Thursday's second round at Roland Garros brings the top half of the women's draw back into action, with Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Victoria Mboko all expected to advance but facing opponents who carry more nuance than their rankings suggest. The day's most intriguing contest pits Anastasia Potapova, the third-most successful player on clay this season with a 12-3 record, against Katie Boulter, whose transformation on the surface began with a title on Parisian clay twelve months ago. On Philippe Chatrier, Donna Vekic returns to the courts where she won Olympic silver in 2024 - now fighting her way back through qualifiers and Challengers, she faces 16th seed Naomi Osaka in a clash loaded with contrasting momentum. Iva Jovic and Emma Navarro renew their Strasbourg rivalry, and sixth seed Amanda Anisimova looks forward regaining her match practice back after injury layoff.
Sabalenka faces home hope Jacquemot with early wobbles fresh in memory
Aryna Sabalenka takes on Elsa Jacquemot in Thursday's second round carrying the weight of a familiar pattern - the world number one beat Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-4, 6-2 in the opener but was broken while serving for the set at 5-3 and again while serving for the match at 5-1, extending a concerning trend of letting opponents back into matches from dominant positions that has followed her through the entire clay season. In Madrid, she held six match points against Hailey Baptiste before suffering the most dramatic comeback loss of the year, and in Rome she fell to 36-year-old Sorana Cirstea after winning the opening set. Those lapses will need addressing if she is to go deep, though her 22-match first-round winning streak at Slams and a clean 29-25 winners-to-unforced-errors ratio against Bouzas Maneiro suggest the raw level is still there when she finds her rhythm.
Jacquemot, 23 and ranked 67th, has shown steady improvement at Grand Slams after a slow start to her career at this level. The Frenchwoman debuted at Roland Garros in 2020 but managed just one match win over the following five years. Since last season, however, she has found her footing - a third-round run here in 2025 remains her best Grand Slam result, where she fell in three sets to eventual semifinalist Lois Boisson. She has since won at least one match at every major, building a quiet consistency that earned her a first-round victory over Linda Fruhvirtova 6-4, 6-3 - her first main draw win on clay this season. Her lone victory over a top-20 opponent came at the Australian Open when she defeated Marta Kostyuk in a match decided by three tiebreaks, proof that she can compete under pressure even if the gap in firepower against Sabalenka looks considerable.
Gauff meets clay specialist Sherif in title defence second round
Defending champion Coco Gauff continues her bid for back-to-back titles against qualifier Mayar Sherif, who represents one of those tricky early-round assignments that can catch a favourite cold if the conditions align. Gauff was clinical in her opener against Taylor Townsend, winning 6-4, 6-0 and taking 11 of the last 12 games after a competitive first set. She broke Townsend's serve six times and won 16 of 27 serve pressure points, showing the kind of composure that carried her to the title twelve months ago. Her Roland Garros pedigree is extraordinary for a 22-year-old - champion last year, finalist in 2022, semifinalist in 2024, quarterfinalist in 2023 and 2021.
Sherif, the Egyptian ranked 129th, is a player whose career has been defined by clay. Once ranked as high as 31st, she won her sole WTA title in Parma in 2022 on the surface and holds 19 Challenger and ITF titles, 16 of them on clay. The numbers tell a stark story of surface dependence - she has won 30 of 54 career main draw matches on clay compared to just 10 of 61 on all other surfaces combined. Her first-round win over Dalma Galfi 7-5, 6-4 was her first WTA Tour victory on clay in two years, dating back to Roland Garros 2024, as she has spent most of her recent time competing at Challenger level. She has never advanced past the second round in Paris, and while her clay court instincts make her a more dangerous opponent than the ranking suggests, Gauff's all-court dominance should be too much to overcome.
Mboko faces experienced Siniakova in step up from opener
Victoria Mboko delivered an authoritative 6-1, 6-2 victory over Nikola Bartunkova in the first round, continuing the upward trajectory that has made the 19-year-old Canadian a top-10 fixture since her stunning WTA 1000 Montreal title last year. She followed that breakthrough with a Doha final and quarterfinals at Indian Wells and Miami in 2026, and answered lingering questions about her clay court credentials by reaching the final in Strasbourg last week. Her pressure point numbers against Bartunkova were dominant - 10 of 13 on serve and 14 of 23 on return - reflecting the growing tactical maturity of a player who reached the third round here on debut last year.
Thursday brings a considerably sterner examination in Katerina Siniakova, the 30-year-old Czech ranked 36th who brings a wealth of Grand Slam experience that Bartunkova could not. Siniakova has won 31 career matches at the majors, including 12 of 23 at Roland Garros with a best result of the fourth round in 2019. Beyond her doubles expertise, she has shown solid singles form this season - a fourth-round run at Indian Wells where she defeated Mirra Andreeva in three sets was the standout, complemented by a third round in Madrid and a second round in Rome. She has won 12 matches against top-10 opponents in her career, converting exactly 25% of those encounters, and will not be overawed by Mboko's seeding or power. The Canadian's ability to impose her physicality from the baseline will be tested against an opponent who knows how to construct points on clay.
Potapova and Boulter meet in clay form clash
Beyond the top seeds, this shapes up as one of Thursday's most compelling contests. Anastasia Potapova has been the third-best performer on clay this season behind Mirra Andreeva and Marta Kostyuk, compiling a 12-3 record in main draws on the surface. Her season on the dirt has been a model of consistency against quality opposition - a final in Linz where she fell to Andreeva, a semifinal in Madrid as a lucky loser from qualifying where tournament champion Kostyuk ended her run, and a fourth-round exit in Rome at the hands of Jessica Pegula. All three losses came against players firmly established in the top tier. In the first round she dismantled Maya Joint 6-1, 6-2, the young Australian who arrived in the midst of a ten-match losing streak. Potapova has climbed back into the top 30 after two difficult seasons and looked dangerous at this tournament as recently as 2024, when she reached the fourth round.
Katie Boulter's relationship with clay has been a work in progress. Before 2025, the Brit had never won a main draw match on the WTA Tour on the surface. The turning point came when she won the WTA 125 title in Paris last year, a result she described in an exclusive interview given for TennisRatio as a genuine surprise that shifted her entire perspective on clay court tennis. Since that breakthrough she has played competently on the dirt - a semifinal at WTA 250 Rouen and a match win in Madrid this season - though she remains more comfortable on faster surfaces. Her first round against Akasha Urhobo, ranked 185th, was tighter than expected at 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 - Boulter had to hold her nerve after leading 5-2 in the decider and watching the American begin to claw back. Against Potapova's proven clay court pedigree and momentum, she will need to be sharper from the start.
Osaka draws dangerous Vekic in battle of contrasting trajectories
Naomi Osaka navigated her first-round assignment against Laura Siegemund with characteristic power, winning 6-3, 7-6(3) behind an impressive serve that produced 18 of 22 serve pressure points won and four aces at 76% first-serve winning percentage. The 16th seed survived a set point at 5-3 down in the second set before raising her level decisively in the tiebreak, showing the kind of composure under pressure that four Grand Slam titles tend to produce. Her clay court ceiling at Roland Garros remains an open question - she has never been past the third round here - but two match wins each in Madrid and Rome this season suggest she can at least compete on the surface.
Donna Vekic presents a very different kind of challenge to Siegemund. The Croatian is in the middle of a significant career crisis - after a brilliant 2024 that saw her reach the Wimbledon semifinals and the Olympic final right here on the Roland Garros courts, where she won silver after losing to Qinwen Zheng, her form collapsed. She won just 14 of 37 matches in 2025, tumbling out of the top 100 entirely during March. Rather than stepping back, Vekic fought through qualifying rounds and Challenger events to rebuild, and her 2026 clay season shows genuine signs of recovery - a semifinal at WTA 500 Linz as a qualifier and a semifinal at the WTA 125 Challenger in Istanbul. She beat Alice Tubello 6-3, 6-2 in the first round to continue that momentum. Osaka and Vekic have met twice before, though their most recent encounter was in Stuttgart in 2019 - seven years ago - making their head-to-head record essentially irrelevant. This is a clash of contrasting trajectories: Osaka steady and seeded, Vekic hungry and with nothing to lose.
Jovic and Navarro renew rivalry in good momentum
The most compelling matchup on Wednesday's women's schedule is a rematch from last week's Strasbourg second round, where Emma Navarro ground past third seed Iva Jovic in three sets en route to winning the title - her first victory over a top-20 opponent all season. The 25th seed arrived in Paris on a wave of confidence after a breakthrough week that snapped months of frustration, entering Roland Garros with a 10-11 record before Strasbourg's reset. Navarro described the title as a turning point after health issues had limited her schedule, and she will be eager to prove that form was no fluke.
Jovic, ranked 17th, will want revenge after running out of ideas in the Strasbourg decider, where Navarro raced through 6-1 in the third set. The 18-year-old's clay season has been a rollercoaster - a Charleston semifinal and a match point against Coco Gauff in Rome on one hand, but an early exit from Strasbourg and inconsistency on the other. She defeated Alexandra Eala in three sets in the first round here without particular fuss, but will need to find a higher level than last week if she is to trouble Navarro on a surface where the American's grittiness and shot variety can be suffocating. Navarro has escaped the well-known "curse" naggling the players who win the events in Grand Slam preceeding week to exit early on the biggest stage. Her match against Janice Tjen ranked 40th in WTA list was not a pretty performance. Navarro committed 35 unforced errors while hitting just 13 winners, according to stats, however her opponent recorded even worse (14-44). The American who came back to top 25 after her Strasbourg success caught the score in second set from early break down to win 5 out of 6 last games of the match.
Anisimova enjoys comeback against Grabher
Amanda Anisimova showed enough in her first-round win over Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah to suggest the left wrist injury that kept her out for eight weeks has healed, but the quality of opposition tells us little about where she truly stands. The sixth seed dropped serve twice in the opening five games before unleashing 24 winners in the next 11, her signature backhand returning as the match progressed. "It's been a tough couple of months," she said afterward. "Injuries are part of the sport and I've done everything I could to be ready for this tournament." Anisimova joked that the layoff felt like "three pre-seasons in a row" and has used the time to settle into a new coaching setup with Sebastian Sachs. Paris holds special significance for the American, who made her Grand Slam debut here as a wild card in 2017 and reached the semifinals two years later. Last year's runs to the Wimbledon and US Open finals proved she can compete for major titles when healthy, and she described Roland Garros as feeling like a second home on her eighth appearance. "I can use the experience, it's a huge advantage," she said.
Julia Grabher, ranked 121st, is no pushover despite her ranking. The Austrian, once as high as 54th, beat Paula Badosa in three sets in Madrid earlier this season and dispatched Rebecca Sramkova 6-2, 6-2 in the first round here. She has just three main draw wins across all surfaces in 2026 and is working her way back from her own injury troubles, but carries 15 career clay court titles at ITF level and knows how to compete on the dirt. This should still be Anisimova's match to lose, but the sixth seed will need to find her range faster than she did on Monday.
Keys looks to build on dominant opener against Ruzic
Madison Keys put any lingering fitness doubts behind her with a 6-3, 6-0 demolition of Hanne Vandewinkel in the first round, finishing with a 29-21 winners-to-unforced-errors ratio and never facing a break point in the bagel second set. The 19th seed had entered Paris with question marks over a thigh injury that forced her retirement from the WTA 125 Paris final while leading Diane Parry 6-3 and also caused a withdrawal from Strasbourg, but there was no sign of physical limitation against the Belgian debutante. Her first-serve winning percentage of 79% reflected the serving authority that carried her to last year's quarterfinal at Roland Garros.
Antonia Ruzic, the 23-year-old Croatian ranked 64th, arrives after a gutsy first-round comeback against qualifier Ashlyn Krueger, recovering from 3-6 down to win 6-2, 6-2 for her first career Grand Slam victory. Her 2026 season has been a mixed bag - a 10-9 record in the main draw, though six of those wins came early in the season when she reached the semifinals of WTA 250 Hobart and the quarterfinals of WTA 1000 Dubai. The Dubai run included a victory over Elena Rybakina, though the Kazakh retired in the third set, making it Ruzic's only win from nine career matches against top-20 opposition. Keys' combination of power and precision from the baseline should prove a significant step up from anything Ruzic has faced this fortnight.
