Elena Rybakina began her French Open campaign with a dominant 6-2 6-3 win over Greet Minnen on Tuesday, teeing up a second-round clash with Arantxa Rus or Angelique Kerber.

Having been forced to withdraw from the Italian Open due to illness earlier this month, Rybakina made a rusty start as she dropped serve in the opening game.

However, she quickly recovered her composure to produce a powerful performance, firing off 36 winners and forcing 10 break points – four of which were converted.

Moving well throughout and excelling at the net, Rybakina converted her second match point after 74 minutes on court, ensuring smooth progress to the second round. 

Data Debrief: Rybakina ready to challenge Swiatek

Rybakina has been tipped to rival world number one Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros this year, and she now boasts a 9-1 record on clay for 2024.

Her win ratio on the surface this season stands at 90 per cent, with only Swiatek (93.8 per cent, 15-1) faring better on the WTA Tour.

Varvara Gracheva produced an eye-catching upset after sending Maria Sakkari crashing out of the French Open on Monday.

World number 88 Gracheva battled to a 3-6 6-4 6-3 victory on Court Simonne-Mathieu, claiming a notable Roland-Garros scalp in the first round.

Gracheva clinched five of six break points in an impressive fightback after falling a set down in Paris to sixth seed Sakkari.

Her reward will be a second-round meeting with Bernarda Pera, who overcame Japan's Nao Hibino in straight sets on the same day.

Data Debrief: Gracheva earns top-10 scalp

Gracheva will be bidding to make the third round in Paris for the third time in her career after Sakkari became the first big-name exit in the women's draw.

This victory against world number eight Sakkari marked Gracheva's fourth top-10 win in her career, and second win against such opponents in major events.

Naomi Osaka returned to the French Open with a bang after overcoming Lucia Bronzetti to set up a potential meeting with Iga Swiatek.

Former world number one Osaka made her Paris comeback after a 15-month maternity break, battling to a 6-1 4-6 7-5 first-round victory over Bronzetti on Sunday.

Now ranked 134th in the women's standings after her long lay-off, the four-time major winner had little trouble in finding her feet and did not face a break point during a dominant first set.

World number 48 Bronzetti responded by holding three consecutive serving games in the second set on Court Philippe-Chatrier, staving off two break points to clinch a 4-3 lead.

Osaka managed back-to-back breaks to seize a 4-0 advantage after the Italian forced a deciding set, though was forced to hold off a late comeback to triumph in the French capital.

Returning to Roland-Garros for the first time in two years, Osaka could now meet Swiatek in the second round if the defending champion overcomes Leolia Jeanjean on Monday.

Data Debrief: Osaka hot on Swiatek's tail

Among active players, Osaka (75.3%, 58-19) now only trails her potential next opponent, Swiatek (81.4%, 70-16), for winning percentage in women’s singles matches at major events.

Now 5-3 on clay at WTA events in 2024, Osaka has claimed five seasonal match wins on clay for the first time since 2019, when she held the WTA's number-one ranking.

Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek are the favourites in their respective draws to triumph at the French Open.

That is according to Stats Perform's Win Probability Model, which saw Swiatek regain her Roland-Garros crown in 20 per cent of simulations, ahead of nearest challenger Elena Rybakina (nine per cent).

The Pole is aiming to become the third player in the Open Era to win the women's singles title at Roland-Garros for three consecutive years, after Monica Seles (1990-92) and Justine Henin (2005-07).

Swiatek claimed a third women’s singles title at Roland-Garros from five appearances in the main draw at the event. In the Open Era, only Margaret Court (three out of four, 75 per cent) holds a better title win rate from main draws entered at the tournament.

In the men's competition, Sinner is the narrow favourite in Stats Perform's predictions, with his 13 per cent chance just clear of Novak Djokovic's 10.

Sinner has the highest winning percentage of any player so far in 2024 (93.3 per cent, 28-2), though third-favourite Carlos Alcaraz still has a six per cent likelihood of winning in Paris.

World number three Alcaraz has yet to reach a French Open final, but is the youngest player in the Open Era to reach the round of 16 at seven consecutive majors.

Meanwhile, Djokovic is out to overtake Court's record of 24 majors and become the outright leader for grand slam titles across men's and women's singles events.

Aged 36 years and 20 days, Djokovic became the oldest winner of the men's singles at Roland-Garros in the Open Era when he triumphed last year.

Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka are at the very pinnacle of the women's game, and over the past month, have been battling it out for glory on the clay courts of Madrid and Rome.

The duo have met twice in the finals of the past two WTA 1000 events, with Swiatek coming out on top on both occasions.

Swiatek needed a third-set tie-breaker to win an epic Madrid Open final, though she got the job done in straight sets at the Italian Open, as the Pole made it eight wins to three from her 11 career contests with Sabalenka.

Since 1990, only Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario have faced each other more often in WTA level clay finals (10 times) than Swiatek and Sabalenka (five), and if the top two seeds get their way at Roland-Garros, they will be vying it out for the 2024 French Open title in two weeks' time.

Sensational Swiatek hunts a treble

Swiatek, who does not turn 23 until Friday, already has three French Open titles under her belt, having won in 2020, 2022 and 2023.

The Pole is aiming to become the third player in the Open Era to win the women's singles title at Roland-Garros for three consecutive years, after Monica Seles (1990-92) and Justine Henin (2005-07).

She is one of six players in the Open Era to have won the title without dropping a set, a feat she managed at the 2020 edition. The other players on that list are: Evonne Goolagong (1971), Billie Jean King (1972), Chris Evert (1974), Steffi Graf (1988), and Henin (2006-07).

Margaret Court holds the best winning percentage in the women's singles at Roland-Garros in the Open Era, at 95.2 per cent. Among active players, with a minimum of 10 matches played, Swiatek (93.3 per cent) holds the highest winning percentage at the event.

Swiatek was 19 when she won her first French Open crown, joining Jelena Ostapenko (2017) as the only teenagers to triumph at Roland-Garros since the turn of the century.

Last year, Swiatek claimed a third women’s singles title at Roland-Garros from five appearances in the main draw at the event. In the Open Era, only Court (three out of four, 75 per cent) holds a better title win rate from main draws entered at the tournament.

Since the WTA-1000 format’s introduction in 2009, Swiatek could become only the second player to claim victory at the Madrid Open, Italian Open and Roland-Garros in a calendar year after Serena Williams (2013).

The world number one will start her campaign against Leolia Jeanjean, and has already scooped four titles this year, taking her overall tally to 21.

The omens are not great for Jeanjean. In the Open Era, the top seed in the women’s singles at Roland-Garros has lost in the opening round only once, with Angelique Kerber falling to Ekaterina Makarova in 2017.

"I feel like I keep having a target on my back, because I'm No. 1," Swiatek said on Friday.

"So, I think actually I'm more proud of what's happening right now, and winning all these titles this year already has shown that we are going on the right path."

Third time lucky for Sabalenka?

In the event that Swiatek and second seed Sabalenka meet in the final, it will be the fifth clay-court meeting between the pair as the WTA’s number one and number two, surpassing Martina Navratilova and Evert for the most meetings on the surface in the past 40 years as the WTA’s top two-ranked players. 

Given her recent misfortune against Swiatek, mind, Sabalenka will no doubt be hoping the reigning champion falters this time around, leaving her with a clearer run to glory.

The Belarusian could become the first player to claim the women’s singles titles at the Australian Open and Roland-Garros in a calendar year since Williams in 2015.

Sabalenka, who is the player with the most winners on clay in 2024 (447), has already reached four finals this season, only to come up short in three of them. Erika Andreeva is her first-round opponent.

The other challengers

It is not just Swiatek and Sabalenka that will be gunning for glory in Paris over the next fortnight.

Coco Gauff is looking to become the youngest American woman to win the singles title at the French Open since Evert in 1975, while only Swiatek (36) has won more WTA main draw matches than Elena Rybakina in 2024 (30).

World number three Gauff, who lost to Swiatek in the French Open final two years ago, could become the fourth player since 2000 to make multiple finals at Roland-Garros before turning 21, along with Kim Clijsters, Ana Ivanovic and Swiatek.

Meanwhile, either Rybakina or Marketa Vondrousova could become the fifth player since 2000 to win both Wimbledon and Roland-Garros, along with Ashleigh Barty, Garbine Muguruza, Maria Sharapova and Williams. That's not bad company to be keeping.

Having reached three grand slam finals across 2022 and 2023, Ons Jabeur has endured a frustrating season so far, dropping to world number nine just ahead of 2017 champion Ostapenko, heading into what promises to be an enthralling battle.

Rafael Nadal will begin his French Open campaign against fourth seed Alexander Zverev, as the 14-time champion approaches what will likely be his final tournament at Roland-Garros.

Nadal has repeatedly said he plans to call time on his glittering career at the end of 2024, having struggled with hip and abdominal injuries in recent years.

His 14 titles in the French capital are four more than any other man has won at a specific major, with Novak Djokovic triumphing 10 times at the Australian Open.

The Spaniard, who has missed the last four majors, arrived at Roland-Garros on Monday and faces a tough opening assignment.

He will face world number four Zverev – who won the Italian Open last week – for a place in the second round, where David Goffin or Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard awaits.

Nadal faced Zverev en route to his last grand slam triumph at the 2022 French Open, the German being forced to retire due to an ankle injury over three hours into a gruelling semi-final matchup.

Novak Djokovic starts his title defence against Pierre-Hugues Herbert, as he looks to fend off competition from Jannik Sinner for top spot in the ATP Rankings.

Australian Open winner Sinner will face Christopher Eubanks first up, while third seed Carlos Alcaraz begins against a qualifier.

Like Nadal, Andy Murray is likely featuring at the French Open for the final time, and he has been drawn to face 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka in a huge first-round encounter. 

In the women's draw, Iga Swiatek starts her bid for a third straight French Open crown against either a qualifier or a lucky loser, with Naomi Osaka a potential second-round opponent if the former world number one can overcome Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti.

Coco Gauff is on the same side of the draw as Swiatek, while second seed Arnya Sabalenka begins against Erika Andreeva in the other half, with Elena Rybakina her forecasted semi-final opponent. 

Emma Raducanu will return to action at the Nottingham Open, as she steps up her return to action ahead of Wimbledon.

The 21-year-old withdrew from the French Open after instead choosing to prepare for the grass-court season.

On Wednesday, Raducanu was confirmed as a participant in Nottingham, with the tournament starting on June 8, three weeks prior to the start of Wimbledon.

The former US Open champion has played at the event twice before, but lost to Harriet Dart in 2021 and withdrew due to injury from a match against Viktorija Golubic the following year.

Beatriz Haddad Maia and Madison Keys have both progressed to the quarter-finals of the Internationaux de Strasbourg.

American Keys, seeded fourth, surged clear of China’s Wang Xinyu in a dominant second set to prevail 7-5 6-0, only being broken once in the match.

Haddad Maia, meanwhile, fought back from losing the first three games to defeat Emma Navarro 6-4 7-6 (7-1) in a keenly contested battle.

Second seed Haddad Maia will face Liudmila Samsonova in the last eight, while Keys will take on either Ekaterina Alexandrova or Magda Linette at the WTA 500 event.

Top seed Marketa Vondrousova and two-time tournament winner Elina Svitolina are among the other players due to play later on Wednesday.

Data Debrief: Haddad Maia shows resilience

The battling win for Haddad Maia lasted two hours and 16 minutes, with Navarro pushing the Brazilian all the way.

Navarro forced 17 break points on Haddad Maia’s serve across the two sets and converted six of them, but still fell to defeat.

Haddad Maia now leads the head-to-head against Navarro 2-1, having also beaten her at the Madrid Open last month as part of her run to the last eight in Spain.

Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from French Open qualifying, which starts on Monday.

Having endured an injury-hit few years since her 2021 US Open triumph, Raducanu was able to enter the year's second grand slam with a protected ranking of 103rd.

However, that was not enough to put her on the automatic entry list and she was not awarded a wildcard, making her third alternate for the women's draw.

No reason has been given for Raducanu's withdrawal from next week's qualifying tournament, and she can now only feature at Roland-Garros if three players drop out.

Raducanu was beaten 6-2 6-2 by Argentine qualifier Maria Lourdes Carle in the first round of the Madrid Open last month, subsequently saying she was "mentally and emotionally exhausted".

A host of withdrawals meant she did not have to go through qualifying for the Australian Open earlier this year, though she was beaten by China's Wang Yafan in the second round. 

Raducanu has not made it past the second round in six major appearances since her triumph at Flushing Meadows, and she missed the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open last year after undergoing wrist and ankle surgeries.

Iga Swiatek stormed to her third Italian Open title following a dominant 6-2 6-3 victory over Aryna Sabalenka.

The world number one took just under an hour-and-a-half to deny the world number two, and complete a hat-trick of triumphs in Rome.

The pair were contesting a second final in as many events, with Swiatek saving three championship points before eventually prevailing in the Madrid Open showpiece a fortnight ago.

However, it was one-way traffic this time around. The Pole converted two out of three break points as she controlled the opening set.

Sabalenka was the last player to deny Swiatek in a WTA final, that coming at last year's Madrid Open.

Although, the second seed was helpless as her opponent broke again in game seven of the second set, before wrapping up a fourth title of the season ahead of the French Open later this month.

Data debrief

Landing her third Italian Open title before turning 23, Swiatek is only the second player to achieve that feat after Gabriela Sabatini.

In fact, at 22 years and 352 days old, she is the youngest player to win 10 WTA 1000 titles since the introduction of the format in 2009.

The Pole also became the third player to triumph in Madrid and Rome during the same season, after Dinara Safina (2009) and Serena Williams (2013).

Aryna Sabalenka defeated Danielle Collins 7-5 6-2 to set up yet another meeting with Iga Swiatek at the Italian Open.

Having defeated Collins en route to the final of the Madrid Open, which she lost to Swiatek, Sabalenka repeated the trick with a straight sets win over the American in Thursday's semi-final.

And the Belarusian's reward will be an immediate rematch with Swiatek.

The duo have met 10 times, including in Madrid earlier this month, with Swiatek winning seven times and Sabalenka claiming three victories.

This will be Sabalenka's first appearance in the Italian Open final.

She is the sixth player, along with Simona Halep (2017), Dinara Safina (2009), Serena Williams (2013), Ons Jabeur (2022), and Swiatek (2024) to have reached the final of both Madrid and Rome in the same season.

Data Debrief: Perfect record

Collins is the only player against whom Sabalenka has registered six wins without a loss in WTA events, while only against Maria Sakkari and Elise Mertens does she have more wins in her career in such events (seven each).

The final will mark the fourth meeting on clay between Swiatek and Sabalenka as world number one and two, equalling Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova for the most meetings on the surface as the WTA's top-two ranked players.

Iga Swiatek is through to the Italian Open final for the third time after seeing off Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday.

There was little to separate the two in the opening 50 minutes as they played to 4-4 before Gauff left an opening with back-to-back double faults, and Swiatek took full advantage.

The world number one broke Gauff’s serve four times, including in the fifth game of the second set to swing the momentum firmly in her favour after one hour 48 minutes on the court.

Swiatek has now reached back-to-back WTA 1000 finals after winning the Madrid Open earlier this month and could face Aryna Sabalenka for the title once more if the Belarusian gets past Danielle Collins in the other semi-final.

Data Debrief: Unstoppable on clay

Swiatek has now won 11 consecutive matches, and registered her 10th victory over Gauff in 11 meetings between the two - she has won all four matches against the American on clay. 

Since the format’s introduction in 2009, Swiatek (40 per cent, 12/30) holds the highest percentage of finals reached from WTA-1000 main draws entered. Serena Williams (36.7 per cent, 18/49) is the next best in the format's history.

Since the WTA rankings were first published in 1975, Swiatek has become only the third player to reach multiple Italian Open finals as the WTA's number one, along with Serena Williams (three) and Monica Seles (two). She will be looking for her third Italian Open title on Saturday.

Coco Gauff will have the chance to down world number one Iga Swiatek after progressing to the Italian Open semi-finals with Tuesday's victory over Qinwen Zheng.

The 20-year-old breezed into the last-four draw in Rome after her straight-sets victory over Zheng, winning 7-6 (7-4) 6-1.

Gauff faced just one break point throughout the match, failing to hold her serve at 5-3 up as seven-seed Zhen battled back in the first set.

Yet Gauff eased through the tie-break and never looked back from there on, teeing up a meeting with Swiatek, who overcame Madison Keys in straight sets in her quarter-final clash.

Data Debrief: Young Gauff powers on

No player has won more matches than Gauff (61) in WTA-1000 events before turning 21, since the introduction of the format in 2009, as the American moved past Caroline Wozniacki (60) with victory here.

Wozniacki (eight) is also the only player to manage more WTA-1000 semi-final appearances before her 21th birthday, with Gauff's last-four qualification here taking her onto six – one ahead of Swiatek.

Former US Open champion Dominic Thiem will have to fight for his place at the French Open after missing out on Tuesday's wild-card invitations.

Thiem will retire later this year due to a persistent wrist injury that has derailed his career but will likely need to battle through the qualifying rounds to appear at Roland Garros for a final time.

The two-time French Open semi-finalist is currently six places away from a main-draw spot for the upcoming major, with Richard Gasquet among the eight male players to secure a wild-card invitation.

Frenchman Gasquet will equal Feliciano Lopez's 21 tournaments at Roland Garros, the joint-most appearances of any player in the Open Era.

In the women's tournament, world number 99 Alize Cornet was also invited on a wild-card pick and will appear in a women's singles grand slam main draw for the 72nd time in her career.

That is the third most in the Open Era for major appearances, behind only Venus Williams (93) and Serena Williams (81).

Iga Swiatek soared through to the Italian Open semi-finals following a dominant straight-sets victory over Madison Keys.

The world number one took just 76 minutes to wrap up a commanding 6-1 6-3 win - matching the scoreline which saw her overcome the American in the Madrid Open last four a fortnight ago.

Swiatek broke her opponent four times and saved all 10 break points she faced on the way to setting up a semi-final showdown with either Coco Gauff or Qinwen Zheng.

Yet to drop a set this week, the Pole remains on course to complete a hat-trick of titles in Rome and land her fourth silverware of 2024, in which she now boasts a 36-4 record.

Data debrief

Reaching her 16th WTA 1000 semi-final from 30 main draws entered, Swiatek (53.3 per cent) surpasses Serena Williams (53.1 per cent, 26 from 49) for the highest rate of last-four appearances in such tournaments since the format's introduction in 2009.

The Pole also took her tally of WTA match wins on clay to 75 from 85, with only Monica Seles, Nancy Richey (both 80), Chris Evert (81) and Margaret Court (82) reaching that figure on surface in fewer matches during the Open Era.