Marketa Vondrousova, age 26
- Won: 2023 Wimbledon
- Current ranking, No 44; Career-high, No. 6
- WTA main tour finals record: 3-3
Czechia has always punched way above its weight class in tennis, producing intriguing players flush with style and skills. Vondrousova is the perfect example: a precocious southpaw, she came out of nowhere to win her first main tour title at a now-defunct event in Biel-Bienne, Switzerland at age 17. She is all touch and guile and defensive savvy—Mats Wilander has said she has “the best hands in the women’s game.”
But Vondrousova has been fragile, her promising career interrupted for lengthy periods by injury and three surgeries. Thus, her overall win-loss record appears thin due to time missed. But Vondrousova is clearly a big match player. Despite limited experience she was, a surprise finalist in 2019 final at Roland Garros (where she lost to Ashleigh Barty), and the singles silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympic Games (lost to Belinda Bencic). Currently, she is embroiled in a dispute with the ITIA (the International Tennis Integrity Agency) over having refused an out-of-competition doping test last December. Her participation at Roland Garros is uncertain.
Emma Raducanu age 23
- Won: 2021 US Open (as a qualifier)
- Current ranking, No. 30; Career-high, No. 10
- WTA Main Tour Finals record: 1-1
If you’re fated to win just one title on the main tour, it may as well be a Grand Slam. That’s what Raducanu must think in her darkest moments, as she continues to pay the price for producing the perhaps the most singular achievement in tennis at that 2021 US Open. Since then, she has experienced fluctuating results, cycled through many coaches, and struggled with assorted ailments and injuries. Her status for Paris is uncertain, because Raducanu has been absent from the tour since Indian Wells, fighting a post-viral illness.
Raducanu did show up for Rome, and practiced with her peers before withdrawing from the event. This might bode well for her participation at Roland Garros. Raducanu has a silky, eye-catching game, athleticism and quick feet, but her shortfall of elite-level power is a great disadvantage on clay, where opponents can bully her. She has played at Roland Garros only twice (2022 and 2025), winning just two matches. She may choose to forgo the clay-court Slam and focus on the upcoming season on grass, where her game shines.
