Different girls’s contenders to look out for
The next are the darkish horses for the ladies’s singles title on the French Open, which begins on Sunday:
JASMINE PAOLINI (ITALY)
Italy’s Jasmine Paolini celebrates after victory throughout her girls’s singles last match in opposition to USA’s Coco Gauff throughout the WTA Rome Open tennis match at Foro Italico in Rome on Might 17, 2025. (Picture by Tiziana FABI / AFP)
Rating: 4
With a second WTA 1000 title and a 2024 Olympic Video games doubles gold medal beneath her belt since her runner-up end on the French Open final yr, Jasmine Paolini will look to take the following step in her profession by successful a primary Grand Slam title in Paris.
Paolini’s preparations might hardly have gone any higher, the 29-year-old changing into the primary native girl to win her residence Italian Open in 40 years when she beat 2023 U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff within the last.
READ: Jasmine Paolini makes historical past seeing off Gauff to win Italian Open
At quantity 4 on this planet Paolini is now ranked greater than four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek however she is preserving a lid on expectations.
“I’m not feeling myself the favorite,” she mentioned. “It’s at all times powerful to play a match like that. Making an attempt to remain targeted on the primary match and hopefully I’ll play extra matches than one. I simply need to step on courtroom and benefit from the match and to not assume an excessive amount of about expectations.”
ZHENG QINWEN (CHINA)
China’s Qinwen Zheng celebrates after successful a quarter-final tennis match in opposition to Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus on the Italian Open in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, Might 14, 2025. (AP Picture/Alessandra Tarantino)
Rating: 8
Paris Olympics singles gold medalist Qinwen Zheng is trying to observe within the footsteps of her idol Li Na, who turned the primary Chinese language participant to win a Grand Slam along with her triumph at Roland Garros in 2011.
READ: Zheng Qinwen ousts Aryna Sabalenka to achieve Italian Open semifinal
Zheng has proven she has what it takes to compete for the best honors however the 2024 Australian Open finalist has didn’t progress past the fourth spherical on the French Open, and went out within the third spherical final yr.
Zheng, who wields a equally highly effective forehand to Li, arrives in Paris on the again off run on the Italian Open, the place she misplaced to Coco Gauff within the semi-finals.
JELENA OSTAPENKO (LATVIA)
Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko holds the winner’s trophy following the ladies’s singles last tennis match of the WTA tour, in Stuttgart, Germany, Monday, April 21, 2025. (Marijan Murat/dpa by way of AP)
Rating: 21
Having received the French Open in 2017, Jelena Ostapenko has a powerful clay pedigree and final month turned the primary girl to defeat a world primary and quantity two on the similar claycourt occasion since Serena Williams in 2012.
READ: Jelena Ostapenko stuns Aryna Sabalenka to win Stuttgart title
The 27-year-old beat Swiatek within the Stuttgart quarter-finals earlier than defeating Aryna Sabalenka within the last, and with an all-or-nothing type of play Ostapenko might be one of the crucial harmful floaters within the draw.
NAOMI OSAKA (JAPAN)
Naomi Osaka of Japan reacts in opposition to Jasmine Paolini of Italy throughout their match on day 7 of the Miami Open at Laborious Rock Stadium on March 24, 2025 in Miami Gardens, Florida. Wealthy Storry/Getty Photos/AFP
Rating: 49
Successful L’Open 35 de Saint-Malo match is a far cry from lifting trophies at Melbourne Park and Flushing Meadows however Naomi Osaka’s victory within the WTA 125 occasion could have executed her confidence the world of excellent.
The 27-year-old Japanese participant returned to motion in January final yr after a 15-month maternity break and her victory over Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan on the claycourt occasion was her first title since successful the Australian Open in 2021.
Osaka now not carries the identical menace as she did from late 2018 to early 2021, when she racked up 4 Grand Slam titles, and he or she has by no means gone past the third spherical at Roland Garros.
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Nonetheless, she confirmed glimpses of her finest ultimately yr’s occasion, the place she had a match level in opposition to eventual champion Swiatek earlier than dropping the second-round encounter.
