On the evening of April 19, Beijing time, the 2024 WTA 250 Rouen Station ushered in the third round of competition. China's golden flower Yuan Yue played against former US Open champion Stephens, but Yuan Yue did not play well in this match, losing 2-6, 2-6 and missing out on the semifinals of her first career clay tournament. But despite the loss, Yuan Yue is also one step away from being seeded at the French Open.
Yuan Yue, who performed well in the North American hardcourt season, relied on the Austin championship and the quarterfinals of Indian Wells to soar from 70th to 37th in the world rankings in just two weeks. In Rouen, she defeated Egypt's Sharif 6-3, 7-6(7) in the first round, and in the second round, Yuan Yue defeated France's Gracheva 2-1 in three sets 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(6) after two hours and 52 minutes. However, these two victories also exposed the gap between Yuan Yue's grasp of key points and physical reserves.
The opponent in this round is former US Open champion Stephens, currently ranked 39th in the world, and the two are very close in ranking, and the two sides met once in Hobart at the beginning of the year, and Yuan Yue won 2-1 in a three-set tie-break. It is worth mentioning that the two played doubles in this tournament and lost 0-2 in the first round yesterday. What was unfavorable to Yuan Yue in this game was yesterday's one-day double match, which will be a huge test of physical fitness.
Sure enough, in the first set of the game, facing the opponent's strong and heavy attack, Yuan Yue was a little overwhelmed. In the third and fifth games, he was broken by his opponent one after another, and fell behind 1-5. In the seventh game, Yuan Yue faced a serve game that had to be saved, and the hold was successful, 2-5. In the eighth game, Stephens won the set on serve, won three set points 40-0 and successfully cashed in, and Yuan Yue lost the first set 2-6. The first set lasted only 34 minutes.
In the second set, Yuan Yue was once again broken by her opponent in the fifth game and fell behind 2-4. In the seventh game, Yuan Yue was broken twice at 40-15, 2-5. In the eighth game, Stephens' serve won the game, held serve strongly, and went to the next set 6-2.
Yuan Yue is obviously not well prepared for this game, and he is normally tired of coping, his own mobilization is not in place, and he does feel very tired, and his technical movements are not in place, so there will be more natural mistakes.
Although Yuan Yue lost the game, he has reached No.36 in the instant ranking through two consecutive wins. She is now less than 150 points shy of Grand Slam seed Kalinina at No. 32. And she doesn't have any points to protect before the French Open, and there are two WTA1000 tournaments in Madrid and Rome next. Plus there may be people up front of you who will retire. Yuan Yue's seeding for this season's French Open should be just one step away, so let's wait and see.