AS the 2022 French Open progresses, the women’s draw is opening up more and more as more of the top seeds fall. The latest seed to fall was Karolina Pliskova, with the 8th seed losing to Frenchwoman Leolia Jeanjean.

The world number 227 was far too strong for the Czech, winning 6-2, 6-2. It was on serve for the opening part of the first set, with the first four matches going to the server. However, things changed in game five where Pliskova served two double faults in the one game to go on and get broken.

Things never recovered from there for Pliskova as she went on to lose the next three games and hand the set to the Frenchwoman 6-2. Pliskova could not even earned a point in the final game of the set as a combination of forced and unforced errors brought her undone.

Many of the stats from the opening set told a similar story line to the scoreboard. Pliskova may have been the only one to serve an ace in the set, but that was offset by the fact she served four double faults to Jeanjean’s none.

Pliskova had the higher first serve percentage (62 to 55 per cent), but Jeanjean had the higher percentage of wins on both her first (83 to 50 per cent) and second (70 to 45 per cent) serve. Jeanjean may have only won half the break point opportunities she had, but she also did not give Pliskova any opportunities to win some herself. Pliskova may have recorded over double the number of winners than Jeanjean did, but she also had vastly more forced and unforced error than her underdog opponent.

The tell-tale signs for how the set was going to go were there from the opening game of the second set. Jeanjean broke Pliskova and raced ahead to a 4-0 lead before Pliskova finally won a game. Pliskova held her next service game as well, but so did Jeanjean as the Frenchwoman went on to win her next two service games, the set and the match. Again, the set’s score line and the stats from the second set told a very similar story.

Both players served one ace in the set, but Pliskova was the only one to serve a double fault. Pliskova’s serving percentages were also all very poor for someone of her calibre. Jeanjean had the highest first serve percentage (62 to 54 per cent), and percentages for win on first (72 to 54 per cent) and second serve (55 to 45 per cent).

Pliskova also could not convert any of the break point opportunities she had, while Jeanjean only dropped one, and Pliskova had a higher number of both forced and unforced errors. Jeanjean’s next assignment is Irina-Camelia Begu, after the Romanian upset 30th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in three sets.

AROUND THE COURTS

Pliskova was not the only top 10 seed to fall on day five. Danielle Collins not only lost her singles match in straight sets to Shelby Rogers, but backed up for her doubles match which was the very next match on the same court and lost that one too. Simona Halep and Jelena Ostapenko also went down overnight, but many of the other top seeds in the women’s draw did make it through, including Iga Swiatek, Paula Badosa and Aryna Sabalenka.

While over on the men’s side of the draw, it was not such a blood bath as all the big names made it through, including Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev. It was not all sunshine and roses for all the seeds though as 24th seed Frances Tiafoe fell in four sets to David Goffin.