Former champion and last year’s runner-up Schiavone out of Roland Garros in round three

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Wilson Blade 9

Coming to the 2012 French Open, Varvara Lepchenko had never been past the second round of a Grand Slam, but this time she eliminated seed No.19 Jelena Jankovic in the second round and built on it by upsetting seed No.14 Francesca Schiavone, last year’s finalist and the 2010 French Open champion.

The left-handed Lepchenko has beaten Schiavone two times in a month. Then ranked No.77, Lepchenko defeated Schiavone in the first round of Madrid Open 6-4 6-7(8) 6-3, while now, as a world No.63 she took the Italian out of Roland Garros with a 3-6 6-3 8-6 victory. When you look at the stats of the Roland Garros match, they were close in all the departments, Schiavone even hit one winner more, and made seven unforced errors less (37 to 44), but the contrast is the biggest in the conversion of break points, where Schiavone won just 5 of 22 (23%) and Lepchenko 6 of 14 (43%).

In the forth round, Lepchenko will play Petra Kvitova, who battled past Nina Bratchikova 6-2 4-6 6-1. There are no Williams sisters in the draw representing the USA, but we have American Sloane Stephens and Varvara Lepchenko in the fourth round.

2 COMMENTS

  1. I watched the final set and although the tennis wasn’t always great, it was very entertaining. Credit to Lepchenko for getting across the finish line as it looked like she would not have the nerve to serve it out. She has now played three marathon matches in a row and I don’t think she will have anything left in the tank for Kvitova…

  2. I agree,she will lose to Kvitova. Unless Kvitova chokes herself which is also a possibility because on a bad day she can be awful.

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