The second Grand Slam of the year is set to get underway and there is an open feel to the women’s singles at the French Open.
While the men’s French Open could be one-way traffic with world number one Jannik Sinner the overwhelming favourite, the women’s event has a wide-open feel to it with plenty in with a fighting chance.
Coco Gauff defeated world number one Aryna Sabalenka to win last season’s title, coming from a set down to stamp her authority, and there is potential for them to collide in this year’s semi-finals.
Four-time champion Iga Swiatek headlines a star-studded bottom half also featuring Australian Open heroine Elena Rybakina and rising star Mirra Andreeva, while Elina Svitolina, Karolina Muchova and Marta Kostyuk are three other contenders that will be hopeful of mounting a challenge.
Best Bets
Coco Gauff each-way @ 8/1
Gauff got the better of world number one Sabalenka to claim her second Grand Slam title at Roland Garros last year and the American could be the one to beat again in the defence of her crown.
Her success last year means Gauff has made at least the quarter-finals on her last five visits to Paris, having also been runner-up to Iga Swiatek in 2022, and she has won 27 of her 32 matches in the French capital.
The fourth seed reached the final in Rome for a second successive season earlier this month, and while she would have been disappointed to suffer a defeat to Elina Svitolina, that was also the case last year as she was beaten by Jasmine Paolini.
That augurs well in her attempt to follow up and she claimed some notable scalps in Rome with her victories coming against Iva Jovic, Mirra Andreeva and Sorana Cirstea.
A semi-final showdown with Sabalenka would be tough but Gauff is one of the few to consistently trouble the world number one, who has shown vulnerable signs with defeats to Hailey Baptiste and Cirstea in her last two appearances in Madrid and Rome.
Mirra Andreeva each-way @ 9/1
Four-time French Open champion Swiatek and world number two Rybakina are sure to have their followers in the bottom half of the draw, but the pair could be upstaged by highly-touted youngster Andreeva.
It should be only a matter of time before the 19-year-old gets in on the Grand Slam act and her two best efforts in Majors have come at the French Open, where she was a semi-finalist in 2024 and a quarter-finalist last year.
Already at world number seven, Andreeva looks destined for big things and she has had an excellent clay-court campaign, winning the Linz Open in April before a semi-final appearance in Stuttgart and a runner-up effort in Madrid.
Andreeva pushed Gauff hard in the quarter-finals in Rome, which was just her third defeat in her last 17 outings, and her no-nonsense style makes her dangerous to underestimate.
Marta Kostyuk each-way @ 25/1
If there is to be a shock in this season’s French Open then up-and-coming Ukrainian talent Kostyuk could be the player to seize the opportunity.
The 23-year-old defeated Andreeva to win the biggest title of her career in Madrid at the start of May and she has opted to rest up since then in order to give herself the best chance of achieving success in Paris.
Kostyuk is a former Grand Slam quarter-finalist, so knows she has what it takes to go deep in showpiece events, and rising up to world number 15 shows that she is only getting stronger.
