On the women’s side last year, the French fans felt the joy of a local team capturing the title. However, defending champions Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia announced their split earlier this season. The field is still deep with strong contenders for the title in every section—including some unseeded duos.
Leading the way is Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova. Team Bucie will be going for its third Grand Slam in a row, starting from last year’s US Open. And even though the European clay-court swing hasn’t been to their liking, Roland Garros is a comfort zone for the 2015 champions.
In the round of 16, they could be tested by Mladenovic and her new partner, Svetlana Kuznetsova, a French Open doubles finalist back in 2004.
The favorites, though, to come out of the top half of the draw would have to be Martina Hingis and Yung-Jan Chan. The team, newly partnered in 2017, has been dominant with two major clay-court titles in a row in Madrid and Rome.