3. Madison Keys (Age: 21 years, Rank: 17)
21-year-old Madison Keys is at a different spectrum of her career than Kasatkina and Ostapenko. She has already given ample glimpses of her skills and it is now an even more uphill task for the 2015 Australian Open semi-finalist to come out of the shadows of the Williams sisters and establish herself.
Possessing a massive serve and fierce groundstrokes, she predictably tasted her maiden title glory on the grass of Eastbourne in 2014. Since then, she reached two more WTA finals and interestingly both of them have been on clay.
The latest of them came just a week ago at Rome which happens to be her biggest career final. After some struggle in the early part of the year, she finally seems to have found the right solution to her coaching problems after teaming up with the renowned Thomas Hogstedt.
The Swede’s appointment appears to be reaping rich dividends as the American showed in the Italian capital. It will now be a challenge for her to not fall victim to the pressure of expectations and continue the good work in Paris.
The 15th seed, however, has the ever-dangerous Daria Gavrilova in the second round whom she needs to be wary of.
