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French Open Preview 2017 – Women Elina Svitolina, who just took the clay title in Rome last week, assessed the field for the French Open at Roland Garros this year and said, “There is no one I can name as a favourite.”  This sentiment is also evident from the bookies odds.  Their number 1 pick for victory is Simona Halep, who has never won a slam title before.  She’s rated at 4.33 (10:3) which are not strong odds.  By comparison Nadal is rated at 1.8 (4:5) on the men’s side. The seven largest titles of the year so far – Aus Open, five 1000/900’s and Stuttgart – have been won by six different women.  They are Serena Williams, Elina Svitolina (twice), Elena Vesnina, Johanna Konta, Laura Siegemund, and Simona Halep.  Parity is ruling the tour this year. Is this a bad thing?  Probably not.  It makes the WTA very interesting for fans, and also hard to predict.  And to make it even less predictable, some of the biggest names are mis...

French Open Preview 2017 – Men Rafa is back! He is the clear and dominant favourite for the next slam title at Roland Garros.  Can anyone stop him? Immediately after his Aus Open final appearance I began wondering aloud if Rafael Nadal would be ranked #1 by year’s end.  It appears that eventuality could happen as early as July, but it will depend on what Andy Murray does.  Murray has had a reasonably dreadful year – especially for a #1.  He’s won only about 2.3 matches for every 1 he’s lost – which is respectable – just not for a #1.  Meanwhile Rafa just came off a 17 match win streak – all on clay – and has won three of the four big run-up tournaments to the French – Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid, but fell in the Rome quarters to Thiem.  Rafa has won 3 of these tournaments and RG in the same year seven times in his career.  Will this be the eighth?  The most serious challenger to Nadal might be 23 year-old Dominic Thiem....