2011 French Open

After missing much of last year, she made a comeback at the Australian Open in January but suffered an embarrassing 6-0 6-0 defeat by Kim Clijsters in the opening round and soon after contemplated quitting.

A former top fifteen player, the Belgian dominated her opponent in the opening set. She slaughtered Niculescu by breaking her serve three times and saved both breakpoint faced with her amazing defensive skills. Wickmayer clobbered many unforced errors i.e. 13 to 10 and produced an equal first serve share of 70 percent, however, she converted three out of six breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to clinch with a bagel.

The 25-year-old, three times a losing grand slam finalist, suffered another setback on her return from a serious back injury when she abandoned her quarter-final against Victoria Azarenka at the Andalucia Tennis Championships last month.
Wickmayer carried her winning ways into the final set and after clobbering many unforced errors again, she converted all three breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to seal the set by winning six games to three. The Belgian saved three out of five breakpoints faced and registered an impressive 57 percent win on her slightly lower first serve share.

21-year-old Belgian has had a good season so far as she reached the final at Auckland before losing to Hungarian Great Arn. Wickmayer then made a semi-final berth at Indian Wells and reached quarter-finals at Charleston and Brussels before losing to eventual champion Caroline Wozniacki on both occasions. 

23-year-old Romanian, on the other side of net, hasn’t had much progress this season though she showed spirit at Estoril where she made a semi-final berth before losing to eventual champion Anabel Medina Garrigues.

Up next for the seeded Belgian is the Japanese Ayumi Morita who made an epic come back from a set down to triumph over French wild card entrant, Kirstina Mladenovic.

Another seeded Belgian who advanced into the second round is the Australian Open champion Kim Clijsters. She was in awesome form at the start of the season and reached the number one rank but for only a week. Her form stayed the same but injuries ruled her out from many tournaments.

Despite clobbering 33 unforced errors as compared to her rival, Belarusian Anastasia Yakimova’s 15, Clijsters converted six out of eleven breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to seal the deal with a 6-2, 6-3 victory. The Belgian also committed five double faults but she saved nine out of twelve breakpoints conceded to advance in this major tournament.