjoying the clay season so far, winning the WTA 125 in Saint Malo, and reaching out the semis in WTA 250 Rabat. The current match experience and better for were vital for Stephens, who crushed the former world's number one with a score 6-0 6-4.
Veronika Kudermetova could prepare for the Roland Garros in much different mood to other high seeds, who fell down in the opening round, as she has advanced into semifinals in two consecutive WTA 1000s in Madrid and Rome. This has made the Russian a banker favorite against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. Kudermetova was rated with an odd 1.10 to be a favorite of this match, but suffered a shocking lose after a horrible performance. The 11th seed has won just one (!) out of 8 service games throughout whole the match.
It was a really erratic performance from both players, as the Slovakian has also lost 3 service games in a row from the start, but managed to find a groove quite a bit since the middle of the first set, in opposite to her higher ranked opponent, who did 40 unforced errors during just 80 minutes of play. Schmiedlova has won 6-3 6-1 and plays against the lucky loser Aliona Bolsova, who prevailed against another Slovakian, winning in straight sets over Kristina Kucova.
