A group that could wreak havoc on the women's draw in week one
Ahead of Thursday’s draw ceremony at L’orangerie, intrigue is in the air. In one of the more wide open women’s singles fields in recent years, a bevy of unseeded players will be lurking in this year’s draw, including former Grand Slam champions and a terre battue titan who won the biggest title of her career on the Parisian clay in 2024.
Which of these ten will strike fear into a seeded opponent when the draw is revealed on Thursday at 2pm?
We start with 2024 Olympic gold medallist Zheng, who is still in the process of rebuilding her game – and her ranking – after undergoing elbow surgery in 2025. Ranked No.53 at the moment, Zheng owns a 10-4 lifetime record at Roland-Garros and reached the quarterfinals last year.
Throw in six more wins, including a semifinal triumph over then-world No.1 Iga Swiatek at the 2024 Paris Olympics, to understand why Zheng has to be considered a force to be reckoned with, no matter the ranking.
The former Roland-Garros girls' semifinalist has already started to make waves on the big tour. Bartunkova reached her first tour semifinal last season, and backed up that performance with a trip to the third round at the Australian Open which featured a win over Belinda Bencic, as well as a trip to the round of 16 in Rome that was punctuated by an upset win over Madison Keys.
The first Filipina to ever crack the WTA’s top 50 will bid for her first Roland-Garros win this year in Paris. Trailblazing Eala has been making waves on tour since her breakout trip to the Miami semis in 2025 – the 20-year-old southpaw has six top 20 and four top 10 wins to her name since last March.
She’s the ultimate dark horse. A woman who has two major titles to her name, and one who has already won Roland-Garros as an unseeded player. Krejcikova did that in 2021, defeating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final to become the third unseeded women’s singles champion in tournament history. The 30-year-old doesn’t come to Paris in scorching form, but she did reach a 125k final in Parma last week.
A junior champion in Paris in 2024, Valentova is making a smooth transition to the pro tour these days. The 19-year-old enters the draw at a peak ranking of No.43. She qualified for the main draw last year and won her first main draw match before losing to eventual champion Coco Gauff in round two.
Now the highest-ranked Turkish player in history, Sonmez is hoping to bring more glory to her country in Paris this year. The world No.59 made her Grand Slam debut here in 2024, but has yet to win a match on the Parisian terre battue. She has, however, reached the third round at Wimbledon and the Australian Open.
The Greek was one point from reaching the final in Paris in 2021, but lost in heartbreaking fashion to eventual champion Krejcikova. Sakkari has lost four of five matches on the Parisian clay since. At 30 years of age the former world No.3 is hoping for a long overdue return to form this year in Paris.
Boisson was devastatingly good in 2025. The Dijon native secured back-to-back wins over Jessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva to become the lowest-ranked women’s singles Grand Slam semifinalist in 40 years, and the second woman in history to beat multiple top 10 players in her Grand Slam debut. Ranked No.361 this time last year, Boisson currently holds a top 50 spot.
A two-time Roland-Garros quarterfinalist, and a perennial nightmare to face on the clay, Putintseva is one of the unseeded players that no one will want to take on in round one. She’s 10-2 lifetime in the opening round at the Parisian Slam, and 19-12 overall.
Will lightning strike twice? Thunderbolts cracked the US Open draw wide open in 2021 when Raducanu won the women’s singles title on her main draw debut. The 23-year-old, who recently reunited with Andrew Richardson, the coach who guided her during that run, is hoping to create another mind-blowing chapter in Paris. She’ll have to shake off the rust to do it – Raducanu has suffered from post-viral syndrome in recent weeks, and has not won a match on tour since Indian Wells.
ROLAND-GARROS
18 May - 7 June 2026
