The second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open, was supposed to have started this past week. With global events, though, shaking up the calendar, the players are still at home instead of sliding across the clay courts at Roland Garros.

For some of them, their recent results before the stoppage would have lifted them into the dark-horse category. Here’s a look at five players that could have made a somewhat-surprising run in 2020.

1

Coco Gauff

One of the youngest girls’ Grand Slam winners in history at the 2018 French Open, Gauff soon started making an impact on the senior tour. After winning her first title and reaching the second week of Wimbledon last year, the youngest player in the WTA top 100 was ready to build upon those results in 2020, evidenced by her fourth-round showing in Melbourne. The American fell in the second round of qualifying 12 months ago in Paris, but with a main draw showing guaranteed this year, a strong finish was surely in the cards.

2

Cristian Garin

Who would have been
the dark horses at
the French Open?

Who would have been the dark horses at the French Open?

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After reaching his first career final in March last year at the Brasil Open, which he lost to Guido Pella, Chile’s top-ranked player has gone undefeated in four championship matches since then. This year, Garin dominated the “Golden Swing,” the early-season stretch of clay-court events through Latin America. In Cordoba, Argentina, he topped former world No. 11 Diego Schwartzman in the final, then won the Rio Open—his first 500-level victory—over Gianluca Mager. Thrashed by Stan Wawrinka in the second round of Roland Garros last year, Garin was primed for a better result this year.

3

Jelena Ostapenko

Who would have been
the dark horses at
the French Open?

Who would have been the dark horses at the French Open?

Three years ago, Ostapenko shocked the tennis world when she captured the French Open title as an unseeded player. Less than a year later, she was ranked inside the top five, and rebounded from a first-round loss in Paris in 2018 to make the semifinals of Wimbledon a few weeks afterward. However, she suffered another opening-round defeat in Paris last year, part of an extended downturn in her trajectory. It wasn’t until the end of the season that she showed signs of a rebound with back-to-back finals: a runner-up showing in Linz, Austria, and a title in Luxembourg, her first in more than two years. Those results offered promise for an even-bigger comeback in 2020.

4

Daria Kasatkina

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Who would have been
the dark horses at
the French Open?

Who would have been the dark horses at the French Open?

After finishing 2018 in the top 10 of the WTA rankings, the young Russian went through a huge slump last year, only winning two or more matches at a tournament twice all season. One of those runs did come in her next-to-last event of 2019 at the China Open, offering some hope for a return to form in the fall. Before this year’s shutdown, the former French Open quarterfinalist reached her first semifinal in well over a year in Lyon, a sign that she was ready to really resume her winning ways.

5

Gael Monfils

Who would have been
the dark horses at
the French Open?

Who would have been the dark horses at the French Open?

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Can a player ranked in the Top 10 actually be considered a “dark horse”? Given the fact that the since 2005, only four different men have won in Roland Garros—with one of them, Rafael Nadal, triumphing 12 times—almost anyone in the 5-to-20 range rankings-wise can earn that designation, and that’s where Monfils comes in. The 2008 semifinalist was off to the best start of his career this year, and was prepared to give the home crowd something to really cheer for.