Amanda Anisimova is back on the Roland-Garros radar on Monday after a wrist injury in March kept her off a match court since the Miami Open. The American has been raising the intensity of her training and practice to prepare for the week, but the French Open draw could still hand her a difficult test if the wrist is not ready for the demands of competition.
That matters because practice can only tell part of the story. The match court, with its pace, pressure and changing rhythm, will show whether Anisimova’s body has caught up with her preparation.
Her likely route through the draw comes against a generation that is already trying to make its own mark on clay. Sarah Rakotomanga, 20, will arrive with more experience than her ranking suggests after making her WTA Tour debut last year, finishing the season at No.123 after starting from No.349. Now ranked No.153, the Madagascar-born player trains in Toulouse and competes under the French flag after winning the Sao Paulo title last year.
Rakotomanga has spoken openly about the shape she wants her game to take. She has said she likes Rafael Nadal’s spirit and attitude on court and wants that same edge in her own play, while also looking to Roger Federer for style and clarity. Clay, she said, suits her because the slower pace gives her time to build points. “I have time,” she said. “That’s it. I have time to put my game into place.”
The top of the women’s draw still runs through Iga Swiatek, who has won four titles in seven appearances at Roland-Garros and reached the semifinal here last year. That record has made her the benchmark on these courts from 2020 through 2024, and it is the backdrop against which every new challenger is measured. For a player like Rakotomanga, the first task is not matching Swiatek’s record. It is finding out whether her style can hold up long enough to matter in the tournament’s heaviest rounds.
Another young figure in the frame is Emerson Jones, the 17-year-old daughter of Loretta Harrop and Brad Jones. Harrop won triathlon silver at the Sydney Olympics, while Jones played Australian rules football. Her presence underscores how much youth is pressing into the sport at a venue where experience usually has the louder voice.
On the men’s side, Stan Wawrinka is spending what he says is his last year on tour looking back as much as forward. The three-time Grand Slam singles winner, who claimed one of those titles in Paris, said the crowds at Roland-Garros create a strain that is part burden and part reward. “When you have a lot of people, big public like here in Roland-Garros, it brings in a lot of stress,” he said. “Good stress, and also stress that is difficult to manage.” He added that those feelings are the ones he will miss most because he knows he will not find them anywhere else.
That is the sharp edge of this opening week: injured players trying to prove they are ready, rising players trying to convert promise into a result, and veterans trying to stretch one more run out of a venue that has given them some of their biggest nights. For Anisimova, the next answer will not come from training. It will come when the points start counting.
