Venus Williams had quite the flawed performance in her French Open first-round match with Qiang Wang. The 36-year-old committed 44 unforced errors, including nine double faults, and won just 36 percent of her second serve points. However, she was still able to record a routine straight-sets win, 6-4, 7-6(3).
Venus has basically been a non-factor on the clay courts for four years now, and she also hasn’t been a significant factor in the French Open for close to a decade. Her last quarterfinal appearance at Roland Garros came way back in 2006, and she has crashed out in the first or second round in four of the last five years.
However, she has seemingly undergone a bit of a Grand Slam renaissance. She’s gotten to at least the fourth round in each of her last four Slams, a streak which began during last year’s French Open. She also made it to the semis of Wimbledon and the final of the Australian Open earlier in the year.
Kurumi Nara survived to win a three-set battle with Amanda Anisimova, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, in her first-round French Open assignment. It was a much-needed win for the 25-year-old Japanese, who had won just four of her 10 matches in WTA Tour main draws this season.
Nara has been pretty consistent performer in Grand Slam tournaments. With her first round win, she has now won at least one match in 13 of her last 15 Grand Slam appearances. However, she has also consistently failed to get any further that this stage. She has crashed out in the second round or earlier of all Grand Slam tournaments since reaching the third round of the US Open and Australian Open in 2013-14.
However, don’t discount her chances of ousting Venus Williams. Nara upset the American in their most recent meeting last year at the Indian Wells Masters. She broke Venus’ serve six times in just eight break-point attempts. And seeing as how sloppy Venus’ service game was in the first round, Nara could have a realistic shot at another upset.
Writer’s Prediction
Nara (+475) scores another big upset over Venus as she outlasts the American in three sets.
