Saturday preview: Home-court disadvantage for Serena, Venus

8:40 AM ET

If you’re new to the discussion, you might think Venus and Serena Williams are entered the doubles at the French Open just to make sure they get their fair share of playing time.

The sisters have blazed through three of their four singles matches. The only even remotely competitive one was Venus’ two-tiebreaker first-round win. Other than that, the sisters have surrendered exactly eight games to three opponents.

If you were engineering a “stop Williams” campaign, what would you do next? How about making both of them play French women who, unlike some of their peers, actually thrive on playing in their home major. That’s exactly what lies in store for the sisters on Day 7.

Here’s a preview, plus a look at one of the most compelling men’s matches Saturday:

No. 1 seed Serena Williams versus No. 26 Kristina Mladenovic Head-to-head record: First meetingClive Brunskill/Getty Images

Williams might fall into the grip of deja vu when she looks across the net in this one, because Mladenovic is built on a platform all too familiar to the top seed. She’s blond, lean, six-feet tall, statuesque … much like sidelined Maria Sharapova. More importantly, Mladenovic has a comparable game.

Mladenovic compensates for a lack of athleticism with a command of strategic plays built upon the foundation of a strong serve and go-for-broke shot-making. That didn’t get Sharapova very far against Williams in the past decade. The big difference Saturday will be the unknown — the lack of history between Williams and Mladenovic, and the fact that the underdog will be surfing a wave of home-crowd support.

Both women serve big, but heading into this event, Mladenovic was winning just 40 percent of her second-serve points. In Paris, that number has climbed to 63. In other words, her game has taken a quantum …

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