French Open 2015: Americans with the Best Chance of Reaching Week 2
Are there any Americans left after the first round at the 2015 French Open?
Yes, but they suffered some serious losses.
The success of American tennis rests solely on the naturalization of foreign talent, but until that day comes, we'll make due with who we have. It's not all bad, what's left anyway.
The men's hope of reaching Week 2 takes the form of John Isner, the big-serving giant. Clay has a way of neutralizing that strength but also allowing him to track down balls on the baseline he may not ordinarily find reachable.
The U.S. women clustered in Serena Williams' half of the bracket stand little chance of reaching Week 2. Thirteen of the 17 American women are all in the Williams cluster, including the ill-fated Venus Williams and Madison Keys.
On the surface, the Americans will push a ball of clay up a hill, only to have it roll back on them. Let's examine the Americans—few as they are—with the best chances of reaching Week 2 at Roland Garros.
John Isner
1 of 5
Isner, the No. 16 seed, isn't a titan at the Grand Slams, but he's the best the American men have.
The farthest Isner has ever advanced in a Grand Slam is the fourth round (Week 2!) at Roland Garros in 2014 (and two other times at the Australian Open and U.S. Open).
Stephanie Myles from the Guardian wrote:
"It seems to surprise people that Isner is a pretty good clay-court player and, more importantly, he doesn't mind playing on it. The firepower of the monster serve and forehand might be defused a bit, but the extra time the surface gives him to get into position more than makes up for that.
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A potential third-round match against No. 17 seed David Goffin will be Isner's greatest hurdle. Maybe a more accurate turn of phrase will be that Isner is Goffin's greatest hurdle since Goffin stands nearly one full foot shorter than Isner.
The two are 1-1 against each other and have never met on clay. It's a toss up here for a ticket into Week 2.
Sadly, depending on your perspective, that's it for the men. The others drew tough opponents and have little to no shot of reaching Week 2.
Sloane Stephens
2 of 5
At the first incarnation of this piece, Venus Williams was the player pegged for the second week, not Sloane Stephens.
How silly.
Stephens, 22, ousted Williams, 34, in the first round of the French Open in 7-6 (5), 6-1.
“Obviously, it's a tough first round of a Grand Slam," Stephens said via Nick McCarvel of USA Today. "Going into it, I knew I was going to have to just come out and be really solid and play my tennis. I did that today. She's a great player and a great champion. I didn't know if she was going to blow me off the court."
Now, Stephens has to carry this momentum into her next two matches to reach the second week. She faces Great Britain's Heather Watson in the second round, someone who Stephens has played four times without a single win.
Beating Williams was a big step and a big boost in confidence for the first American since Lindsay Davenport to beat each Williams sister in a Grand Slam, according to Kelyn Soong of the Washington Post.
Madison Keys
3 of 5
Madison Keys surprised the tennis world with her breakthrough performance at the 2015 Australian Open by reaching the semifinals. There, she lost to Serena Williams.
For Keys, the pressure is already mounting. At age 20, she actually gets berated for not having already won a Grand Slam yet.
“I was getting, at like 18, ‘Why haven't you won a Grand Slam yet?’ Oh, I know,” she said in Tom Perrotta's Wall Street Journal story. “I should quit now! I can't get any better!”
Keys, the No. 16 seed, has a paved road into Week 2 with her biggest challenge likely coming against No. 23 seed Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland. The two have never faced each other, but Bacsinszky is the winner of three career titles, two in 2015.
Bacsinszky won back-to-back tournaments on the hard court in Mexico in late winter, so she's has that level of confidence coming into this tournament.
Keys will have to relieve that pressure put on her by others. There's time for her to win Grand Slams, and that time doesn't have to be now.
“We have not spoken about winning a Slam and what's the end goal in all this,” Lindsay Davenport, Keys' coach, said in the Wall Street Journal piece. “She's still developing her game. I feel like some players sacrifice getting their games better by constantly saying, ‘I've got to play a tournament, I've got to play a tournament.’”
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Christina McHale
4 of 5
Christina McHale may be a sneaky pick to reach Week 2, despite bouncing out of the first round in four of her five tries at Roland Garros.
She also would like to erase people's most vivid memory of her losing her Gatorade during the Australian Open.
McHale drew the qualifier Lourdes Dominguez Lino in the first round but will likely face No. 10 seed Andrea Petkovic.
Petkovic was a semifinalist here a year ago but comes into this tournament in suspect form. Will the player who won in Antwerp show up? Or will it be the one who exited her past two tournaments in the round of 32?
At that crossroads could be McHale ready to pounce.
Should McHale defeat Petkovic in the second round, she'd have to find a way to beat her likely third-round opponent: veteran player Sara Errani, a French Open whiz. In the past three years, Errani has lost in the final, the semifinals and quarterfinals.
McHale will, no doubt, have to scratch and claw her way into Week 2.
Serena Williams
5 of 5
Serena Williams has been an enigma at the French Open. It is by far her worst surface. The clay neutralizes, to an extent, her power and the subsequent longer rallies have a way of tiring her out.
Since 2012, her line at Roland Garros looks like this: First, Won, Second. #bipolarity
She'll be all-out just to reach the fourth round where she could face Stephens, the 22-year-old who upset Venus in the first round. Before that, there's a potential matchup against Victoria Azarenka, finally seeded in a Grand Slam at No. 27.
It's more of an unfortunate matchup for Azarenka, who is just 3-15 against Williams with none of those wins coming on clay. If you're Williams, you don't want to face someone with the pedigree of Azarenka so early in the tournament.
ESPNW's Susie Arth wrote, "The No. 1 player in the world was decidedly not given a free pass to her 20th Grand Slam title. ... Sure, a lot has to happen between now and then, but Serena wasn't given any favors."
Williams enters this tournament fresh, and she should have more reserves to make a deep run here in an effort to win back-to-back-to-back Grand Slams.
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