French Open Women’s Draw: Kerber Faces Danger, Muguruza To Play Former Champion - UBITENNIS
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French Open Women’s Draw: Kerber Faces Danger, Muguruza To Play Former Champion

By Adam Addicott
4 Min Read
Angelique Kerber (zimbio.com)

The women’s draw for the 117th French Open has taken place on Friday with top seed Angelique Kerber set to begin her campaign against Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova.

Sezioni
Projected second week matchesFull Draw

The world No.1 enters the tournament with a lack of form after only winning two matches on the clay this season. Kerber will play Makarova for the first time in her career, but will be aware of the test she faces. Makarova is a former French Open doubles champion and a former top-10 singles player. Further on in the draw, the German faces potential clashes against Roberta Vinci in the third round followed potentially by Caroline Wozniacki, who has been struggling with a back issue in recent weeks. Monica Puig, Sam Stosur and Jelena Ostapenko are also drawn in her section.

Defending champion Garbine Muguruza will start her campaign against another French Open winner, Francesca Schiavone. Their head-to-head is currently tied at 1-1, but Muguruza won their latest match in straight sets last year. Muguruza, who hasn’t won a title since Roland Garros last year, could also face home favourite Kristina Mladenovic in the fourth round. This season the Frenchwoman has won the St. Petersburg Open and has reached the final at three other tournaments.

“I’m obviously excited to be back. It’s an emotional place for me. Now only because I won last year. It is a special grand slam because I grew up playing on clay courts. So it means a lot to be back and to be in this privileged situation.” Muguruza said during the draw ceremony.

Third seed Karolina Pliskova will start against China’s Zheng Saisai. Zhang recently won the biggest clay court title of her career in her native country at the Kunming Open, a $100,000 event. The Czech is yet to progress beyond the second round at the tournament.

Elina Svitolina, who is the only woman this season to win four singles titles, faces tour veteran Yaroslava Shvedova. Since January betting website Ladbrooks has slashed her winning odds from 66/1 to 9/1 following her surge on the tour this year. If she wishes to reach the second round in Paris, she may need to overcome Ana Konjuh in the third round followed by Madison Keys. Roland Garros is the only grand slam where Svitolina has reached the quarter-final at.

Other notable first round matches include Madrid Open champion Simona Halep against Jana Cepelova, Johanna Konta faces Su-Wei Hsieh and Svetlana Kuznetsova will play Christina McHale.

Projected second week matches

Fourth Round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Full Draw

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