Simona Halep, Ana Ivanovic Advance On Day 1 Of Roland Garros 2015

Simona Halep (click to enlarge)

It might not have been pretty, but Simona Halep and Ana Ivanovic made it through their opening round matches on day 1 of Roland Garros 2015. Last year’s runner-up Halep had a bit more of a tussle with Evgeniya Rodina than most would have thought. Rodina was able to attack Halep’s serve, breaking her three times. Simona hung in there, broke back five times en route to a tight 7-5 6-4 victory. Halep is one of the favorites here. However, she will need to raise her level as the opponents increase in ability. 2008 Roland Garros champion Ana Ivanovic has underperformed so far in 2015. It looked early on in her opening match against Yaroslava Shvedova that her on-court woes would continue as she dropped the first set 4-6. But luckily for Ana, Yaroslava’s game can come and go…and boy did it go, to the tune of 37 unforced errors. Those mistakes gave Ana the chance to regroup and come back strongly in the final two sets, 4-6 6-2 6-0. Ana is a fan favorite…count me among those fans…and seems to be a peach of a person. It would be great to see her get her season back on track with a deep run in Paris.