French Open 2016: Monday Schedule and Predictions for Roland Garros Bracket
A torrential downpour occurred in France on Sunday, washing out nearly the entire first day of action at Roland Garros and putting the 2016 French Open in a scheduling crunch.
Only 10 matches of the limited first-day action got done before French Open officials were forced to call it quits. Six more were in progress and will conclude Monday, along with the additional 16 matches that did not even have a first serve.
Men's fifth seed Kei Nishikori will look to finish off Simone Bolelli in straight sets. Nishikori held a 6-1, 7-5, 2-1 lead before the rain kicked in.
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Meanwhile, No. 23 Jack Sock will be entering the fifth set of a potential thriller with Robin Haase. Sock won the first two sets 6-3, 7-5 before faltering and allowing Haase to take momentum. The 29-year-old Netherlands native won the third set 6-3 and finished off a tiebreak 7-6 (3) to force a deciding set. Sock, 23, is attempting to build on a fourth-round appearance at last year's French Open.
| (5) Kei Nishikori | Simone Bolelli | 6-1, 7-5, 2-1 |
| (23) Jack Sock | Robin Haase | 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-7(3) |
| Dustin Brown | Dudi Sela | 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(5), 1-1 |
| (13) Svetlana Kuznetsova | Yaroslava Shvedova | 4-6, 6-1, 3-1 |
| Nicole Gibbs | Heather Watson | 7-5, 2-6, 2-1 |
| Aliaksandra Sasnovich | Cagla Buyukakcay | 7-5, 6-7(2), 2-1 |
On the women's side, 13th-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova is trying to avoid an upset of her own. She dropped the first set to Yaroslava Shvedova 4-6 before roaring back with a 6-1 win in the second. After moving up a break, Kuznetsova will hold a 3-1 lead when she returns to action.
But more than anything, Monday will be a huge day for feature matches as the true contenders finally get into action.
Men's second seed Andy Murray and third seed Stan Wawrinka both look to start their journeys to a French Open title against unseeded opponents. Murray faces Radek Stepanek, while Wawrinka will try to dispatch of Lukas Rosol.
A semifinalist each of the last two years, Murray's looking to take the next step after splitting with coach Amelie Mauresmo. Murray is coming off a triumph over Novak Djokovic in Rome and said he's ready to take the next step on clay.
“Winning in Rome—I’d had some terrible times there over the years with injuries, with my back, so to win there was amazing, one of my nicest wins. I really enjoyed that," Murray said, per Kevin Mitchell of the Guardian. "This is the only [Grand Slam where] I haven’t played the final. So if I could do that, I would have played in the final of pretty much all the major events bar Monte Carlo, I think. It would be nice...but I’m not here to just reach the final.”
| (2) Andy Murray vs. Radek Stepanek | Murray |
| (3) Stan Wawrinka vs. Lukas Rosol | Wawrinka |
| (8) Milos Raonic vs. Janko Tipsarevic | Raonic |
| (9) Richard Gasquet vs. Thomaz Bellucci | Gasquet |
| (10) Marin Cilic vs. Marco Trungelliti | Cilic |
| (15) John Isner vs. John Millman | Isner |
| (16) Gilles Simon vs. Rogerio Dutra Silva | Simon |
| (2) Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Bojana Jovanovski | Radwanska |
| (4) Garbine Muguruza vs. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova | Muguruza |
| (6) Simona Halep vs. Nao Hibino | Halep |
| (7) Roberta Vinci vs. Kateryna Bondarenko | Vinci |
| (12) Carla Suarez Navarro vs. Katerina Siniakova | Siniakova |
| (14) Ana Ivanovic vs. Oceane Dodin | Dodin |
| (16) Sara Errani vs. Tsvetana Pironkova | Errani |
Full schedule available here.
Wawrinka is also riding high, having earned a win at the Geneva Open over the weekend. Not many of the world's best played in the tournament, choosing to sit out in favor of resting for the trip to Roland Garros. It was nonetheless a huge momentum boost for Wawrinka—it was his first clay court win of 2016 and his first in his home country of Switzerland.
“For sure it's late arriving for a Grand Slam, especially if you want to go far in a Grand Slam, but I think I'm feeling good. I'm feeling fit. My tennis is there, and I'm ready to play my first match [Monday]," Wawrinka said Sunday at a press conference.
The defending French Open champion defeated Roger Federer and Djokovic last year on his way to his first clay-court major.
On the women's side, second seed Agnieszka Radwanska will have to overcome the odds to win her first-ever major tournament. Radwanska was eliminated in the first round last year and has made it past the fourth round only once in nine tries at Roland Garros. The world No. 2 revealed she's not the biggest fan of clay as she prepared for her Monday showdown with Bojana Jovanovski.
“It’s fast and slippery. It’s fast, but you can’t really run on it," Radwanska said, per Paul Newman of the Independent. "And when you take away running from me, then I’m in trouble. I can slide, but I find playing on clay much harder than on a hard court. On hard courts you can just stop immediately and then run in the other direction. On clay it’s a different story.
“I grew up playing on clay, and everything was fine. But then when I was on tour everything changed. I had to get used to playing on hard courts because that’s the surface for 90 percent of the tournaments.”
Fourth-seeded Garbine Muguruza will also be in action. The Spaniard has made the quarters at Roland Garros each of the last two years and should be seen as a bit of a trendy underdog option. She defeated Serena Williams and nearly did the same to Maria Sharapova on the surface in 2014, and she took down Angelique Kerber last year. At age 22, she's trending upward and is now a legit top-five player.
But the biggest challenge in front of all the players in France may be the weather. Weather.com reported rain should continue through the night and well into Monday. Right now there is a 70 percent chance for Sunday night, leading into a 90 percent precipitation rate for the morning. Making matters worse is that the rain is supposed to be coming down heavier in the morning, leading to occasional showers in the afternoon.
At this rate, fans should feel lucky if they even get through half the schedule on Monday. Either way, it's going to be a test of endurance.
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