Brace yourself for some hard-hitting when recent Strasbourg champion and one-time Grand Slam winner Elena Rybakina faces off with 2017 French Open victor Jelena Ostapenko in Friday's third round.
Both women winning WTA 500 titles on clay en route to their sixth meeting on the women's tour adds to the interest ahead of the undoubted match of round three in the draw, with the victor predicted to take on Iga Swiatek.
Match preview
© Imago
Rybakina enters Friday's third-round tussle against Ostapenko in a good place after winning six matches in a row — four en route to winning the title in Strasbourg and two at Roland Garros.
Racking up that many consecutive victories means the Kazakhstani is on her longest stretch of triumphs since notching five to advance to last year's Wimbledon semi-finals, where she was upset by eventual winner Barbora Krejcikova in three sets.
The 25-year-old may have racked up four consecutive wins at the team event in the United Cup to start the season, but the nine-time titlist had not secured as many consecutive triumphs at a WTA 500, 1000 or Slam this year, as evidenced by her longest stretch of wins coming at the Australian Open (three wins) and in Dubai (three) before losing to Madison Keys and Mirra Andreeva respectively.
Claiming the title in Strasbourg on the eve of her seventh appearance at Roland Garros to end a year wait for a title stands her in good stead for a deep run in Paris, where she is a two-time quarter-finalist (2021, 2024).
Nevertheless, the big-serving Kazakhstani star, who has improved to 15-5 in Paris, must outwit the all-or-nothing Ostapenko to progress in the second Grand Slam of 2025.
© Iconsport
Although the Latvian star has never quite managed to come remotely close to success on the dirt since her outstanding 2017 run to the French Open title, this year's success in Strasbourg, where she outplayed world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to claim a ninth WTA title of her career, was encouraging for her clay season.
Having claimed title victories on hard courts and grass since that win in Paris eight years ago, the fierce ball striker had not reached a singles title match on clay until facing Sabalenka last month in the Germany-based WTA 500 final.
After reaching the WTA 1000 final in Doha in February, where the world No. 21 lost to Amanda Anisimova, the 27-year-old has undeniably shown her proficiency this season when her game comes together.
Having not made title matches on different surfaces since 2022, Ostapenko has now featured in the Qatar Open decider and Stuttgart Open final in 2025, underlining the Latvian's renewed threat entering her first French Open third-round match since 2020, following exits in round one in 2021 before three straight second-round eliminations in 2022, 2023 and 12 months ago.
Considering that she needed three sets in comeback victories over Polina Kudermetova and Caroline Dolehide, losing serve seven times altogether, the battle-hardened Ostapenko will back herself to snap her losing run against Rybakina and set up a possible Swiatek tussle in the last 16.
Tournament so far
Elena Rybakina:
First round: vs. Julia Riera 6-1 4-6 6-4
Second round: vs. Iva Jovic 6-3 6-3
Jelena Ostapenko:
First round: vs. Polina Kudermetova 5-7 6-0 6-2
Second round: vs. Caroline Dolehide 5-7 6-3 6-3
Head To Head
Cincinnati (2023) - Round of 32: Rybakina 6-7(6) 6-2 6-4
Rome (2023) - Semi-final: Rybakina 6-2 6-4
Australian Open (2023) - Quarter-final: Rybakina 6-2 6-4
Eastbourne (2021) - Semi-final: Ostapenko 6-4 6-1
Linz (2019) - Quarter-final: Ostapenko 7-5 6-1
After losing the opening two matchups with Ostapenko, Rybakina has since claimed three consecutive victories to lead their head-to-head 3-2.
Only one of the five meetings has been on clay, with the former world No. 3 victorious in their Rome semi-final matchup two years ago in straight sets.
Although the 12th seed enters Friday's contest at 25-9 for the season, significantly superior to Ostapenko (13-11), both players are nearly evenly matched on clay this year, with Rybakina winning eight of 10 matches and the Latvian notching nine wins from 12.
We say: Rybakina to win in three sets
Although Rybakina faced some difficulty on serve in her tournament-opening victory over Riera, the 12th seed looked far more assured on her deliveries in Wednesday's victory over Jovic.
The same cannot be said of Ostapenko, who has struggled to hold serve in rounds one and two, which could undermine her prospects of beating Rybakina for the first time since 2021.
Therefore, we back the Kazakhstani star to improve to 4-2 against the 2017 French Open champion and advance to the last 16 in Paris for only the third time.
