Grand Slam Virgin Report - Roland Garros 2012
Thought I would take a second to do a quick write up of the players who are playing their first Grand Slam matches at RG 2012. 6 women and 5 men got the honors.
Women
Dinah Pfizenmaier (Q) - The only victor among the maidens, taking out French Wild Card Caroline Garcia in 3 sets. I had never heard of the 20-year old German before this tournament, but I don't feel too badly since her singles ranking coming in is 198.
Kiki Bertens (Q) - The came-out-of-nowhere champion of the recent Fes tournament played Christina McHale.in the first round. I had predicted an upset in my Racquet Bracket picks, but the American onslaught was too much for the Dutch qualifier, who fell in three tough sets.
Karolina Pliskova (Q) - Lost in straight sets to eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli, putting up a reasonable fight in the process. With her debut, she equaled the Grand Slam main draw total of twin sister Kristyna, who competed at Wimbledon last year.
Lara Arruabarrena Vecino (Q)
Timea Babos
Victoria Larriere (WC) - Tough debuts for these players, as the three managed to earn one set's worth of games combined. To be fair, Arruabarrena Vecino and Larriere were playing mid-level seeds (Ivanovic and Kirilenko, respectively), but Babos losing 1 and 0 to lucky loser Sesil Karatancheva has got to hurt.
Men
Adrian Ungur - The Suicide Pool wrecking machine took out David Nalbandian in four sets on Monday. The 27-year old Romanian turned pro in 2003, and nine years later hits the big time. Nice to see a player work hard over a long period of time and achieve some success, even if he did put me into the Loser's Lounge in the process.
David Goffin (LL) - The Belgian made the most of his second chance, and completed his own share of Suicide Pool decimation by taking out twenty-third-seeded Radek Stepanek in five sets. Goffin came from behind to take the final two sets. I've been hearing about Goffin as an up-and-coming player, but hadn't noticed any strong results before now.
Joao Sousa (Q) - Here is your guide to the world of Joaos:
- Joao Sousa with an S is from Portugal. He qualified here for his first Grand Slam appearance. He is 23 years old.
- Joao Souza with a Z is from Brazil. The 24-year old got one of the last direct entries into this year's tournament.
- They both lost their opening matches, but SouSa managed to complete his match, losing in 4 sets to Marcel Granollers, while SouZa retired in the second set against Cedrik-Marcel Stebe.
Daniel Munoz-De La Nava (Q) - A 30-year old Spaniard who drew Marin Cilic for his first round match, falling to the 21 seed in three close sets. Another plugger who put in a lot of work for many years to get at least a brief taste of the big leagues.
Filip Krajinovic (Q) - The 20-year old Serb appeared to be a little overwhelmed in his first Grand Slam, falling to not-so-noted juggernaut Nicolas Devilder without putting up much of a fight. His Challenger and Futures record shows he at least appears to be capable of playing decently on clay, so hopefully he can regroup and play better in future slams.
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Originally Posted by mysterX
Grand Slam Virgin Report - Roland Garros 2012
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