De Groot and Li among standout Roland Garros first round match-ups
It’s a little over three weeks since Li Xiaohui sent tremors through the sporting world after ending Diede de Groot’s 145-match winning streak in the final of the BNP Paribas World Team Cup.
The Chinese 24-year-old, currently world ranked No. 13, will hope that she can repeat that feat when she faces World No. 1 De Groot again at Roland Garros on Tuesday. De Groot leads their head-to-head 2-1, but aside from Li's straight sets win in Turkey last month, there is also a three-set match in Australia earlier this year.
De Groot and Li’s match-up is arguably the most eye-catching of the first round draws in Paris and is set to come towards the end of the first day of play as Li – announced on Monday as one of 10 wheelchair players awarded grants in the Wheelchair Tennis pilot as part of the Grand Slam Player Development Programme (GSPDP) - looks for her first win at Grand Slam level.
Li made her debut at one of the sport’s four majors at the Australian Open in January, losing out to countrywoman Zhu Zhenzhen, and the first Grand Slam women’s draw to feature three Chinese players also sees world No. 6 Zhu take on former Roland Garros champion and third seed Jiske Griffioen.
Should De Groot open her bid for a fourth successive Roland Garros title and 14th successive Grand Slam title with a win, she may go on to face Wang Ziying - the other Chinese player to feature in last month’s two singles matches in the BNP Paribas World Team Cup final - in the quarter-finals. Wang arrives in Paris for her Grand Slam debut on the back of earning her first ITF 1 Series singles title over the weekend at the Open International de Royan.
Four Grand Slam champions set for two first round match-ups
The eight first round men’s singles contests include two match-ups at the top of the draw between four former Grand Slam champions as world No.1 Alfie Hewett faces Joachim Gerard and Gordon Reid takes on two-time Roland Garros champion and French No. 1 Stephane Houdet.
Gustavo Fernandez and Martin de la Puente, winners of the last two clay court ITF 1 Series tournaments in Barcelona and Royan in successive weeks, having met each other in both finals, open their respective campaigns in Paris against Takashi Sanada and Takuya Miki. Meanwhile, world No.2 Tokito Oda begins his Roland Garros title defence against Dutchman Ruben Spaargaren.
Schroder and Vink rivalry intensifies at top of quad rankings
With the quad singles due to begin on Wednesday’s second day of play at Roland Garros, defending champion and world No. 1 Niels Vink will face Canada’s Robert Shaw, while world No. 2 Sam Schroder will meet world No. 6 Andy Lapthorne.
The two Dutchmen, who have won all eight Grand Slam quad singles title between them since Roland Garros in 2022, set out in a bid to set up a third successive quad singles final between them in Paris.
Australian Open champion Schroder has closed significantly on Vink at the top of the rankings since the start of the year with the two currently separated by just 106 points.