Midway through the opening set, Francesca Schiavone suddenly pulled the string on a sharp-angled drop shot to force Melanie Oudin forward. Sprinting from behind the baseline, the 88th-ranked American stumbled and staggered to a stop while knocking her reply into the net. That shot symbolized the match: Schiavone dragged her opponent around the court like a puppeteer manipulating a marionette, and Oudin never found her footing on the red clay.
Using confident shot combinations that showcased the variety in her game, Schiavone launched defense of her Roland Garros title with a thorough 6-2, 6-0 first-round thrashing of Oudin.
There was some speculation that the pressure of defending a Grand Slam title for the first time, combined with the fact that a pumped-up Oudin pounded out a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Schiavone last November in the Fed Cup final, would conspire to make this a problematic match for the Italian. The 30-year-old quickly eradicated any upset hopes. The pair traded breaks to open the match and then Schiavone turned it up, permitting just five points in the next four games to extend her lead to 5-1.
Oudin held for 2-5, but it would be the last game she would win. The only slight speed bump for Schiavone came when she served for the first set, as she squandered four set points in trying to pull the trigger prematurely. She sliced a service winner out wide to earn a fifth try, and closed the 32-minute first set firing a forehand pass up the line.
The feisty former U.S. Open quarterfinalist tried to fire herself up, pumping her fist on occasion and exhorting herself to “come on!”, but Oudin was overwhelmed as Schiavone swung even freer in the second set. The learning curve continues to sharpen for Oudin, who hasn’t beaten a Top 10 player since that upset of Schiavone late last year (on a fast, indoor hard court) and fell to 1-9 on clay this season. Oudin is not comfortable moving on clay—she rarely slides into shots, making her recovery step slower—and at 5’6” she sometimes looked like a woman in need of a step stool to handle the high-bounding topspin emanating from Schiavone’s Babolat racquet.
In contrast, Schiavone, listed at a half-inch shorter, covers the largest Grand Slam court in the game with all the ease of a woman dancing in her backyard.
In her 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 setback to world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the Brussels semis last week, Schiavone played periods of hit-and-miss tennis, frequently misfiring on her forehand down the line. Her forehand was so strong today, Oudin played almost exclusively to her backhand at times. An emotionally expressive player who unsettles opponents by rarely giving them the same speed, spin and trajectory of shot in succession, Schiavone finished with 25 winners compared to Oudin’s six.
—Richard Pagliaro