PARIS: Defending champion Iga Swiatek and four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka could meet in the French Open second round after Thursday’s draw.
Top seed and world number one Swiatek will start against a qualifier, while Osaka faces Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti in her first match.
Swiatek aims to win her fifth major and fourth French Open title.
“It feels like home here,” said Swiatek, who arrives with clay-court titles from Madrid and Rome. “I have been working hard to play at a high level.”
Osaka, a former world number one now ranked 134, has never reached beyond the third round in Paris. Bronzetti, ranked 48, has yet to win a main draw match at Roland Garros in two tries.
Osaka, 26, has had a mixed relationship with the French Open. In 2021, she was fined for skipping mandatory media duties and withdrew after one match, citing mental health reasons. She missed the 2023 event due to pregnancy and gave birth to a baby girl in July.
Swiatek, meanwhile, aims to become the first player since Justine Henin in 2007 to win three consecutive women’s titles in Paris. The 22-year-old Pole also hopes to join Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, and Henin in winning the Coupe Suzanne-Lenglen four times in the Open era.