2021 French Open Women’s Singles Preview & Predictions
THE LOWDOWN
After the 2020 Roland-Garros was delayed until September last season due to the coronavirus pandemic it is a joy to see the second Grand Slam of the tennis season restored to its rightful place, albeit a week later than its usual last week of May starting point. The week delay this time around is to hopefully allow for more fans inside the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris, with up to 5,388 allocated visitors per day forecast. However, a curfew of 9pm local time will be in place for most of the tournament. The defending Women’s Singles champion is 19-year-old Iga Swiatek.
THE WINNER – Iga Swiatek
Up until the Italian Open just over a week ago world number one Ashleigh Barty looked to be the solid favourite for the 2021 Roland-Garros title, which would be her second after winning in 2019. However, 25-year-old Barty was forced to pull out in Rome against Coco Gauff in the quarter-finals and has not played since, in which time current Roland-Garros champion Iga Swiatek has swooped into the fold with an incredible surge of form.
The 19-year-old is now at her highest WTA ranking as world number nine, usurping former Rome Masters champion Karolina Pliskova by ruthlessly dismantling the Czech 6-0,6-0 in the Italian Open final and this kind of form saw her blast to a shock Grand Slam title in Paris last October without dropping a set. Having come into near her top gear just before the French Open, it could be Swiatek who finally breaks the French Open spell on the Women’s side of the championships by being the first player to defend a title since Justine Henin in 2007. Swiatek knows no fear but it will be interesting to see how she copes with the pressure of defending this time around. It is hard to find a player in Paris that could beat the Pole in this mood.
THE OUTSIDER – Ashleigh Barty
Therefore, world number one Ashleigh Barty is just pegged back to our outsider here due to a number of reasons but mostly her recent injury. The Aussie is a tireless, technical, patient champion and already has three titles to her name this season including a successful defence of her Miami Open crown but she is not infallible on this surface. Defeats on clay to Paula Badosa in Charleston and in an epic Madrid Open final to Aryna Sabalenka show she has her work cut out in Paris but it should take the very best players to trouble her. Overall, Barty is well deserving of the world number one status but she has more natural predators on this surface than hard or grass, despite winning her only Grand Slam to date on clay. It remains to be seen how fit she can start next week but Barty should be targeting nothing less than the final and she has a huge chance of reaching it.
THE DARK HORSE – Aryna Sabalenka
It is difficult to hand the dark horse pick to just one player ahead of Roland-Garros as the strength in-depth of the WTA continues to expand much further than the ATP in terms of lower-ranked players able to beat the top of the game. It would be remiss not to mention world number eight Serena Williams in any tournament she enters but the 39-year-old has struggled for match practice and desperately needs a couple of winnable ties in the early stages to get up to speed. Should she make it through the third round, the 23-time Grand Slam champion should get better with each match and there is no reason to doubt the American can equal that last record left for her to reach in the game. World number 13 Garbine Muguruza won here in 2016 and should be considered a threat to anyone in Paris this fortnight too, though the Spaniard’s form has recently come below what she would expect.
However, our pick for the 2021 Roland-Garros dark horse goes to world number four Aryna Sabalenka after the Belarusian bulldozed her way to the Madrid Open title earlier this month. 23-year-old Sabalenka avenged a Stuttgart open final defeat to Ashleigh Barty the week previous with an intense three-set victory over the world number one to win her first Masters event and she is a proper force to be reckoned with who will feed better than most off the returning crowds.
THE SURPRISE PACKAGE – Coco Gauff
Speaking of feeding off crowds, 17-year-old Coco Gauff will be seeded at a Grand Slam for the first time after reaching a career-high 25th in the WTA world rankings with a title win in Parma last week. The teenager is truly awe-inspiring at such a tender age and is visibly getting better than her already excellent performances that announced her to the world at Wimbledon in 2019. Gauff beat Aryna Sabalenka at the Italian Open less than two weeks ago and was by far the toughest match of Iga Swiatek’s impressive run to the title in Rome before the American went on to win a second WTA title at the Emilia-Romagna Open. A former Junior winner here in 2018, Gauff’s star has been rising for some time and she would be underserving of that title in this preview as an already established, top player.
The world number 25 is our surprise package pick not because she could go on an unexpected deep run but because she could genuinely win this Grand Slam, such is her ability. The Roland-Garros crowds love a teenage sensation as much as anyone and will do their utmost to see her over the line in tough matches too. If Gauff plays to her best level the players that could beat her in Paris have single-figure rankings.
THE RISING STAR – Paula Badosa
Our rising star goes to world number 34 Paula Badosa after the Spaniard took her fantastic clay swing form into a title win at last weekend’s Serbia Open. The 23-year-old did not drop a set in Belgrade on her way to a first ever WTA title and she beat world number one Ashleigh Barty in the quarter-finals of the Charleston Open earlier this year. It took Barty to knock Badosa out of the semi-finals of her native Madrid Open earlier this month and the Spaniard has since not lost. Taking the week off after a title win is wise indeed and the former Junior Roland-Garros champion is another player who inspires support from neutrals everywhere she goes. Where she can end up this fortnight is guesswork but she looks set to sneak into the seeds with injuries elsewhere and that could help her set some early foundations for a deep run in Paris.
