Paris: Ashleigh Barty beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-1, 6-3 to win the Roland Garros women’s singles title. Barty becomes the first Australian woman in 46 years to win the French Open singles. Eighth seed Barty joins 1969, 1970 and 1973 champion Margaret Court and 1971 winner Evonne Goolagong-Cawley on the list of Australian women who have lifted the trophy here in the professional era.
Dominic Thiem beat Novak Djokovic 6-2, 3-6, 7-5, 5-7, 7-5 to set up Roland Garros men’s singles final vs Rafael Nadal. This rollercoaster of a semi-final between Djokovic and Thiem went on for over four hours and Thiem eventually came out on top by breaking Djokovic.
Thiem will now face Nadal in the final of the French Open for the second straight time. After missing out on the title last time, the No.4 seed will want to spoil the Spaniard’s party this time around and go for his first Grand Slam title. Next, Ash Barty and Vondrousova, both first time finalists at French Open, take the centre stage as Roland Garros waits for a new women’s champion.
The women’s final is set to be a cracking contest after Czech Republic’s Vondrousova showed immense quality against Johanna Konta on Friday. Even though Ash Barty goes into the final as the favourite, it is expected to be a very tight contest.
The semi-final between Thiem and Djokovic saw three rain breaks – two on Friday and one on Saturday as towards the end, it had gone 24 hours since the two took the court for the semi-final first.
It was a gruelling contest – one that required immense grit, determination and mental strength. Dominic Thiem showed exceptional variety and hit Djokovic with the strategy of bringing in a lot of backhand slices in play. With Thiem throwing volleys and net drops every now and then, Djokovic struggled to keep pace with the Austrian.
Even though the rain breaks saw Djokovic come back into the match with renewed vigour, it soon fizzled out with Thiem’s bludgeoning winners. If not for a huge number of unforced errors, Thiem would have won the match earlier.
With the win, Thiem has now registered three wins in nine matches against Djokovic and this is the second time when the Austrian has defeated the Serb in Paris. Last year, Thiem had defeated Djokovic in the Roland Garros quarter-final and the world No.1 was looking for a revenge but Thiem proved to be too good and owned the nickname he has been given, the ‘Prince of Clay’.
Read all the Latest News , Breaking News , watch Top Videos and Live TV here.
Comments
0 comment