French Open women's draw 2023: Iga Swiatek title defence starts against Cristina Bucsa, Elena Rybakina lies in wait

Updated 25/05/2023 at 13:29 GMT

Iga Swiatek's bid to retain the French Open title will start against Cristina Bucsa of Spain in the first round. The world No. 1 was placed on the same side of the draw as last year's runner-up Coco Gauff and Italian Open champion Elena Rybakina in Thursday's women's singles draw. On the other side, second seed Aryna Sabalenka and Maria Sakkari face tough openers.

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Iga Swiatek’s French Open title defence will begin against Cristina Bucsa, while there could be a repeat of last year’s final against Coco Gauff in the last eight.

The women’s singles draw was made on Thursday ahead of the main draw action starting on Sunday, live on discovery+, the Eurosport app and eurosport.com.

Swiatek, who stormed to the title last year at Roland Garros, will be up against Spanish world No. 67 Bucsa in the first round.

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The world No. 1 was placed in the same quarter of the draw as sixth seed Gauff, who Swiatek defeated in last year’s final in Paris.

The American was pitted against Rebeka Masarova first, while Veronika Kudermetova (11) could lie in wait in the last 16.

No. 13 seed and 2021 champion Barbora Krejcikova could lie in wait at the last-16 stage, while fourth seed Elena Rybakina is in the same half and is a potential semi-final opponent.

Fresh from clinching the Italian Open title, in-form Rybakina will face a qualifier or lucky loser first.

Rybakina’s path could take her past seeded players Selby Rogers (32), and Beatriz Haddad Maia (14).

Second seed Aryna Sabalenka faces a tricky opener against 20-year-old Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, who won a WTA 250 title in Austin in March.

Sabalenka is in the same quarter of the draw as fifth-seeded French favourite Caroline Garcia, who was pitted against China’s Xiyu Wang.

She could then meet Ons Jabeur in the quarter-final, with the Tunisian seventh seed up against Lucia Bronzetti first.

Tenth seed Petra Kvitova faces Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto first, and is a potential last 16 opponent for Jabeur.

There will be an all-American clash in the opening round for seed No.3 Jessica Pegula, who will face compatriot Danielle Collins.

Maria Sakkari, seeded eighth, faces a tough opening-round task against Karolina Muchova, who has reached quarter-finals in Indian Wells, Dubai and Auckland this year.

Another notable first-round clash is a meeting between former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka and 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu.

Jelena Ostapenko (17) and Daria Kasatkina (9) are on course to meet in the third round, as are Karolina Pliskova (16) – who faces Sloane Stephens of the USA first – and Qinwen Zheng (19).

The French Open begins on Sunday May 28 and runs for two weeks until concluding with the men’s singles final on June 11.

French Open women's singles draw

I. Swiatek (1) v C.Bucsa
Qualifier/lucky Loser v C.Liu
R.Peterson v Qualifier/lucky Loser
X.Wang v M.Bouzkova (31)
V.Azarenka (18) v B.Andreescu
A.Kalinskaya v E.Navarro (W)
L.Zhu v L.Davis
L.Tsurenko v B.Krejcikova (13)

- - -

V.Kudermetova (11) v A.Schmiedlova
Qualifier/lucky Loser v K.Kucova
Qualifier/lucky Loser v K.Mladenovic (W)
K.Kanepi v M.Keys (20)
A.Kalinina (25) v D.Parry (W)
Qualifier/lucky Loser v A.Riske-Amritraj
Qualifier/lucky Loser v J.Grabher
R.Masarova v C.Gauff (6)

- - -

E.Rybakina (4) v Qualifier/lucky Loser
L.Noskova v D.Kovinic
C.Burel (W) v S.Sorribes Tormo
P.Martic v S.Rogers (32)
E.Alexandrova (23) v V.Tomova
Qualifier/lucky Loser v A.Friedsam
R.Marino v D.Shnaider
T.Maria v B.Haddad Maia (14)

- - -

P.Kvitova (10) v E.Cocciaretto
Qualifier/lucky Loser v Qualifiée/lucky Loser
A.Kontaveit v B.Pera
Qualifier/lucky Loser v D.Vekic (22)
S.Cirstea (30) v J.Paolini
Qualifier/lucky Loser v K.Baindl
S.Janicijevic (W) v O.Dodin
L.Bronzetti v O.Jabeur (7)

- - -

M.Sakkari (8) v K.Muchova
N.Podoroska v J.Ponchet (W)
S.Errani v J.Teichmann
A.Bondar v I.Begu (27)
M.Linette (21) v L.Fernandez
Qualifier/lucky Loser v A.Sasnovich
L.Jeanjean (W) v K.Birrell (W)
Qualifier/lucky Loser B.Bencic (12)

- - -

L.Samsonova (15) v K.Volynets
A.Pavlyuchenkova v L.Fruhvirtova
M.Sherif v M.Brengle
Qualifier/lucky Loser v A.Potapova (24)
E.Mertens (28) v Qualifier/lucky Loser
C.Mcnally v A.Bogdan
A.Cornet v C.Giorgi
D.Collins v J.Pegula (3)

- - -

C.Garcia (5) v X.Wang
A.Blinkova v Y.Bonaventure
N.Parrizas Diaz v Qualifier/lucky Loser
E.Svitolina v M.Trevisan (26)
J.Ostapenko (17) v T.Martincova
P.Stearns v K.Siniakova
M.Vondrousova v A.Parks
J.Niemeier v D.Kasatkina (9)

- - -

K.Pliskova (16) v S.Stephens
V.Gracheva v D.Galfi
Y.Putintseva v M.Zanevska
Qualifier/lucky Loser v Q.Zheng (19)
S.Zhang (29) v M.Frech
Qualifier/lucky Loser v K.Rakhimova
P.Udvardy v Qualifier/lucky Loser
M.Kostyuk v A.Sabalenka (2)

- - -

Stream the 2023 French Open live on discovery+, the Eurosport app and at eurosport.com

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