Flowery, intensely scented stories can also have a sober beginning, and this is one of those cases.

When Anastassija Pawljutschenkowa and Barbora Krejčiková play for the title in Paris this Saturday (3 p.m. at Eurosport), the description will not only contain a lot of letters in a challenging order, but also two questions.

One is: who are these two?

The other: And where have the favorites gone?

Ashleigh Barty, number one from Australia, gave up injured in the second round;

Naomi Osaka, number two, withdrew after the first game with a strong appeal to develop a better understanding of mental health problems;

Simona Halep was out injured, Serena Williams lost in round four, and when it looked like a successful title defense, Iga Świątek of Poland lost in the quarter-finals to the best Greek, Maria Sakkari.

Missed opportunities and match points

But the fascination of the game of tennis does not only have to do with familiar names and familiar scenarios. If you take a look at the statistics, in which the same Greek and Krejčiková played a place in the final, you might get the idea that it would have been a little edifying affair. On both sides there were more than 50 unforced mistakes and only around half as many so-called winners, missed opportunities and match points included - that doesn't sound good. But in reality it was great, thrilling, exciting and extremely interesting what emerged from this constellation.

On the one hand athleticism, wild determination and seething temperament, on the other hand the best Czech technology, cunning, apparently stoic calm and even on the verge of exhaustion still enough oxygen for a flash of inspiration.

For more than three hours the two stood alternately with their backs to the wall, then things turned again and the hunt started all over again.

It was clear to see and almost more clearly felt how Sakkari and Krejčiková resisted the burden of nervousness;

how it sometimes looked as if everything was too much, and how exactly in these moments a complete work was created that could not leave you indifferent.

Deserved winner

Because they didn't give up, neither of them, and it was clear long before the end that there would be a deserved winner one way or another. At the end, after three full sentences with a large amplitude, the Czech made the last point and then, as always, sent a greeting to heaven. To where she suspects Jana Novotná, her long-time trainer and mentor, who died at the end of 2017 at the age of 49. She would love to hear what Novotná had to say about her games. To a run that surprised everyone, including herself.

Forty years ago, a Czech woman, Hana Mandlíková, last won the singles title at the Stade Roland Garros.

But it is not the case that the new, young candidate does not know how to grab trophies.

In doubles, Barbora Krejčiková is also in the final with her partner Katerina Siniaková.

In 2018 they won both in Paris and a few weeks later at Wimbledon.

She said she never saw herself as a specialist in doubles back then or after that, and she never liked the label.

"I always wanted to play against the best in singles." If she wins the title, she will be in the top 20 of the new world rankings on Monday and overtake Anastassija Pavlyuchenkova.

"Why do you take so long?"

The Russian turns 30 at the beginning of July and is part of the regular staff at Grand Slam tournaments, but only up to a certain limit, the quarter-finals.

At the beginning of her career, when she won the first of three Grand Slam tournament titles among the juniors at the age of 14, it looked like a great future awaited her.

But before a calculation can work out, all the factors have to be right, and she says herself that something was always somehow missing.

What would 14-year-old Nastja have said in view of the idea of ​​waiting another 15 years for the first game for one of the four big tennis titles?

The answer comes from the hip: "Why do you take so long?"

Everyone, she says, just goes their own way. But no matter how long it takes, there are no shortcuts anyway. This Saturday, for example, there is a supposed double specialist who has everything to fill a tennis court with class and courage, in the final against a formerly great talent who, even after half a life on the tour, was never so far from the goal. what it might look like from the outside. A summer story with flavors from four seasons.