Since the summer lockdown, SIMONA HALEP has had one focus – winning the French Open – and the bookies look to have the right favourite ahead of the 2020 tournament.
The Romanian, winner of the title here two years ago and a runner-up on two occasions, has won every match she’s played since the tour resumed, a run taking in tournament victories in both Prague and, most significantly, Rome.
Significantly she opted out of the US Open, preferring to remain in Europe and train on the clay.
Halep impressed in the Italian capital, beating Dayana Yastremska, Yulia Putintseva and Garbine Muguruza – the player rated most likely to pip here to the title here – en route to the final.
In that match, she was well ahead of Karolina Pliskova when the Czech was forced to call it a day due to injury.
Halep is arguably the best retriever on the WTA circuit and in what promise to be sluggish conditions, it will be hard to hit winners past her.
I’ve already gone into plenty of detail into why conditions will likely to slower than in previous years in my preview of the men’s singles so don’t want to go over old ground, but to put it simply, the different time of year will bring lower temperatures and greater moisture, leading to slower courts and balls.
In the absence of world number one Ashleigh Barty – one of three top-10 stars missing, Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu being the others – Halep is the top seed and thus heads up the top half of the draw.
Of course, there are players in it who could trouble Halep but not too many she’ll be concerned about.
The aforementioned Yastremska is a rising talent and she or last year’s runner-up Marketa Vondrousova could be awkward last-16 opponents.
Kiki Bertens will be Halep’s quarter-final foe if the seedings play out, although that seems unlikely.
The Dutchwoman is another who is strong on the slow clay but she’s played little since lockdown and a long-standing Achilles injury flared up this week in Strasbourg.
As short as 9/1 at the start of the week, she can now be backed at 25/1 which says much.
And then there’s Serena Williams, still seeking that elusive 24th Grand Slam title, three and half years after securing number 23.
She could meet Halep in the semis but the veteran’s game has never been best suited to the clay and while the American is a three-time winner in Paris, I don’t envisage her challenging this time around.
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