Day four at Roland Garros offers a surprisingly thin menu of compelling singles match-ups, but one of the all-time great doubles teams will be in action. Read on.
Novak Djokovic plays his second-round match, a soft opponent in No. 155 ranked qualifier Jaume Munar. Strong contender and No. 7 seed Dominic Thiem is on the slate. He'll meet meet Stefanos Tsitsipas, a 19-year-old rising Nextgen star from Greece, out in the hinterlands on Court 18.
So let's take a look at that doubles team, and two singles matchups that could prove interesting:
Venus and Serena Williams vs. No. 14 seeds Shuko Aoyama and Miyu Kato
The Williams sisters have a Grand Total of 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, all earned in partnership with each other. They're also a triple-gold medal Olympic team. While Venus is out of the singles, on Tuesday Serena enjoyed a mood-lifting win in the first singles match of her rebooted comeback. So what if the sisters have played just one match as a team since August of 2016, a February Fed Cup loss to a pair of Dutch journeywomen, Demi Schuurs and Lesley Kerkhove.
No need to panic. That Fed Cup exercise was Serena's way of dipping her toes into the competitive waters again. She left the tour in February of 2017 to have a child and then prepare for her current comeback. Besides, that Fed Cup match was meaningless, as the US -- led by singles player Venus -- had already clinched the tie, 3-0.
The Japanese duo of Aoyama and Kato have plenty of recent experience, very little of it good. They haven't won a match in three tries during this clay segment. They're seeded mainly because of the solid doubles record of Aoyama, who enjoyed most of her success with Chinese partner Zhaoxuan Yang.
Prediction: Look for the Williams sisters to romp
No. 12 seed Sam Querrey vs No. 65 Gilles Simon (Simon leads, 4-2)
This has always been a difficult matchup for Querrey, the 6-foot-6 power server whose size and relatively poor mobility leave him vulnerable to fleet counter-punchers like Simon. But the encouraging thing for Querrey is that Simon is 33 years old, and no longer the mercurial force who rose as high as No. 6 in the rankings in 2009. Querrey has been in revival lately, he's back up to No. 13, just two ticks below his career best. But he's been playing his dangerous tennis on hard courts and grass. His results on clay have been poor, even for a player with his profile. He's just 2-4 over the past year, counting his first-round win over fellow countryman Frances Tiafoe in round 1.
Other big men, like John Isner, Ivo Karlovic and Juan Martin del Potro, have found a way to get greater traction on clay. Querrey just hasn't solved, or perhaps even addressed, the challenges of the slow stuff. Simon is coming off a final in the clay event in Lyons, where he pushed Roland Garros title contender Dominic Thiem to three sets. He also made the quarterfinals in Marrakech. He's 9-9 over the past year on clay, and seemingly over the injuries that were partly responsible for his drop in the rankings. He looks eager to take another crack at his homeland major.
Prediction: It's hard to see Querrey summoning the drive and poise to endure a potentially long match with such a superb retriever and counter-puncher. Simon in four sets.
No. 1 Simona Halep vs. No. 83 Alison Riske (Halep leads, 2-0)
Will Simona Halep go the way of her fellow 2017 finalist and defending champion, Jelena Ostapenko? That would be a cruel blow to Halep, 26-year-old, two-time finalist, for she already has quite a bit on her plate at this event. She's hoping to be "third-time lucky," she needs to make the semifinals to retain her No. 1 ranking (with five rivals nipping at her heels) and she still needs to prove she can win a major.
Riske, a 27-year old from Pittsburgh, had trouble getting traction on clay this year, failing to win a single match at three tournaments, including the Madrid and Rome qualifying. But she caught fire in Nurnburg just two weeks ago and reached the final. At their best, Riske's flat, penetrating shots take time away from opponents and keep them off balance. Halep crushed Riske on clay in Rome in 2015, giving up just three games. It was their first career meeting, but in their next one Riske forced their 2017 meeting on the hard courts in Beijing to three sets.
Halep's coach, ESPN commentator Darren Cahill, recently told the WTA website: "Simona is playing smart, which is the thing that now separates her sometimes from her opponents. She's more able to go around them, rather than thinking she has to go through them." That's well and good, but Halep also will need to control her nerves and retain her composure at a venue where she has mixed memories, and where she lost control of both last year.
Prediction: The slow court speed will enable Halep to handle Riske's game and allow her own quickness and versatility to prevail.
Upset special: Did Dominic Thiem leave too much on the courts during his terrific clay-court run-up? Tsitsipas is good enough to make us believe so.