Roland Garros is fast approaching, with the second major of the season set to begin on the 25th of May.
On the women’s tour, two more tournaments are up for grabs before the French Open begins, with a WTA 500 in Strasbourg and a 250 in Rabat presenting one final opportunity for players to sharpen their clay-court games.
With the conclusion of the Italian Open, where world number four Jasmine Paolini emerged victorious, it’s still unclear who the favourite is going into Roland Garros.
Four-time champion Iga Swiatek will be the popular pick amongst fans, but the Pole has struggled during the clay swing so far, having crashed out in the third round in Rome.
Swiatek isn’t the only one finding consistency hard to come by on the dirt, however, with three other big names on the WTA Tour looking to find a clay resurgence in Paris.
Jessica Pegula
Despite winning her opening tournament of the clay season, world number three Jessica Pegula hasn’t been able to get it going in April and May.
Since clinching the Charleston Open title, Pegula has suffered three consecutive early exits at clay-court tournaments.
The American lost in the quarter-final of the Stuttgart Open to Ekaterina Alexandrova, getting bagelled in the first set, with the final score finishing 6-0, 6-4.
Pegula then went out in the third round of two consecutive WTA 1000 events, with defeats at the Madrid Open and Italian Open.
Having not appeared at Roland Garros since 2023, she will be looking to improve on her best campaign in the French capital; a quarter-final finish in 2022.
Madison Keys
Pegula’s compatriot, Madison Keys, has also had tough times on clay as of late.
The Australian Open champion has failed to build on her triumph in Melbourne, where she clinched a maiden Grand Slam title.
Keys made the semi-final at Indian Wells, but fell to Alexandra Eala in the third round of the Miami Open.
She began her clay season, like Pegula, at the Charleston Open, where in the Round of 16 Keys lost to Anna Kalinskaya 6-2, 6-4.
| Tournament | Result | Opponent |
|---|---|---|
| Charleston Open | Round of 16 | Anna Kalinskaya (L) |
| Madrid Open | Quarter-Final | Iga Swiatek (L) |
| Italian Open | Third Round | Peyton Stearns (L) |
Following a promising start to the Madrid Open, she ultimately fell to Swiatek in the quarter-final over three sets.
Keys’ campaign in the Eternal City was cut short in round three, where she suffered a defeat at the hands of fellow American Peyton Stearns.
The world number seven has failed to make it past the third round of Roland Garros since 2019, when she reached the quarter-final.
Mirra Andreeva
Since her back-to-back tournament victories in Dubai and Indian Wells, Mirra Andreeva has taken a slight dip in form.
Her clay season kicked off in Stuttgart, where, after her sister, Erika Andreeva, retired due to injury in their first-round clash, the world number six lost in the second round to unseeded Ekaterina Alexandrova.
She made the quarter-final at both the Madrid Open and the Italian Open, but fell both times to Coco Gauff, unable to find an answer for the former US Open champion.
- Stuttgart Open: Defeated in the round of 16 by Alexandrova 6-3, 6-2.
- Madrid Open: Defeated in the quarter-final by Gauff 7-5, 6-1.
- Italian Open: Defeated in the quarter-final by Gauff 6-4, 7-6.
Still just 18 years old, Andreeva remains a future star on the WTA Tour, and will enter her third French Open, having already made a semi-final in Paris last year.
The Russian took the tennis world by storm at the second major of 2024, where she enjoyed an impressive run to the semi-final, overcoming world number one Aryna Sabalenka en route.
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