Tennis riddle: When would you pick against a player who has won a tournament four of the last five times? Possible answer: When she has not reached a tournament final in 49 weeks, seen her No.1 ranking evanesced to No. 4 and she projects abject stress on the job. So it is that Iga Świątek enters Roland Garros as the two-time defending champion and one of the greatest clay courters ever. Yet, she arrives as a player in a deep freeze.
If she can’t defrost her tableau, who will win? Qinwen Zheng won the last event held at Roland Garros (the 2024 Paris Olympics) and is coming into form. Spreading joy wherever she goes (dashes), Jasmine Paolini was a finalist in ’24 and won in Rome last week. Coco Gauff overcomes the opponent and herself more times than not. We’ll take Aryna Sabalenka, the top seed and the clear-cut best player on the WTA Tour over the last year-plus.
