By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday October 3, 2020
With some of the big French names going down early at Roland Garros, it was looking like it could be a bleak fortnight for the home side. But Hugo Gaston and Caroline Garcia gave the French hope on Friday and on Saturday Fiona Ferro followed suit with a three-set victory over Romania’s Patricia Maria Tig.
Ferro may not be a household name but the 23-year-old is one of the hottest woman in the sport right now. She won a pair of French Federation events during quarantine, going 10-0, then in August she captured her second career title in Palermo to make a Top 50 debut.
But she injured her rib in the process and was forced to skip the US Open.
Here in Paris she is picking up where she left off. Ferro is into the round of 16 for the first time at Roland Garros. In her previous five appearances she had never gone past the second round.
She is a vastly improved player, and working productively with coach Emmanuel Planque, the former coach of Lucas Pouille.
After defeating No.14-seeded Elena Rybakina in three sets in the second round, Ferro backed that win up nicely with a complicated victory on Court Philippe Chatrier today.
She says it was a tricky win, because she had to go with plan B.
“She didn't give me a lot of points,” Ferro told reporters in French. “She was a completely different type of player than the ones I played in the previous round. I had to adapt. I am very satisfied with my attitude. I didn't show anything throughout the game. I managed to stay positive. There are some areas in my game where I can do a lot better like the forehand where I think I could have been more precise today. The positive point is that I have another game to do even better in 2 days.”
Planque also talked to reporters after the match and said that Ferro is making great strides mentally.
“I think she's really made some really big progress on attitude,” he said. “She understood that it was a very, very important part of this game. She regulates her emotions a little. She does not fight them, she lives with them. This is the feeling I have. She experiences them quite positively.”
Planque says he is impressed with Ferro’s work ethic and her willingness to involve her game.
“She is extremely, extremely determined,” Planque said. “She works a lot. She's in there. She wants to progress. She knows that nothing is impossible in terms of progress, but that it naturally and necessarily requires work. She enjoys working a lot, she invests a lot, she is very curious. We don't forbid ourselves from a technical point of view. We want to enrich our toolbox every day. I'm pretty happy to see her play drop shots, chips, volleys.”
The Frenchwoman will face fourth-seeded Sofia Kenin in the round of 16, and Planque said it would be foolish, in this time of chaos in the draw, not to believe she can win.
“Why not?” he said. “Why couldn't she win the next game? It is not a Grand Slam final or a Grand Slam semi-final, we are still far from it. Modestly, humbly, we will try to prepare ourselves with a lot of ambition, obviously, without lacking in humility and respect to anyone, we will continue to be ambitious.” Ferro also believes that her run doesn’t necessarily need to end just because she’s up against a Top 10 seed next.
“I don't set myself a limit,” she said. “I think even more on the women's circuit than elsewhere, everyone can beat everyone. I have already beaten good players, never a top 10 but a few top 20s. I don't think there is a huge difference between, for example, the player I beat the day before yesterday Rybakina and the player that I play tomorrow. Yes, I don't limit myself to my course, I just try to do my best and evolve in every game.”