The second Grand Slam of the year for the women begins in Paris on Sunday when the French Open gets underway on the clay courts of Roland Garros with 128 players heading to the French capital looking to round off their clay season in style.
That is exactly what Iga Swiatek did once again a year ago when she got the better of Jasmine Paolini in the final and the Polish star is back looking to make a defence of the title in what many are calling the most open French Open for years.
Recent Winners
2024 – Iga Swiatek
2023 – Iga Swiatek
2022 – Iga Swiatek
2021 – Barbora Krejcikova
2020 – Iga Swiatek
2019 – Ash Barty
2018 – Simona Halep
2017 – Jelena Ostapenko
2016 – Garbine Muguruza
2015 – Serena Williams
The Format
There are 128 players in the draw which has been determined prior to the event beginning and the competition is a straight knockout over the best of three sets like the other Grand Slams. The new rule that has been blanketed across all Grand Slams continues at this tournament where any deciding set which reaches 6-6 will be settled by a 10-point match tiebreak. The champion will be crowned on the second Saturday of the tournament.
Top Quarter
It is Aryna Sabalenka who is the world number one at the minute and as such she is the top seed in the draw and therefore at the summit of the top quarter. If everything goes to the rankings this week then she is scheduled to face the Olympic champion on these very courts, Qinwen Zheng, in the quarter final. Six other seeds will be out to stop that match from happening. They are Leylah Fernandez, Clara Tauson, Amanda Anisimova, Diana Shnaider, Liudmila Samsonova and Peyton Stearns.
Each quarter in this draw has a number of unseeded players who are recognised or household names. In this one they include Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Dayana Yastremska, the former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, Magda Linette, Danielle Collins and Lulu Sun. There will also be some British interest in this part of the draw as well as Jodie Burrage has been drawn here, although she has a tough first round draw against Collins.
Second Quarter
The beaten finalist of a year ago, Jasmine Paolini, comes into the tournament off the back of a historic win in Rome recently and she is the leading seed in the second quarter of the draw. She is scheduled to meet the woman who beat her in the final 12 months ago in the last eight this year with Iga Swiatek the second highest seed in this section. Plenty of players will be thinking they can stop that happening. The six seeded ones are Marta Kostyuk, Jelena Ostapenko, Elena Rybakina, Elina Svitolina, Donna Vekic and Linda Noskova.
There are also household or recognised unseeded players in this quarter with the pick of them being the home favourite Caroline Garcia, who announced on social media this week that this would be her final French Open. Other names of note include Sorana Cirstea, Laura Siegemund, the former US Open champion Emma Raducanu and Rebecca Sramkova who was only a couple of spots away from being a seeded player herself.
Third Quarter
The American number two Jessica Pegula is the leading seed in the third quarter but given the fact that the number three seed has only ever made it past the third round once here, the young sensation Mirra Andreeva will be liking her draw. She is seeded to meet Pegula in the quarter final but six other seeds will be aiming to stop that from happening. They are Magdalena Frech, Elise Mertens, Karolina Muchova, Paula Badosa, Daria Kasatkina and Yulia Putintseva.
This quarter is absolutely loaded with household unseeded names. Katerina Siniakova was one half of the pairing which won the women’s doubles here last year. Naomi Osaka is improving on the clay and she’ll be out to show that improvement further here. Maria Sakkari has been a fixture in the top 10 in the rankings for the last few years but she has dropped out of the seedings completely while Anna Kalinina, Ons Jabeur and Marketa Vondrousova have the potential to go very well here too.
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Bottom Quarter
Coco Gauff has enjoyed an excellent clay court swing and she will begin the tournament as the leading seed in the bottom quarter of the draw. We are on course for an all-American quarter final if this section goes towards the rankings because the Australian Open winner Madison Keys is also in this quarter. The other six seeds are Sofia Kenin, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Emma Navarro, former champion Barbora Krejcikova, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Anna Kalinskaya.
There are two British players in this section for us to follow. The British number one Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal will be looking to win a few matches and boost their ranking ahead of the grass court season. Marie Bouzkova, Taylor Townsend and Veronika Kudermetova are three potentially dangerous players in this section while Victoria Azarenka is capable of deep runs in Grand Slams as we have seen in the past. Varvara Gracheva and Diane Parry are a couple of French players looking to use the crowd to their advantage.
Outright Betting
There is a case to be made that this is a wide open competition but the draw is a bit lopsided when you consider that the two finalists last year, the Olympic champion here and the world number one are all in the top half of the draw in Iga Swiatek, Jasmine Paolini, Qinwen Zheng and Aryna Sabalenka. I would have been firmly behind Zheng here but potentially having to go through Sabalenka and Swiatek if she returns to form just to make the final isn’t a value bet at any price let alone 20/1.
When you consider that the other half really only has Coco Gauff and Mirra Andreeva in it the bet has to come from there and I’ll go with the latter at a slightly bigger price. It might be that the Russian prefers a hard court but she certainly isn’t too shabby on a clay court and she looks to have a cruise through to the quarter final which can’t really be said of any of the other leading seeds. Gauff could be a challenge in the semi-final but we would be one game from a payout by then and might be able to guarantee some profit should that clash take place. It might not though so the 6s on Andreeva will do for me.
Quarter Betting
I will take Qinwen Zheng to come through the top quarter though. The price isn’t as good but at least she’ll only need to go through Aryna Sabalenka to earn the money. There is a chance she won’t need to do that when you consider that Sabalenka could run into the dangerous Amanda Anisimova in the last 16. Zheng will have to work hard to get the better of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova but her half of the draw looks a little more manageable than the Sabalenka one. Were the two to meet in the last eight Zheng thrashed Sabalenka in straight sets in Rome so she is my pick in the top quarter.
The Rome champion Jasmine Paolini is my pick in the second quarter. Clearly Iga Swiatek is a huge obstacle to overcome but she isn’t in fantastic form and might have to come face to face with her nemesis in the round of 16 in Jelena Ostapenko, a player the Pole hasn’t beaten in six attempts. Paolini showed in Rome that she is a top talent on clay, although we knew that from when she made the final here last year. She will need to show her class against the Olympic finalist Donna Vekic but her main dangers don’t carry the threat that the Swiatek ones do so it is the Italian to reach the last four for me here.
Tips
Back M.Andreeva to win French Open (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 7.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back Q.Zheng to win 1st Quarter for a 2/10 stake at 5.50 with William Hill
Back J.Paolini to win 2nd Quarter for a 2/10 stake at 4.50 with William Hill
Back them here:
