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Tennis - 24. May 2017.

Open Field for women's title at Roland Garros

There are times – just occasionally – when it feels as if a Grand Slam title is all but nailed on before anybody so much as hits a ball on Day 1. But as for matter of who will lift Coupe Suzanne Lenglen at Roland-Garros 2017 - not so much.

Consider the evidence (and there is plenty of it). Exhibit A: Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova have snaffled five French Opens between them, including four of the last five, and so might reasonably be the two hottest names tipped for the crown - if they were actually here. But no, and that leaves an open field with many contenders – so many that Simona Halep has not only flatly denied she is now favourite, but when asked who is most likely to triumph, replied: “About 15 players.”

That estimate may be on the generous side, but not wildly. Whatever the 25-year-old Romanian may claim, she herself is of course still on the list, having won in Madrid this month.

It has been a long road from her breakthrough year of 2013, where she turned heads by amassing six titles. When she made the final here three years ago, it looked set to be a springboard to greater achievements still. But instead she stalled, and it was only in the current European clay-court swing that she emerged with true conviction, having worked especially hard on the mental side of her game since losing to Johanna Konta in the Miami quarter-finals. She looked set to follow up her Madrid victory with the title in Rome before turning her ankle badly in the final and surrendering to Elina Svitolina. Much will hinge on her recovery.

Speaking of the Ukrainian, four titles this year make Svitolina, 22, the form player of 2017, and she has been rewarded with a new career high ranking of No.6 as well as top spot in the WTA Porsche Race to Singapore. True, in Rome she benefited not only from that injury to Halep but also another to Garbine Muguruza (of whom more shortly), and it is possible that breathing the heady air of the favourites may be a stretch at Roland-Garros for one who pierced the top 10 for the first time just three months ago. Perhaps crucially, her 2015 quarter-final here remains by a distance her best Grand Slam to date.

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