Four to watch:
Court Philippe-Chatrier, 2nd match: Casper Ruud vs Felipe Meligeni Alves
In what has been billed as the most open Roland-Garros in years, Ruud is quietly going about his business. He knows his way around these courts having reached the final twice and after winning the Geneva title at the weekend, his confidence is returning.
Early exits in Madrid and Rome left him short on match play so he took himself off to Switzerland. “If you come to all the slams, if you are there the week before, you have close to 400 or 500 players walking around wanting to practice,” he said, explaining his logic, “and in practice what do they do with each other? You play matches in practice. So for me it’s like why don’t you just go and play a tournament?” And, in Casper’s case, you go and win the tournament.
Court 14, third match: Katie Boulter vs Paula Badosa
Here is a little-known stat: Boulter is the world No.28, the No.26 seed here (her first seeding at a Grand Slam) and she is 27 years old. And she has never won a WTA Tour level match on clay. Ever.
But she has galloped up the rankings of late – she was outside the top 100 just 18 months ago – and now she feels ready to take on the unique challenge of clay. “It’s a surface I feel I can really grow on and get better at,” she said. “It’s another challenge. I feel I thrive when I have different challenges.”
And Badosa, the former world No.2, is a challenge. Her ranking may be down to No.139 but that is only because she spent much of last year at home nursing a serious back injury.
Court 9, third match: Mirra Andreeva vs Emina Bektas
This time last year, Andreeva had just turned 16 and was ranked No.143 in the world. We had heard talk of the teenage prodigy but no one knew much about her. And then she came through the qualifying competition here and went on to reach the third round without dropping a set. She even took the first set from Coco Gauff before losing.
Coming back this year, she is the world No.38 with a fourth round finish at the Australian Open and a quarter-final run at the Madrid Open to her name.
In Bektas, she faces a 31-year-old Roland-Garros debutante (this is only her third Grand Slam appearance) – this should be Andreeva’s day.
Court Suzanne-Lenglen, 4th match: Holger Rune vs Dan Evans
It has been a reasonably solid rather than spectacular year so far for Rune, the 21-year-old with the fiery personality and the thumping groundstrokes complemented by a willingness to come forward. There is not a lot that Rune cannot do with bat and ball but in Evans, he faces an unusual foe.
Evans – Evo to his mates – is old school: not the tallest of men (5ft 9ins, 1.75m) but he serves and volleys, he constructs his point with skill and guile and he has sensational touch.
In theory, Rune, the world No.13, should ease through (Evo is No.62 after a difficult few months) but whatever the result, this should be an entertaining watch.