First round singles action begins on Sunday in Paris.
In men’s singles, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have combined to win the last five Majors, separating themselves from the field since the start of 2024. They are the top two seeds in Paris, and may be on a collision course to play in the final two Sundays from now, in a rematch from last week’s final in Rome. But threatening names who yearn to prevent that include 24-time Major champion Novak Djokovic and two-time Roland Garros runner-up Casper Ruud.
In women’s singles, Iga Swiatek has won this tournament four out of the last five years. However, she arrives in quite a slump, having not won a title since leaving Paris a year ago. The World No.1 in 2025, by a wide margin, is three-time Major champion Aryna Sabalenka, who looks to win her first Major outside of a hard court. Other top contenders include 2023 US Open champ Coco Gauff, last year’s runner-up Jasmine Paolini, and two-time WTA 1000 champion this season, Mirra Andreeva.
Sabalenka and Paolini will play their first round matches on Sunday, as will Olympic gold medalist Qinwen Zheng, who returns to the same grounds where she won her medal last summer. She faces a tough first round draw in 2021 runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Meanwhile, eighth-seeded Lorenzo Musetti is the highest seed men’s seed to play on Sunday, while his fellow Italian Lorenzo Sonego takes on 13th-seeded Ben Shelton.
Through the tournament, this preview will analyze the day’s most prominent matches, while highlighting the other notable matches on the schedule. Sunday’s play gets underway at 11:00am local time.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Qinwen Zheng (8) – Second on Court Philippe-Chatrier
Just 10 months ago, Qinwen experienced a life-changing week in Paris. After upsetting gold medal favorite Iga Swiatek in the semifinals, she went on to secure the gold medal for China. However, during the French Open on these grounds, Zheng owns a modest record of just 6-3, and is yet to advance beyond the fourth round. But she is coming off a semifinal run last week in Rome, where she finally earned her first victory against Aryna Sabalenka in her seventh try.
Four years ago, Pavlyuchenkova was an extremely surprising finalist at this tournament, as she was previously 0-6 in Major quarterfinals. She’s reached two further Slam quarterfinals since, including this past January in Melbourne, but the 2021 French Open remains the only time she’s prevailed in that round of a Major. Despite that quarterfinal run to start the season, Anastasia is just 6-7 during 2025, and has lost five of her last six matches.
In their only previous meeting, Pavlyuchenkova was victorious, which occurred last summer in Cincinnati. However, that was shortly after Qinwen’s gold medal run in Paris, and she was physically and emotionally drained. The Chinese No.1 possesses the bigger game, and is a considerable favorite to advance on Sunday.
Ben Shelton (13) vs. Lorenzo Sonego – Not Before 8:15pm on Court Philippe-Chatrier
Shelton is one of the rare American men to make a full commitment to the European clay court season. Yet despite playing Monte Carlo, Munich, Madrid, and Rome, he accumulated a record of just 5-4, with four of those wins coming within his semifinal run at the smallest of those events in Munich. Ben is 15-10 overall this year, and achieved his second Major semifinal in Melbourne. But he’s just 2-2 lifetime at this event.
Sonego achieved his first Major quarterfinal this year in Melbourne, eventually losing to Shelton in a four-set and nearly four-hour quarterfinal. And since that loss, Lorenzo has struggled mightily, with a record of only 3-9. At the French Open, the Italian is 9-6, and advanced to the round of 16 in both 2020 and 2023.
Overall they’ve played three times, and all three matches have been gritty affairs. Before their Australian Open quarterfinal this year, they last met two years ago in the same round of this same tournament, with Sonego winning in four. And three years ago in Cincinnati, an inexperienced Shelton, then-ranked 229th in the world, upset Sonego 7-5 in the third. So while Ben leads their head-to-head 2-1, their only clay court encounter went to Lorenzo.
Shelton is the better player on big stages, and will embrace the spotlight of the first night match of this extended fortnight. However, his power will be a bit more subdued by the slower conditions at night. I expect another longer battle between these two on Sunday evening, but considering Sonego’s recent form, Shelton must be favored.
Other Notable Matches on Sunday:
Aryna Sabalenka (1) vs. Kamilla Rakhimova – Sabalenka is 34-6 on the year, and 11-2 on clay. She is 2-0 against 23-year-old Rakhimova, though last summer in Washington, their match went to 6-4 in the third, and lasted nearly three hours.
Lorenzo Musetti (8) vs. Yannick Hanfmann (Q) – Musetti advanced to the semifinals or better at all three clay court Masters events across the last two months. He has split two previous meetings with Hanfmann, both of which took place on clay.
Jasmine Paolini (4) Yue Yuan – Paolini is coming off a tremendous week in Rome, where she won both the singles and doubles titles. However, this is the first time in her career defending such a big result, after becoming a surprise Roland Garros finalist a year ago. She has taken both prior encounters with Yuan, who won an ITF-level clay court title last month.
Sunday’s full Order of Play is here.
