No upsets to report in this half of the draw with all eight remaining women left in the draw being top 20 seeds.
Samsonova is the only woman remaining not to have made it beyond the 4th Round at Grand Slam level with three major champions and an additional two players that have contested at least one major final remaining. The standard of tennis on Sunday night will be of the highest order!.
Sabalenka may be the number one player in the world but Anisimova is one name she will have preferred to avoid. Why you ask… because Anisimova leads the H2H 5-2 and has consistently caused her trouble. The American has won 3 of their 4 prior battles on clay including a straight sets win at the French Open in 2019. Their most recent meeting came last year in Toronto with Anisimova posting a comfortable win 6-4 6-2. The key to her success has been the tactic of attacking the Sabalenka second serve. What this has done is draw a series of double faults. In their four prior battles on clay, Sabalenka has served 8+ double faults in each match and a total of 34 doubles across the four. You want to be on Anisimova with the games handicap and for the outright win.
Value Bet: Anisimova WIN ($4.40)
The key to beating Swiatek on any surface is taking time away from her. To do this effectively you need to have raw power and a ball that penetrates the court. Rybakina ticks those boxes and it is why she has held her own in this matchup. The H2H reads 4-4 with Rybakina surprisingly winning their only two clashes on clay. She was outstanding against Ostapenko winning 80% of 1st serve points and the win over Samsonova in the final of Strasbourg a fortnight ago now has more merit to it than initially thought. Swiatek has not been as dominant in return games as previous years here so we will be backing the Overs.
A runner-up 12 months ago, Paolini is primed to repeat that effort. She has improved with every match in Paris and is on a 9-match win streak. The most impressive statistic during tha5 streak is that she has broken serve 4+ times in all those matches. That spells trouble for Svitolina as she has been living on the edge with respect to narrow margins. She beat little known Bondar 7-6 7-5 and needed two breakers (7-6 7-6) to get past Pera. Paolini will win most of the baseline exchanges and generate multiple breaks of serve per set. That will be enough to earn her a spot in the quarter finals.
With several of the other top contenders (Sabalenka, Swiatek, Paolini) in this half of the draw, Zheng has flown under the radar. Hasn’t been completely dominant but is yet to drop a set. Likewise, Samsonova has also won her three matches in straight sets but it is her performance in Strasbourg which makes it impossible to dismiss her chances here. Beat Badosa and Collins before taking a set off Rybakina in the final. Holds a 3-2 edge in the H2H against Zheng but they have not played since 2023 and Zheng has improved significantly since. As it the case with the other women’s matches on today, expecting a very close battle that will likely go the distance.