Kvitova Wins, Woz New Coach, 2 Upsets, Friday Previews at Roland Garros

Former Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova was the highest seed in action on the women’s side Thursday at the French Open, rolling over Poland’s Urszula Radwanska 6-1, 6-3.
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“I think that she played very well. She has good hands so she has a good touch,” Kvitova said of the lesser Radwanska sister. “She’s not playing very aggressive, so I could play my game again. I played very well. I’m feeling very good…I don’t have any expectation. I know that last season was great for me, and it will be very tough to have similar result as last year.”

No. 9 seed Caroline Wozniacki beat Aussie Jarmila Gajdosova 6-1, 6-4, and is looking to become a force again after rebounding from an ankle injury in Madrid and allergy problems in Rome. She is now working with former Aussie Open champ Thomas Johansson of Sweden as her coach.

“Thomas, it’s been working well, because he tells me what he thinks and he’s not soft, which I don’t like,” Wozniacki said. “I don’t like when someone tells me, ‘Oh, it’s great, it’s great’ when it’s actually terrible. It’s not terrible. It can’t be terrible. But it’s not good or I don’t feel it’s good. I want someone who is strict and tells me things how they are. He’s like that.”

Other Top 10 second-round winners on the day were No. 7 Li Na, pounding France’s Stephanie Foretz Gacon 6-0, 6-2, and No. 10 Angelique Kerber topped Belarus’ Olga Govortsova 6-3, 6-2.

Two seeds were upset on the day when Czech Klara Zakopalova outlasted No. 16 Maria Kirilenko 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, and American Varvara Lepchenko likewise went the distance to defeat former No. 1 and No. 19 seed Jelena Jankovic 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4.

Two seeds had close calls as former French Open champ and No. 14 seed Francesca Schiavone rebounded from a first-set loss to roll Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 6-1 in the third, and No. 22 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova likewise rebounded from an opening-set loss to top Hungarian Melinda “The Fifth Element” Czink 6-3 in the third.

Among notable all-unseeded action, Christina McHale won the all-American battle over qualifier Lauren Davis 6-1, 6-3, and former world No. 1 junior Arantxa Rus handled Serena-killer Virginie Razzano 6-3, 7-6(3).

Highlights of Friday third-round play at Roland Garros are American Sloane Stephens vs. France’s Mathilde Johansson, and the seeds start to meet with (3) Agnieszka Radwanska vs. (26) Svetlana Kuznetsova, the hot-handed (21) Sara Errani vs. (13) Ana Ivanovic, (27) Nadia Petrova vs. (6) Samantha Stosur, and (10) Angelique Kerber vs. (18) Flavia Pennetta.