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Iga Świątek and Coco Gauff lead a packed field at the 2024 French Open, which gets underway with main-draw action in a day’s time. As a three-time winner and the World No. 1, Świątek will be the heavy favorite to win the title, but there’s no dearth of challengers.
Aryna Sabalenka, who lost two consecutive finals to Świątek in Madrid and Rome, leads the list — which also features the likes of title winners Elena Rybakina and Danielle Collins.
Add to the mix former champions Jelena Ostapenko and Barbora Krejčíková and a host of other title hopefuls to the mix and you have a contest at hand. With 128 names vying for the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen, some names stand out based on their past results.
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Here, we rank the top eight contenders for the title based on their performances during the claycourt swing over the last three years.
Note: The following formula was used to calculate the power rankings: (1x points earned in the 2024 clay swing + 0.5x points earned in the 2023 clay swing + 0.25x points earned in the 2022 clay swing). Only points earned by reaching the quarterfinals or further in a tournament are counted towards the rankings. This was done to avoid giving undue advantage to seeded players who received early-round byes in the WTA 250 and 500 tournaments.
#8, Elina Svitolina
At 10, Elina Svitolina has played the most number of French Open tournaments among the names on this list.
The experience came in handy last year when she, on a comeback trail from her maternity leave, made the quarterfinals with big wins over claycourt mavericks like Daria Kastakina and Martina Trevisan. She had also won the Strasbourg title in the lead-up, giving her enough points to secure a spot in the power rankings.
#7, Jelena Ostapenko
Jelena Ostapenko’s famous run to the French Open may now be old news, but the Latvian continues to inspire confidence in her skills on the red dirt.
An explosive baseliner, Ostapenko gave a peek into her potential at last year’s Italian Open. She reached the semifinal with wins over the likes of Barbora Krejčíková and Paula Badosa, before falling to Elena Rybakina. She has followed it up with another quarterfinal run in Rome this year, being stopped by Aryna Sabalenka.
#6, Coco Gauff
Before New York, there was Paris. American sensation Coco Gauff made her first Grand Slam final at the 2022 French Open while she was still a teenager, losing to Iga Swiatek in the final 6-1, 6-3.
Gauff has since won a title of her own at last year’s US Open, but her love for clay remains well-known. Besides her 2022 run in Paris, she also has the quarterfinal finish at the 2023 French Open and the semifinals at the Italian Open earlier this year to show for.
#5, Ons Jabeur
Ons Jabeur’s 2024 season has failed to pick up steam, but there’s no denying her claycourt pedigree. The Tunisian won her biggest titles on the claycourts of Madrid in 2022.
That was the year when she also made the final at the Italian Open and Charleston. She followed it up with another title, on the green clay at Charleston Open 2023. Besides, she also posted her best French Open performance last year by reaching the quarterfinals. Poor form notwithstanding, she will be keen on bettering that this year.
#4, Danielle Collins
Danielle Collins finds herself in the midst of a renaissance as she plays in her final season on Tour. The American, who announced that 2024 will be her last year on Tour, has already won her biggest title this year and returned to the top 10 of the world rankings.
Currently sitting just outside the elite bracket at No. 12, the big-hitting American comes off of a strong clay swing. She won the title in Charleston, made her first WTA 1000 semifinal on the surface in Rome, and followed it up with another strong showing in Strasbourg, where she is slated to contest the final.
A title days ahead of her French Open campaign would be just the boost that she needs for yet another breakthrough.
#3, Elena Rybakina
Elena Rybakina has not had the best of results in the French capital in recent years, with her exiting the claycourt Grand Slam in the third round in her last two appearances.
The big serve is a better weapon on quicker surfaces, but her triumph at the Italian Open last year shut down critics doubting her ability to do well on the red dirt. Add to the mix a run to the semifinal in Madrid this year and the title under the roof in Stuttgart and the Kazakh begins to look like a formidable opponent.
#2, Aryna Sabalenka
Aryna Sabalenka may have lost the last two claycourt finals that she contested, but it took an in-form Iga Swiatek to stop the Belarusian’s charge on both occasions.
Besides, she has posted strong results in tournaments across the European clay swing, peaking at last year’s Madrid Open to lift the trophy. She came agonizingly close to making the French Open final last year but was unable to get past an inspired Karolina Muchova.
The two finals losses in Madrid and Rome are likely to have lit a fire in her belly and with a game as explosive as hers at her disposal, Sabalenka may well make 2024 her year in the French capital.
#1, Iga Swiatek (defending French Open champ)
Iga Swiatek has been the woman to beat on clay in recent years. The Pole, who shot to fame by winning her first French Open title in 2020, has lifted the trophy in three of the last four years.
A 93% win-loss at the tournament puts her in a different league. And her lead-up could not have been better. A hiccup against Elena Rybakina in Stuttgart notwithstanding, she has been near-flawless on the red dirt, and titles in both Madrid and Rome stand testament to that.
Swiatek had more than double the points that Sabalenka in this year’s power rankings and given the dominance she has exhibited on the surface of late, we cannot say that we’re surprised.
