Assessing figure skating’s Grand Prix season at the midpoint

By Nick ZaccardiNov 6, 2018, 1:28 PM EST

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The early figure skating season produced the usual dominance from Yuzuru Hanyu and Alina Zagitova, but also surprises, such as defeats for Yevgenia Medvedeva and a mild shakeup atop the pairs’ order.

We’re halfway through the Grand Prix campaign, with early favorites emerging for December’s Grand Prix Final, which takes the top six per discipline from the six-event series.

The most anticipated Final fields are singles, where Hanyu and Nathan Chen are expected to meet for the first time since PyeongChang. Hanyu repeated as Olympic champion in February, while Chen rebounded from a short-program disaster to top the free skate for fifth overall.

Likewise, the Grand Prix Final should feature Zagitova and former training partner Medvedeva in their first head-to-head since they were separated by 1.31 points in PyeongChang. That is assuming Medvedeva takes care of business at her second Grand Prix in two weeks.

A discipline-by-discipline look at the figure skating season so far …

Men
Top Season Scores
1. Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN) — 297.12
2. Nathan Chen (USA) — 280.57
3. Shoma Uno (JPN) — 277.25
4. Shoma Uno (JPN) — 276.20
5. Mikhail Kolyada (RUS) — 274.37
6. Keegan Messing (CAN) — 265.17
7. Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN) — 263.65
8. Cha Jun-Hwan (KOR) — 259.78
9. Michal Brezina (CZE) — 257.98
10. Keegan Messing (CAN) — 257.16
Jason Brown (USA) — 234.97
Jason Brown (USA) — 233.23
Vincent Zhou (USA) — 225.75

Favorites Hanyu, Chen and Uno won their opening Grand Prix events, though Chen’s jumping program at Skate America included half the quads he attempted in PyeongChang. Chen’s score from winning the Hanyu-less world championships last season would have taken gold at the Olympics. We’ve never seen Chen and Hanyu hit all of their jumps in the same competition. Brown and Zhou were fifth and sixth, respectively, in their Grand Prix openers, putting them all but out of the running for the Final.

Women
Top Season Scores
1. Alina Zagitova (RUS) — 238.43
2. Alexandra Trusova (RUS) — 221.44 (junior)
3. Alexandra Trusova (RUS) — 221 (junior)
4. Satoko Miyahara (JPN) — 219.71
5. Rika Kihira (JPN) — 218.16
6. Alina Zagitova (RUS) — 215.29
7. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) — 213.90
8. Mai Mihara (JPN) — 209.22
9. Bradie Tennell (USA) — 206.41
10. Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (RUS) — 206.07
Bradie Tennell (USA) — 192.89
Mariah Bell (USA) — 190.25
Mariah Bell (USA) — 188.97
Ashley Lin (USA) — 181.21

Noticeably absent from the top-10 scores list is Medvedeva, who went undefeated for more than two years from 2015 through 2017, then finished second or third in her last four events dating to January. Perhaps the biggest story in skating the rest of the Grand Prix season will be whether Medvedeva, after finishing third at Skate Canada, can qualify for the Grand Prix Final. She may need to win in France in two weeks to lock up a spot. It’s looking like the Grand Prix Final will be all Russian and Japanese women after Tennell finished fourth at Skate America. The U.S. is searching for depth with Mirai Nagasu and Ashley Wagner taking indefinite breaks and Karen Chen missing her Grand Prix opener with a foot injury. Sochi Olympian Gracie Gold is set to compete in two weeks for the first time in nearly two years.

MORE: Figure skating season TV schedule

Pairs
Top Season Scores
1. Vanessa James/Morgan Cipres (FRA) — 221.81
2. Vanessa James/Morgan Cipres (FRA) — 210.21
3. Peng Cheng/Jin Yang (CHN) — 206.42
4. Yevgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov (RUS) — 204.85
5. Peng Cheng/Jin Yang (CHN) — 201.08
6. Kirsten Moore-Towers/Michael Marinaro (CAN) — 200.93
7. Yevgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov (RUS) — 198.98
8. Natalya Zabiyako/Alexander Enbert (RUS) — 198.51
9. Aleksandra Boikova/Dmitriy Kozlovskiy (RUS) — 196.54
10. Natalya Zabiyako/Alexander Enbert (RUS) — 196.15
Ashley Cain/Timothy LeDuc (USA) — 181.56
Alexa Scimeca Knierim/Chris Knierim (USA) — 177.22
Ashley Cain/Timothy LeDuc (USA) — 175.06
Deanna Stellato/Nathan Bartholomay (USA) — 174.91

All the Olympic medalists are sitting out this fall or retired. The French burst through that opening. It’s not a huge surprise given they were fifth in PyeongChang and third at worlds. But James and Cipres were outscored by Tarasova and Morozov at each of the last four world championships and European Championships. Cain and LeDuc have an outside chance at the Final after their first Grand Prix medal at Skate America (bronze), but they likely need a silver in a deep Rostelecom Cup field next week.

Ice Dance
Top Season Scores
1. Madison Hubbell/Zach Donohue (USA) — 200.82
2. Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin (RUS) — 200.78
3. Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin (RUS) — 200.49
4. Madison Hubbell/Zach Donohue (USA) — 197.42
5. Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje (CAN) — 197.27
6. Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov (RUS) — 196.42
7. Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri (ITA) — 196.29
8. Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov (RUS) — 195.17
9. Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier (CAN) — 194.12
10. Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri (ITA) — 193.28
Rachel Parsons/Michael Parsons (USA) — 180.95
Lorraine McNamara/Quinn Carpenter (USA) — 180.57

The top returning couple this season, French Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, has not competed internationally. They’ll now miss this week’s NHK Trophy after Cizeron hurt his back in a training fall last week. The Final was expected to be a showdown between Papadakis and Cizeron and training partners Hubbell and Donohue, who were fourth in PyeongChang and second at worlds behind the French. Papadakis and Cizeron would be ineligible for the Final with just one Grand Prix start. Instead, Hubbell and Donohue could have their hands full with Stepanova and Bukin. They were second at last season’s Russian Championships, but Bukin was not invited to the Olympics by the IOC. They later finished seventh at worlds. Two more promising U.S. couples, Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker and the Parsons siblings, make their Grand Prix season debuts this week.

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Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz set French Open semifinal showdown

By OlympicTalkJun 6, 2023, 6:59 PM EDT

Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz will play in the French Open semifinals on Friday in the most anticipated match of the tournament.

Each man advanced with a quarterfinal win on Tuesday.

Djokovic, eyeing a record-breaking 23rd Grand Slam men’s singles title, rallied past 11th-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-4. The Serb reached his 45th career major semifinal, one shy of Roger Federer‘s men’s record.

Later Tuesday, top seed Alcaraz crushed fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (5) to consolidate his status as the favorite in Friday’s showdown.

“This match, everyone wants to watch,” Alcaraz said. “I really wanted to play this match as well. I always say that if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.”

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Alcaraz, who at last year’s U.S. Open became the first male teen to win a major since Rafael Nadal in 2005, is at this event the youngest man to be the top seed at a major since Boris Becker at 1987 Wimbledon.

The Djokovic-Alcaraz semifinal will produce the clear favorite for Sunday’s final given left-handed 14-time French Open champion Nadal is out this year with a hip injury and No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev lost in the first round. Djokovic and Nadal share the record 22 men’s major titles.

Djokovic and Alcaraz met once, with Alcaraz winning last year on clay in Madrid 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (5).

“[Alcaraz] brings a lot of intensity on the court,” Djokovic said, before breaking into a smile. “Reminds me of someone from his country that plays with a left hand.”

Alcaraz and Djokovic were set to be on opposite halves of the draw — and thus not able to meet until the final — until Medvedev won the last top-level clay event before the French Open to move ahead of Djokovic in the rankings. That meant Djokovic had a 50 percent chance to wind up in Alcaraz’s half, and that’s what the random draw spit out two weeks ago.

Earlier Tuesday in the first two women’s quarterfinals, No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and 43rd-ranked Czech Karolina Muchova advanced to face off in Thursday’s semifinals.

Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion, swept Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-4 to complete her set of semifinals in all four Grand Slams. Sabalenka will take the No. 1 ranking from Iga Swiatek if Swiatek loses before the final, or if Sabalenka makes the final and Swiatek does not win the title.

Svitolina, a former world No. 3, returned to competition in April from childbirth.

Muchova took out 2021 French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 7-5, 6-2, to make her second major semifinal after the 2021 Australian Open.

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2023 French Open men’s singles draw

By OlympicTalkJun 6, 2023, 5:16 PM EDT

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The French Open men’s singles draw is missing injured 14-time champion Rafael Nadal for the first time since 2004, leaving the Coupe des Mousquetaires ripe for the taking.

The tournament airs live on NBC Sports, Peacock and Tennis Channel through championship points in Paris.

Novak Djokovic is not only bidding for a third crown at Roland Garros, but also to lift a 23rd Grand Slam singles trophy to break his tie with Nadal for the most in men’s history.

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But the No. 1 seed is Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who won last year’s U.S. Open to become, at 19, the youngest man to win a major since Nadal’s first French Open title in 2005.

Now Alcaraz looks to become the second-youngest man to win at Roland Garros since 1989, after Nadal of course.

Alcaraz missed the Australian Open in January due to a right leg injury, but since went 30-3 with four titles. Notably, he has not faced Djokovic this year. They meet in Friday’s semifinals.

Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No. 2 seed, was upset in the first round by 172nd-ranked Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild. It marked the first time a men’s top-two seed lost in the first round of any major since 2003 Wimbledon (Ivo Karlovic d. Lleyton Hewitt).

All of the American men lost before the fourth round. The last U.S. man to make the French Open quarterfinals was Andre Agassi in 2003.

MORE: All you need to know for 2023 French Open

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

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