LEARNING

Romanian Simona Halep enters Roland Garros as the top seed for the second time at Roland Garros and the sixth time in her career at the majors. Since 1968, the No.1 seed at Roland Garros has claimed the title on 19 occasions – including Halep’s championship run in 2018 – and finished runner-up on 13 occasions.

Resurgent former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka enters Roland Garros as the No.10 seed, her first time being seeded at a Grand Slam since she was the No.5 seed in Paris in 2016. The Belarusian boasts a 41-9 record in the first round of Grand Slams, but five of those losses have come at the French Open. 

Sixteen-year-old American Coco Gauff is the youngest of 11 teenagers in the Roland Garros main draw this year and one of two in action on Sunday, taking on No.9 seed and 2019 semifinalist Johanna Konta.

Joining Gauff is Elsa Jacquemot (17), Clara Tauson (17), Leylah Fernandez (18), Diane Parry (18), Marta Kostyuk (18), Amanda Anisimova (19), Kamilla Rakhimova (19), Clara Burel (19), Kaja Juvan (19) and Iga Swiatek (19). Rakhimova, one of six players making her Grand Slam main draw debut in Paris, takes on American Shelby Rogers.

Venus Williams, the oldest player in the draw (40y, 3mo) is playing in her 87th career Grand Slam main draw at 2020 Roland Garros, the most in the Open Era. The elder Williams sister will face Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia for a third time overall and second time in Paris, in the opening round.

Schmiedlova, one of three players entered on a Special Ranking along with American Catherine Bellis and Aussie Daria Gavrilova, owns a 2-0 head-to-head lead against the seven-time Grand Slam champion: in 2014, she came from a set down to win, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the second round, and also beat Williams in three sets (4-6, 6-3, 6-2) earlier this year on the hard courts of Monterrey, Mexico. 

WEATHER

Rain is in the forecast for the entire day in Paris. Maximum temperature: 17C/63F.

TRENDING

ORDER OF PLAY

Top seed Simona Halep starts her bid for a second French Open title on Court Philippe Chatrier on Sunday.

For the Order of Play in full, visit rolandgarros.com.

READING

Learn more about the aforementioned six players making their Grand Slam main draw debut in Paris in our latest edition of Getting to Know You at wtatennis.com from Alex Macpherson. 

No.1 seedHalep enters the French Open ranked World No.2 but has a chance to leave, once again, as World No.1. WTA Insider Courtney Nguyen breaks it all down. For more draw analysis from WTA Insider, click here. 

With an autumnal edition of Roland Garros giving rise to very different weather forecasts and surface conditions, click here to read why WTA Legend Martina Navratilova thinks that the state of play will favor the top seed as she pursues a third Grand Slam title.

Though she's not scheduled to play on Sunday, rolandgarros.com's Alex Sharp has more from Mexican history-maker Renata Zarazua, who's set to be the first woman from her country to compete in the main draw of a Grand Slam in 20 years. Find out what that means to her, and why she makes time to watch Halep play matches in her time off.

Sidelined since last year's US Open before returning at an ITF event last week, former Top 20 player Gavrilova is making a long-awaited Grand Slam return on Sunday. Read more about the Aussie's comeback effort in this exclusive with Darren Walton of the AAP.