Jelena Ostapenko could face Victoria Azarenka in the second round of Roland Garros as her bid for a second successive title starts against Kateryna Kozlova.
The Latvian appears in the third quarter of the draw, alongside Elina Svitolina, who is a projected quarter-final opponent for the defending champion. However if Ostapenko wants to make it that far she will need to overcome players like Victoria Azarenka, Barbora Strycova and Venus Williams. Speaking of Venus, she will face China’s Qiang Wang in the first round as her third round opponent could be Britain’s Johanna Konta, who takes on Yulia Putintseva.
In the other section of this quarter, Elina Svitolina, who comes into Roland Garros having defended her Rome title, will play Ajla Tomljanovic in her first match. There are also some very tricky seeds in the Ukrainian’s draw with Madison Keys, Indian Wells champion Naomi Osaka and Mihaela Buzarnescu appearing in Svitolina’s part of the draw.
The other quarter in this draw sees an array of talent, with a mix of grand slam champions and in-form players. Nobody ticks those last two boxes more than 9th seed Petra Kvitova, who will face clay courter Veronica Cepede Royg in her opening contest. After that match, the Czech Republican could face the in-form Estonian, Anett Kontaveit in the third round. Also in this quarter of the draw, a scintillating fourth round match between Daria Kasatkina and Australian Open champion, Caroline Wozniacki looking likely. The second seed will face Danielle Collins in her opening match before facing a potentially tricky tie with Timea Bacsinszky.
Muguruza Faces Tricky Quarter As Halep Looks To Halt French Momentum
In the second quarter of the draw, 2016 champion Garbine Muguruza will start her Roland Garros campaign against another former champion in Svetlana Kuznetsova. Should the Spaniard navigate Kuznetsova, the rest of her draw looks straightforward with Coco Vandeweghe potentially awaiting in the second week.
As for the other section of this quarter, well its very loaded with Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova all appearing. Serena Williams faces Kristyna Pliskova in her first contest with a potential third round meeting with Goerges looking likely as Pliskova or Sharapova could await in a mouth-watering second week match.
The top section of the draw sees last year’s finalist Simona Halep opening her account against Alison Riske, with the Romanian possibly facing Kristina Mladenovic in the third round. A meeting with another Frenchwoman in Caroline Garcia in the last eight as the 7th seed faces Yingying Duan in the first round.
Here is the full draw, with play starting this Sunday, one thing is guaranteed with the women’s event this year and that is plenty of entertaining matches:
