WTA Rome Review, Roland Garros pre-tournament overview: Big Favourites, Big Challenges

About this episode

The episode reviews Elina Svitolina's victory at the WTA Rome and discusses the upcoming challenges at Roland Garros.

(I said Svitolina beat four Top 20 players on route to the Rome title - this is wrong. She beat three Top 5 opponents, but the next higher ranking she beat was World no.25 Hailey Baptiste.) Elina Svitolina wins her first WTA 1000 since Rome 2018. Her third crown in the Italian capital, with hard-fought, well-earned wins over Elena Rybakina, Iga Swiatek, and Coco Gauff. What a tournament by the Ukrainian, who sits now as the WTA Race World No.3, and No.7 in the 52-week rankings. Will that be enough to earn her a first grand slam title at Roland Garros, starting next week?? Time will tell - but, I think that would be really difficult. Not so much because Svitolina is not a great player, in fact, she's probably the best version of herself on a tennis court in her career. But the WTA is full of surprises, and the level is insanely high across the board. The Top 5 is playing amazing tennis, with Aryna Sabalenka being as consistent a World No.1 can be, reaching SF and Finals at almost every tournament she plays, only without the major title to show for it in 2026. Which in turn could make her even more dangerous an motivated to win her first Roland Garros trophy. Elena Rybakina the WTA…

People in this episode

Hosts: Andre Rolemberg, Vansh Vermani, Owen Lewis

Topics covered

• WTA Rome Review
• Roland Garros preview
• Elina Svitolina
• tennis rankings
• top players
• grand slam challenges

Keywords

• Elina Svitolina
• WTA Rome
• Roland Garros
• tennis
• top players
• grand slam
• tennis rankings

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: WTA, Roland Garros

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