Only 4 women have won the French Open in the Open Era without being a top-10 seed
The French Open is a notoriously difficult to win for an outsider and only four players have managed to win the women’s title when seeded outside the top 10 and three of them were unseeded.
The 2025 French Open marks the 59th edition of the tournament since the start of the Open Era in 1968 and it took until 2010 for someone with a seeding lower than 10th to win the women’s trophy.
After that there was a “golden period” as it happened three times in the space of five years.
The 4 women to win the French Open while not a top-10 seeded player:
Francesca Schiavone – 2010
There were several milestones for Schiavone en route to lifting the title at Roland Garros as she it was her first and only Grand Slam and she was the first Italian woman to win a major.
Schiavone was also the first woman in the Open Era to win the tournament without being a top-10 seed.
The Italian was seeded 17th and defeated five seeded players – Li Na (11), Maria Kirilenko (30), Caroline Wozniacki (3), Elena Dementieva (5) and Sam Stosur (7) – en route to the title.
Jelena Ostapenko – 2017
After the 49-year drought for a player non-top-10 seed to win the French Open, another one arrived only seven years later as Ostapenko became the first unseeded player since Kim Clijsters at the 2009 US Open to win a major.
Of course, she was also the first unseeded woman in Open Era history to win the title in Paris.
Ostapenko was also the first Latvian to win a major and the lowest-ranked to win the French Open as she was at No 47 in the WTA Rankings when she lifted the trophy.
With top seed Angelique Kerber losing in the first round, it paved the way for Ostapenko to make her run as she didn’t have to face the German.
The Latvian beat Sam Stosur (23rd), Wozniacki (11th), Timea Bacsinszky (30th) and Simona Halep (3rd) en route to creating history.
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Iga Swiatek – 2020
Three years after Ostapenko’s feat, Swiatek outperformed her in terms of ranking as she became the lowest-ranked player to win the title as she was at No 53.
The 19-year-old also became the first Pole to win a Grand Slam as she started her campaign by upsetting 15th seed Marketa Vondrousova in the first round.
Top seed Simona Halep was beaten in the fourth round before she got the better of two qualifiers to reach the final where she defeated fourth seed Sofia Kenin.
Barbora Krejcikova – 2021
And in 2021, Krejcikova made it a four-women club as she not among the top 32 seeds when she won the title. The Czech was ranked No 33 at the start of the event.
Krejcikova beat Ekaterina Alexandrova (32nd seed), Elina Svitolina (fifth seed), Coco Gauff (24th seed) and Maria Sakkari (17th seed) to reach the final.
She then defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova – who was ranked No 32 before the tournament started – to win her first Grand Slam title.
