The french open (Roland Garros), a second Grand Slam tournament of the year, will begin on Sunday. With Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova out, let's see which players are the top favorites to win the competition.
Angelique Kerber
Well, Angelique Kerber is really struggling with her form at the moment, but she is still the No.1 female player in the world, so it would be very unprofessional to rule her out of the favorites list. Kerber has already lost 12 matches this season, and she has some problems with her left hamstring injury. Let's hope she is fully recovered and prepared for the second Grand Slam of the season.
Her first opponent is Ekatarina Makarova.
Karolina Pliskova
The No.2 seed Karolina Pliskova has one of the greatest serves in the world, and she can hit the ball really hard. But, Pliskova is not that effective on the clay court, as she lost four of her last eight matches on that surface. Still, she has the quality to compete on the highest level and should make it into the final four. Her first opponent is Saisai Zheng.
Simona Halep
Halep is one of the best clay court players in the world, and she would probably be the biggest favorite to win the French Open if she were healthy. But, the Romanian suffered an ankle injury last week, and she is definitely not at 100 percent. Still, if she can beat her first few opponents easily, she could enter the second week of the tournament healthy.
Halep will play against Jana Cepelova in the first round.
Venus Williams
She is 37 years old, and she has never won the French Open. So, how is Venus Williams one of the favorites? Well, Venus definitely has the charisma and the winner's mentality. She played the French Open final back in 2002, and she has got two titles in doubles, as well.
There is surely a lack of competition at this Grand Slam, so Venus could win this one. Her first opponent is Quang Wang.
Garbine Muguruza
Last year's French Open champion, Garbine Muguruza, is surely one of the favorites, but she needs to push her game to a higher level in order to repeat that kind of a performance. Garbine has some neck issues, so that's another problem for the Spaniard.
She'll play against Francesca Schiavone in the first round.
Caroline Wozniacki, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Kristina Mladenovic, Dominika Cibulkova and Agnieszka Radwanska are some of the other players that could become the French Open champions.
Kuznetsova, Schiavone and Muguruza are the only players in the main draw who had won this competition in the singles.
