Wednesday's second-round action on the women's side features nine top-20 seeds in action. Elena Rybakina, the Australian Open champion and WTA Race leader with 31 wins this season, faces her toughest second-round test against Charleston finalist Yuliia Starodubtseva, while Iga Swiatek looks to build on her 60-minute first round warm-up in another step against Sara Bejlek. Marta Kostyuk brings a 12-match winning streak and an unbeaten clay record into a routine assignment. Mirra Andreeva, who leads the tour in clay court wins this season, and Elina Svitolina, the Rome champion, should both progress without drama.
Rybakina faces toughest second-round test of the top seeds
Elena Rybakina dispatched Veronika Erjavec in 75 minutes on Monday, but her second-round opponent presents a significantly sterner challenge. Yulia Starodubtseva, the world No. 49, is in the midst of a breakthrough season headlined by a run to the Charleston 500 final, where she beat several top players before falling to Jessica Pegula. The Ukrainian then reached the semifinals of the well-stacked WTA 125 in Paris, pushing Madison Keys close in a tight loss - Keys was avenging Starodubtseva's upset of her in the Charleston semifinals. On clay, Starodubtseva is a competent operator, though her 3-15 career record against top-20 opponents suggests Rybakina's power game should ultimately prove too much. The Australian Open champion and WTA Race leader enters with a 31-7 season record - the best on tour - and her 13-3 clay record over the past year continues to underline her growing comfort on the surface, even if her first-serve percentage remains a concern.
Swiatek meets Bejlek in step up from first round
Iga Swiatek's 60-minute demolition of Emerson Jones offered the lightest possible start to her campaign, and Sara Bejlek represents a meaningful step up in quality. The 20-year-old Czech, ranked 35th, matched her best Grand Slam result by reaching the second round with a 6-3, 6-2 win over qualifier Sloane Stephens - her first victory in almost two months. Bejlek won the Abu Dhabi 500 on hard court earlier this season in a breakthrough result, but has managed just three wins since, and her main tour clay record of 2-4 in 2026 suggests she is still finding her feet on the surface at the highest level. Her Challenger pedigree on clay is stronger - three WTA 125 titles last season and a 25-9 record over the past year - but the leap from that level to facing a four-time Roland Garros champion on Philippe-Chatrier is enormous. Swiatek's 107-18 tour-level clay record speaks for itself.
Kostyuk continues first title contender quest
Marta Kostyuk enters Wednesday's match riding the longest active winning streak in women's tennis - 12 consecutive victories encompassing titles in Rouen and Madrid and an unbeaten record on clay this season. The 15th seed, who produced a commanding first-round win over Oksana Selekhmeteva despite learning hours earlier that a missile strike had landed near her family's home in Kyiv, has never been in better form. Her Madrid title made her a legitimate contender in Paris for the first time, though her best Roland Garros result - a fourth round in 2021 - came five years ago. In her quarter she faces a potential collision course with Svitolina and Swiatek, but first must navigate Katie Volynets, ranked 108th, who has a 3-16 career record against top-20 opponents and has never advanced past the second round here.
Svitolina eyes smoother passage after Bondar scare
Elina Svitolina will hope for a less dramatic afternoon than Monday's three-set epic against Anna Bondar, where the Rome champion was broken to love serving for the match before winning the tiebreak. The seventh seed's form over the past two months has been extraordinary - a 29-7 season record, the third-highest win tally on tour behind only Rybakina and Andreeva, and a title run in Rome that included consecutive victories over the world No. 2, 3 and 4. Her opponent, 20-year-old qualifier Kaitlin Quevedo, ranked 126th, arrives on a nine-match winning streak that includes an ITF W75 title in Saint-Gaudens, but the Spaniard has never faced an opponent of Svitolina's calibre. Her 2-5 career record against top-100 players and limited tour-level experience should make this a comfortable assignment, though the youngster's seven clay court titles at Challenger and ITF level suggest she has some potential to fulfill in the future and will at least compete before the gap in quality tells.
Andreeva faces qualifier in routine assignment
Mirra Andreeva, the eighth seed, should encounter few problems against qualifier Marina Bassols Ribera in what looks like one of the most straightforward matchups of the day. Andreeva owns the second-best win tally on tour this season at 30-9 and leads the WTA in clay court wins with 16-3, a run that includes a title in Linz, a Madrid final and a Roland Garros quarterfinal in the current 12-month period. The 19-year-old banished last year's painful Chatrier memories with a composed first-round win over Fiona Ferro, and her game looks well-suited for another deep run. Bassols Ribera, 26 years-old, is ranked 175th and operates primarily on the Challenger circuit, though she produced one notable result in qualifying by defeating former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova, who is attempting a comeback after a long injury absence. The Czech reached the Madrid quarterfinals, the Rome round of 16 and the Linz quarterfinals this season, which makes this outcome probably the biggest upset of whole the qualifiers.
