Where Have all the Good Women Gone?

Day four of the French Open has hit Lollipop with many surprises as the top seeded women at Roland Garros are falling short.

Fifth seed Caroline Wosniacki was the first big name to fall today alongside last year’s finalist Simona Halep who lost in straight sets to 33-year-old Croat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and sixth seed Eugenie Bouchard who lost 6-4, 6-4 to clay specialist Kristina Mladenovic.

The US open finalist lost in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 to Germany’s Julia Georges ranked 72^nd in the world meaning the two are even in their head-to-head matches (4-4) and the German is 3-0 against her on clay.

But for Lollipop this should not be such a surprising loss. Wozniacki has only reached the quarter finals of the French Open once in her career and was knocked in the first round last year.

Despite Wozniacki’s return of form clay is clearly not her best surface but for Georges it was.

“She’s given me trouble in the past and she gave me trouble again today,” Wozniacki said after the 6-4, 7-6 (4) loss. “And that sucks.”

The Dane must now prepare for the grass court season as does Brit no.1 Heather Watson who went out in round two for the fourth time in five years with defeat by US rising star Sloane Stephens.

The American claimed her first victory over Watson in five appearances ranked five places higher at 40, won 6-2 6-4.

Clearly her win over seven time Grand Slam title winner Venus Williams in straight sets gave her resounding confidence.

Despite Watson recovering from a break down to level at 4-4 in the second she was then broken to love, and a wayward forehand on match point gave Stephens victory.

“After a set and a bit I finally got into it, but at that point it was a little bit too late. It would’ve been a tough battle to get all the way back,” said Watson after her defeat.

Other top players did find a way to fight back. 2014 champion Serena Williams survived losing the first set to beat Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam 5-7 6-3 6-3.

The 2010 winner Francesca Schiavone won a gripping match over 2009 predecessor Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-7 (11-13) 7-5 10-8 in three hours 49 minutes -the third longest women’s singles match in French Open history.

Champion Schiavone saved six match points, then converted on her third match point to secure victory. At nearly 35 she is the oldest woman in the tournament.

Nine top seeded players have already fallen – four from the women’s draw. Lollipop can not call who will make the final. Last year Williams failed to make the second round of the French Open and suffered the worst loss of her grand slam career to Spain’s Garbin Murguruza. Prior to that In 2012, top seed Williams lost her only first-round match at a Slam to then-No. 111 Virginie Razzano at this same tournament.

Out of her 34 grand slam titles only 2 have been won at Roland Garros. She maybe the top seed but she is not Lollipop’s favourite on this service. She plays 27^th seed Victoria Azarenka next.

Maria Sharapova should be Lollipop’s clear winner but she faces a tough tie against Australian Samantha Stosur who won the Strasbourg Open last week and routed her opponents in the first two rounds here.

The two top seeds face difficult opponents. On clay anything could happen. Good women have already fallen. So maybe there will be a surprise US victor.