2017 French Open: Top 5 upsets from the Women's Singles tournament so far

The French Open is gradually entering its climax with the fourth round halfway over. So far, the tournament has seen some thrilling matches with a few of the big names making steady progress in the tournament. However, this year’s French Open has seen a number of upsets so far, with 25 of the 64 seeded players biting the dust before the third round.

The Women’s tournament in particular has seen plenty of high-profile exits, assuring the French Open of a new Champion. The elimination of Venus Williams also means that there will be a brand new Women’s Grand Slam champion.

Here are the biggest upsets from the Women’s Singles tournament so far.

#5 Johanna Konta

The British player put up a few solid performances this year, the most notable of them being her winning run in the Miami Masters which elevated her ranking to a career-best World No.7. Despite Konta performing poorly at the Madrid and Rome Masters where she exited at the first and third rounds respectively, she was considered a dark horse for the French Open and was expected to register her first victory at the tournament this year.

Konta’s first round opponent was Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei who was ranked 109^th in the world. Konta began the match strongly and breezed past Hsieh in the first set 6-1. However, the Taiwanese recovered well and won the second set decided through the tie-break and was looking solid in the third set.

Konta was in no mood to throw in the towel and tried her best to break Hsieh’s serve at 4-5. However, the 31-year-old held her nerve and saved four break points before finishing the match with an ace. This was Hsieh Su-wei’s first ever victory over a player ranked within the top 20 and Konta’s winless streak at the main draw of the French Open persists.

#4 Dominika Cibulkova

Cibulkova was knocked out in the second round

Last year’s WTA Finals Champion was considered a dark horse as well for the French Open despite second round losses at the Madrid and Italian Masters. Seeded sixth, the 2009 semi-finalist was up against Spaniard Lara Arruabarrena and registered a routine win by thrashing her 6-2, 6-1.

In the second round, the Slovak was up against Tunisian Ons Jabeur who was ranked 114^th in the world and was able to enter the tournament as a lucky loser after Laura Siegemund pulled out of the competition.

In a surprising turn of events, Jabeur scripted one of the upsets of the tournament by defeating Cibulkova rather comfortably by the scoreline of 6-4, 6-3. This was Jabeur’s first victory over a top 10 player and the lowest ranked player to defeat Cibulkova at a Grand Slam since CiCi Bellis at the 2014 US Open. Jabeur was comprehensively beaten by 30^th seed Timea Bacsinszky in the third round, however.

#3 Venus Williams

For the second successive time, Venus Williams was knocked out in the fourth round of the French Open

Williams put up a couple of impressive performances this year that included reaching the Australian Open final, the semi-finals of the Miami Masters, and the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells and Rome Masters. Based on her performances this year, she was expected to reach at least the fourth round and after the elimination of Dominika Cibulkova, Williams’ chances of reaching her first French Open quarter-final in 11 years were boosted.

Williams looked in good touch during her first three matches as she won all of them without dropping a single set. In the fourth round, Williams was up against 30^th seed Timea Bacsinszky who had beaten her at this very stage last year.

Williams edged out Bacsinszky 7-5 in the first set but the 2015 semi-finalist recovered well by taking the second set 6-2. The third set was even more one-sided than the second as Bacsinszky dominated Williams to take the set 6-1 and qualify for her third consecutive French Open quarter-final. Bacsinszky will next take on local girl Kristina Mladenovic to try and qualify for her second Grand Slam semi-final.

#2 Angelique Kerber

Kerber became the first top seed to be eliminated in the first round of the French Open

Kerber produced a string of disappointing performances this year and was lucky enough to regain the No.1 due to Serena Williams pulling out of the tour owing to pregnancy. Expectations weren’t all that high, but Kerber was deemed good enough to reach the quarter-finals.

In the first round, Kerber was up against former Grand Slam semi-finalist Ekaterina Makarova. The match turned out to be completely one-sided as the Russian outplayed the top seed to take the match 6-2, 6-2, thus winning her fifth match against Kerber.

Kerber thus became the first top seed to be eliminated in the first round of the French Open in the Open Era and will lose her No.1 ranking provided Karolina Pliskova reaches the final. Makarova was eventually defeated by Lesia Tsurenko in the second round by the same scoreline with which she beat Kerber.

#1 Garbine Muguruza

The reigning champion was humbled in the pre-quarters

The reigning champion was considered to be a contender for the title after reaching the semi-finals of the Rome Masters in addition to a few good performances this year. Muguruza began the tournament in fine fashion by beating 2010 Champion Francesca Schiavone in three sets.

The Spaniard survived a scare from Estonian Anett Kontaveit in the second round before defeating 27^th seed Yulia Putintseva in the third round. In the fourth round, Muguruza was up against 13^th seed Kristina Mladenovic. Mladenovic began the match brilliantly by taking the first set 6-1.

However, Muguruza did not back down and she came back to take the second set 6-3. Mladenovic turned out to be too good for the Spaniard though as she won the third set 6-3 to reach her first French Open quarter-final and a second Grand Slam quarter-final.

With Muguruza unable to defend her winners points from last year, she will slip out of the top 10 of the WTA rankings.