Former hardcourt kings and clay queens dream linkage, who can bottom out at the French Open?

Entering the second half of May, the French Open, the ultimate feast of the clay season, is officially on the agenda. This week's qualifying tournament has been fully launched, which can be described as a few joys and a few sorrows!

Men's Singles qualifying top seed and former Cincinnati Masters champion Čurić has been out of the French Open qualifying round for the first time since 2014, despite his recent success in the Challenger tournament. Former Monte Carlo Masters champion Fognini, who had previously announced that he had played his last Rome Masters, also stopped in the first round and looked like his career had entered the countdown stage.

Chinese player Wu Yixuan also stopped in the first round of the qualifying round, and was defeated by his opponent when facing the former French Open semi-finalist and US Open champion Cilic, and missed the opportunity to compete in the main draw with Buyun Chaokert.

Outside the arena, the event was also not idle, with former semifinalist Dmitry Medvedev and four-time champion Swiatek taking part in the event. The joint performance of the two who have not been doing well recently also made us find that they have so many things in common:

The first is that they all use the same niche racket. Both men have played three tournaments this year on clay, with a record of 6 wins and 3 losses. Although Mr. Mei continued the record of reaching the top 16 in the Masters, he failed to reach a deeper round. Swiatekmo said that he replicated his past performance in the warm-up matches before the French Open, and it was surprising that he was frequently sent fritters and lost a huge number of points.

In the current world rankings, Mei has fallen out of the top 10 in the world, and Swiatek has fallen out of the top 4 in the world, only ranking as the fifth seed in the French Open. In the past, this was unthinkable.

In terms of championships, Mr. Mei's last championship dates back to the Rome Masters the year before last, and he has been missing the championship for two years. Swiatek has been hard to find since last year's French Open, and it has been nearly a year in the blink of an eye.

Coincidentally, because of their unique playing style, both of them have been nicknamed "Octopus" in the tennis world. Swiatek habitually came to the net and interfered with his opponent's balls. Mr. Mei is in a league of his own, and the photos he was captured always made fans laugh, and they couldn't imagine how he made such a move.

In the past, one was the queen of red clay and the other was the king of hard courts. However, with the rise of Acre and Sinner, the scepter that Mei always took over from the hands of the previous generation of hard land kings, Deyo, soon changed hands.

Swiatek was originally three titles in four years at Roland Garros, but has recently been defeated by his former underdogs Sabalenka and Gauff in succession, and the clay court is also difficult to help the heroine Ostapenko, although she is still at the top of the women's singles championship rankings, but how easy is it to defend her title?

This can't help but make people curious, who can bottom out at the next French Open between the two people who dream of linkage?(Source: Tennis Home Author: Luo Cheng Qiye)