Nadia Podoroska once again gave forceful samples of its enormous present and broke a new spell for Argentine women’s tennis at Roland Garros: there will be a representative albiceleste in the round of 16 for the first time in nine years.
Rosario was imposed by 6-3 and 6-2 ante la eslovaca Anna Karolina Schmiedlová (161 of the world) in a duel that lasted an hour and a half at Court 14 of the legendary French Grand Slam. Although his rival is not in the best moment of his career, he has on his backs three WTA titles –Obtained between 2015 and 2018– and was able to be located 26th in the world Five years ago. However, a knee injury had prevented him from playing throughout the last half of 2019.
Schmiedlová accumulated until this Roland Garros a streak of 13 consecutive losses in Grand Slam main draws, something that she managed to cut in her debut against the North American Venus Williams, whom he beat by a double 6-4. Her next step had also been resounding: she eliminated the Belarusian in the second round Victoria Azarenka, former world number 1 and with two Grand Slam titles in his career.
The Argentine representative of 23 years ended the hopes of the European in a forceful way and in the round of 16 will wait for his rival who will leave the duel between the Czech Barbora Krejcikova (114° in WTA ranking) and the Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova (157°).
The The last Argentine in a Roland Garros main draw had been Paula Ormaechea, who in the 2014 she agreed until the third round but withdrew after losing to Russia’s Maria Sharapova with a double 6-0. It was the first curse Nadia broke.
Previously, Gisela Dulko had managed to locate in the Round of 16 of the 2011 edition with a resounding victory in the third round against the Australian Samantha Stosur, by then seeded number 8. However, the Argentine who reached 26th place in the world in 2005 could not conclude her round of 16 match against the local Marion Bartoli and left in the second set. Argentine tennis had to wait nine years to have another representative in that instance of the French tournament.
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The next goal for rosarina Podoroska will be to hit the jump to the quarterfinals and thus break one of the greatest spells of national women’s tennis at the French Open. The last time there was an Argentine in the final part of the table was in 2004 with Paola Suárez.
In that year, one of the most important Argentine tennis players in history managed to hit the table in quarter finals and eliminated a promising Sharapova (6-1 and 6-3) to access the semifinals. There her dream ended: she fell to Russian Elena Dementieva 6-0, 7-5.
Today, Podoroska is ranked 131st in the world rankings, although this good performance in France will see her take a substantial leap in the count. It should be noted that in the previous round, Nadia had delivered the most important blow of her career after beating the 27th in the world, Kazakh Yulia Putintseva. It is not a minor detail than Rosario reached the main draw after winning three matches in qualifying.
An encouraging fact: the women’s team at Roland Garros does not have six of the Top Ten. Ashleigh Barty (1st and defending champion) decided to get off due to the pandemic, Naomi Osaka (3rd) did not travel due to a hamstring injury, Karolina Pliskova (4th) lost in the second phase, Bianca Andreescu (7th) accumulates an extensive stop due to a knee injury, Serena Williams (9th) resigned in the second round due to an Achilles heel injury and Belinda Bencic (10th) chose to be absent from the tournament at the last minute due to a problem with his right arm.
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The agenda for Argentine tennis players will be completed on this day with the presentations of Diego Schwartzman Y Federico Coria. He Small (14th in the ATP ranking) will jump onto the pitch to meet the Slovakian Norbert Gombos (106th) in the third shift of the Simonne-Mathieu pitch (it will be at the end of the duel between Sonego and Fritz). Coria, for his part, will occupy Court 14 released by Podoroska to meet in the third round against Italian Jannik Sinner (75th).
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