Main-draw entry lists are out for the two red-clay events taking place the week before Roland Garros: the WTA 500 Internationaux de Strasbourg and the WTA 250 Grand Prix De Son Altesse Royale La Princesse Lalla Meryem.
Eight Top 20 players will be headed to Strasbourg, France for the WTA 500 event, which features main-draw action from Sunday, May 19 through Saturday, May 25th.
World No.5 Jessica Pegula leads the Strasbourg entries and will contest the event for the first time since 2021. American Pegula has yet to play a red-clay match this year after withdrawing from Stuttgart and Madrid for recovery, although she did make the Charleston semifinals on green clay this month.
The other Top 20 players entered are Jasmine Paolini (this year's WTA 1000 Dubai champion), Beatriz Haddad Maia, Danielle Collins (winner of back-to-back titles at WTA 1000 Miami and Charleston this year), Ekaterina Alexandrova, Liudmila Samsonova, Elina Svitolina and Madison Keys.
Former World No.3 Svitolina is the defending Strasbourg champion and also won the title in 2020. Last year, Svitolina was less than two months into her return from maternity leave when she captured the crown while ranked World No.508.
Three more former Strasbourg champions are included in the main-draw entries: 2018 titlist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 2019 victor Dayana Yastremska and 2021 champion Barbora Krejcikova.
2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens is also entered into the 28-player field, as is 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez. Canada's Fernandez is also the last direct entry at World No.35.
The full Strasbourg main-draw entry list can be found at the tournament website here.
The WTA 250 Grand Prix De Son Altesse Royale La Princesse Lalla Meryem in Rabat, Morocco also boasts a former US Open champion in the form of Bianca Andreescu.
Canada's Andreescu, who won the 2019 US Open title as a teenager, is entered with her protected ranking of No.64. Former World No.4 Andreescu and 31 other players will contest main-draw play in Morocco from Sunday, May 19 through Saturday, May 25th.
The highest-ranked player on the entry list is No.37 Yuan Yue, who has surged this season. Yuan started the year ranked No.77 but has risen 40 spots, mainly due to a nine-match winning streak where she won her first title in Austin and made the Indian Wells quarterfinals.
World No.46 Lucia Bronzetti of Italy will be back in an attempt to defend her maiden title. She and Yuan will be joined by their fellow Top 50 players Anna Blinkova and Arantxa Rus.
Another former champion from Italy, 2022 titlist Martina Trevisan, will also return. Among the other entries are Egypt's Mayar Sherif, American Taylor Townsend, Argentina's Nadia Podoroska, and this year's Bogota champion Camila Osorio of Colombia. The last direct entry is No.84 Kayla Day of the United States.
