The clay of Roland Garros is supposed to be mysterious, an ochre deathbed for the innocent and the ill-prepared. However, at least two players at this French Open have surprisingly divergent views on it.
Naomi Osaka, one of the sport’s unusual thinkers, says it is not clay at all – “not clay-clay” anyway, as she put it after bundling Zarina Dyas out in the second round on Wednesday.
Asked to explain, the 20-year-old Japanese star with the American twang said: “I just focus more on the tennis part rather than making up excuses of what the surface is and how my play style isn’t suited for it, or whatever.”
Her game was good enough to beat the world No 51, 6-4, 7-5. Seeded here for the first time, Osaka does not lack for confidence.
As for her dismissal of the dirt at her feet, Rafael Nadal disagrees. The Spaniard, who has a degree in clay, surprised everyone when he said of his favourite killing ground: “The court is more slippery than usual. I slid a lot when I started off or when I moved to another side. It was quite complicated.
“There are many more grey zones or white zones than other years, because there are little pebbles underneath. That’s [because] you don’t have the proper grip on the court.”
So, still a mystery, then.
Johanna Konta, who insisted she had no fear of the Parisian clay after a fourth quick singles exit here, blew a 4-2 lead in the third set of her doubles match alongside Alison Riske, as Annabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja won 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in two hours and 22 minutes.
Konta’s first-round conqueror, Yulia Putintseva, went through by defeating the American Jennifer Brady, 6-4, 6-3. Next up for her is Barbora Strycova, who got past Ekaterina Makarova in two sets.
Petra Kvitova, who was a game away from going home in her first-round match against the unseeded Verónica Cepede Royg, seems to be her old self again. The eighth seed defeated Lara Arruabarrena 6-0, 6-4 in 68 minutes. She is in the half of the draw that has already lost the defending champion Jelena Ostapenko and Venus Williams. Anett Kontaveit, who looked good in defeating the Romanian qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru, 7-5, 6-2, should provide another stiff test.
Heather Watson, who is still in singles, won her doubles match with Tatjana Maria against the French pair Manon Arcangioli and Shérazad Reix, 6-4, 6-4.
