Wednesday's action in Bois de Boulogne got heavily interrupted by rain conditions, which allowed just three out of five scheduled matches to be completed. We got known first quarterfinalists, while two matches got stopped and are scheduled to be continued tomorrow. The highlight of this shredded day was surely the elimination of reigning champion Katie Boulter, who got defeated in three sets by Anastasia Zakharova in a match which ended up with controversies in the background.
Zakharova stops Boulter with tensions at the end
The Russian has noted a storming start, running away with a score from the start, gaining a double break advantage by 4-0, winning three games in a row without dropping a point. Boulter has struggled to settle with her serve, but within the match progress, the defending champion of Trophée Clarins started to put up a fight against the world number 81. Despite closing the gap, it was not enough to come back to first set. The roles reversed in second set though, as Boulter started confidently, getting the one and decisive break in second game. After relatively quick first two sets, third one delivered competitive games with longer rallies between both.
Same as in previous round against Kimberly Birrell, the British player was able to dictate the pace of rallies and construct the winning strikes. However Zakharova impressed with great physical abilities to run in defense and with transition play, switching from being pushed far from the baseline to strike powerful shots, changing the dynamics of points in the process. This has put Boulter under pressure, as she needed to serve for staying in match during 10th game of a decider. Zakharova produced three matchpoints, but the British player found a way to endure it, even despite the second of those was saved in a rally after missed first serve. In the last few minutes of this set, the rain started to heavily drop on the court. It was clearly seen, that it transformed very close to regular rain. This has caused a dispute between Boulter and the chair umpire. Last game lasted long with 5 deuces and while coming out of the trouble once after another matchpoints, the reigning champion has questioned the conditions to continue the play. On the other side, Zakharova wanted to move on, being really close to finish this battle. She finally made it, as Boulter did not manage to save third matchpoint, throwing the ball out wide in the last rally. The match ended up in a bitter atmosphere, as the Brit skipped the handshake both with the umpire and her opponent. Zakharova has ultimately won by 6-3 3-6 6-4 and awaits for the quarterfinal rival from tomorrow's match between the tournament's top star Madison Keys and Tiantsoa Sarah Rakotomanga Rajaonah.
Starodubtseva and Putintseva book the quarterfinal tickets
Seventh seed Yuliia Starodubtseva was a sensation of WTA 500 Charleston at the start of April, making an unexpected run to the final. The Ukrainian did not follow that success in next weeks, winning just one main draw match in Madrid as a lucky loser from qualifiers. The week in Paris goes smoothly for the world number 57 so far though, as she found her place in quarterfinals with commanding performance defeating veteran Shuai Zhang by 6-2 6-1. Starodubtseva was a dominant force on return, winning more than half of return points (36 out of 62) in this short encounter. With two consecutive straight sets victories (including 6-4 6-4 against Taylah Preston in first round), the Ukrainian awaits the completion of match between Navarro and Volynets to get know her quarterfinal opponent.
Yulia Putintseva has stunned Mccartney Kessler in one of the hit clashes of first round, defeating the 6th seed by 6-1 6-1. The 31 years-old followed it with another great performance against Veronika Podrez. The qualifier who was a finalist of WTA 250 in Rouen started well with 3-1 lead, but Putintseva has totally dominated on the court since then, winning 11 out o 12 following games and whole the match by 6-4 6-0.
Thursday preview
Two matches will be completed tomorrow - the all-French and all-American battles which got stopped in second sets of either. Diane Parry won the opening set against Chloe Paquet by 6-4 but trails in second by 2-5 with a gap of one break. Fourth seed Emma Navarro will try to overturn the match against Katie Volynets after losing first set by 3-6 and hold of Volyents in opening set of second one.
Apart from this, Madison Keys will be an obvious favorite against Tiantsoa Sarah Rakotomanga Rajaonah. Two qualifiers meet after impressive performance in first round. Alina Chareeva serve a bagel against 5th seed Sara Bejlek, while Tamara Korpatsch endured a three hours marathon against Clara Burel. The winner of that match will meet against Anna Blinkova or Aliaksandra Sasnovich who also play their second round match tomorrow.
M. Keys (1) vs. T. Rakotomanga Rajaonah match preview