PARIS – The French Open draw did Serena Williams no favors when it was revealed Friday. The world No. 1 and defending champion faces a tough road to win a record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title.
Williams, 34, could face foe Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals. The Belarusian won their last meeting in the Indian Wells final in March. Williams is due to meet her Australian Open conqueror Angelique Kerber in the semifinals, and – if the seeds hold – world No. 2 Agnieszka Radwanska in the final.
Nothing, however, has been a sure thing in women’s tennis this year.
Williams continues her chase of Steffi Graf’s Open-era record of 22 majors for the third straight Slam. She will begin her title defense against veteran Magdalena Rybarikova, who Williams is 1-0 against.
The women’s draw is littered with intrigue as Williams once again is the de facto favorite, having hoisted a 70th career trophy last week in Rome. It was there that she beat fellow American Madison Keys in the final.
Keys, the No. 15 seed, has a tough task in her draw. She is set to play Kerber in the fourth round should their seeds hold on the top half of the draw.
Venus Williams is also on a loaded top half, which also features Azarenka, Ana Ivanovic, Timea Bacsinszky, Dominika Cibulkova, Andrea Petkovic and on-the-rise players Daria Kasatkina and Johanna Konta.
Radwanska, who has been resurgent since falling out of the top 10 at this time last year, is due to meet No. 4 seed Garbiñe Muguruza in the semifinals on the bottom half.
Simona Halep, the 2014 French Open runner up, is Radwanska’s seeded quarterfinal opponent. Halep could also face Lucie Safarova, last year’s finalist, in the fourth round.
The women’s tour has been as unpredictable as ever in 2016, with upsets occurring perhaps as often as seeds winning through. Williams, seen as vulnerable after losses in Melbourne, Indian Wells and Miami (to Svetlana Kuznetsova), won her first title since August with that victory in Rome.
"Four tournaments, three finals isn't bad for everyone else, I think," Serena told reporters Friday. "[But] then again I'm not everyone else. Obviously for me, if I'm not winning I'm not happy about my year. It felt good to win in Rome, though."
“I was very surprised at how she did in Rome, and that to me puts her right up there as the lead favorite,” ESPN analyst and former No. 1 Chris Evert told reporters on a conference call earlier this week. “It's not going to be easy. She struggled last year. It's so much about motivation and so much about fitness for her, those two things.”
Serena Williams needed five three-set victories (out of seven total matches) a year ago to win her third French Open title, battling through illness at the end of the tournament to hoist the Coupe Suzanne-Lenglen.
The first round has a collection of must-see matches, including Laura Siegemund, against 2014 Wimbledon runner-up Genie Bouchard. The winner is likely to meet Bacsinszky, who made the semifinals a year ago.
American CoCo Vandeweghe will play another big hitter in Britain’s Naomi Broady to start, while doubles specialist Bethanie Mattek-Sands takes on Irina-Camelia Begu, the No. 25 seed who made the Rome semifinals.
Another American, Nicole Gibbs, will play Briton Heather Watson, and Sloane Stephens, the winner in Charleston in April, gets Russian Margarita Gasparyan in Round 1.
Petkovic, a semifinalist at the French Open in 2014, is due to play Britain’s Laura Robson, a lefty who continues to comeback following a long layoff from a wrist injury.
Serena Williams' 2015 U.S. Open feller, Roberta Vinci – the woman who denied her the calendar-year Grand Slam – is on the bottom half of the draw. Seeded No. 7, the Italian will meet Muguruza in the quarterfinals should they both make it that far.
Other notable names on the bottom half include two-time Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova, Kuznetsova (a two-time Grand Slam champ) and Sam Stosur, the 2011 U.S. Open champ who loves red clay and has seen an improvement in form this year.
2012 French Open runner-up Sara Errani is also on the bottom half, and would meet Stephens in Round 3.
The French Open gets underway Sunday, with selected first-round matches set to start Roland Garros, the only major to run over a 15-day course.
