French Open: Top 5 contenders for the women’s singles title

#2 Angelique Kerber

The winner of the season’s opening Major can never be counted out heading into the French Open. At the Australian Open, Angelique Kerber turned over a new leaf. Exuding oodles of poise and determination, she toppled the two top favourites – Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka – to claim her maiden Slam title.

Gone was her fragile, brittle mental toughness and she was ready to take on the world.

However, the months following such a momentous feat have predictably been tough to follow up to. After being in the wilderness, it was at the Miami Open that she started shining once again where she reached the semi-finals.

She carried on that form to the opening claycourt events this year and made it to the last-four at Charleston and successfully defended her indoor title at Stuttgart.

However, her performance graph suffered a dip once more when the Tour made its outdoor claycourt stops at Madrid and Rome. She made opening round exits at both and that makes it an even bigger challenge for her at the Slam where she has produced the worst results out of the four.

The only time the southpaw made the quarter-finals in Paris was four years back in 2012 and last year she fell in the third round.

If the German No. 1 can summon the conviction with which she played at Melbourne this year, then this is not an entirely unreachable target for her. However, the weather too has to cooperate as Kerber comes up with her best on the faster clay.

2016 Draw: Put in the same half as Serena and Azarenka, the German needs to lift her performance several notches higher to counter either of them in the semi-finals. But before that, last year’s semi-finalist Timea Bacsinszky can test her in the quarters.

French Open performance:

Best result: Quarter-finals

Last year: Third round