Kim Clijsters's guess: Naomi Osaka, Karolina Pliskova can win Roland Garros
Kim Clijsters, former professional tennis player and four-time Grand Slam champion, talked to Punto de Break about the actual Roland Garros title defender, “What I've always admired about her [Simona Halep] is the way she fights on the court, the way she always finds a way to hold on there and not give anything away. If you have to win, you must give everything you have and be very aggressive because if you try to play the same game as her, you will have a hard time winning. It will be interesting to see how she handles defending for the first time a Grand Slam title without Darren Cahill. The bond she had with him was very strong and I don’t know, that should have an impact on her in some way.”
Clijsters has revealed alsorevealed her favourites on the race to the 2019 Roland Garros crown, "Osaka, Pliskova... Girls who hit the ball very hard. Karolina has her serve, which is a very important weapon, but on clay, it does not work the same as on a hard court. Simona [Halep] can very well use the angles on this surface when playing against rivals like them, because they cannot find the right ball to be aggressive. I think that players with a very strong serve would have more options against Simona."
Clijsters' first choice however was the Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens, "Kiki Bertens has surprised me a lot. Not only because of her latest performances but also because of everything that has been improving her level, becoming stronger mentally and now being a great candidate to win a Slam."
Unfortunately for both, Bertens was forced to withdraw from her match against Victoria Kuzmova. "I don't have any power and I don't feel well," the fourth seed had told the doctors after five games of play.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2Wv5DvA
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