Who will Emma Raducanu play in her opening French Open match? Chinese star Wang Xinyu
Emma Raducanu faces a tricky assignment in her opening match at the 2025 French Open as she is set to play one of the higher-ranked unseeded players in the draw.
The world No 43 enters Roland Garros on the back of some encouraging clay-court performances in Madrid, Rome and Strasbourg.
After reaching the second round in Madrid, Raducanu claimed three wins to progress to the last 16 at the Italian Open for her most impressive career result on clay.
The 22-year-old Brit then steamrolled former world No 8 and French Open semi-finalist Daria Kasatkina, who is currently ranked 17th, 6-1, 6-3 in the opening round in Strasbourg earlier this week.
Raducanu fell 6-4, 1-6, 3-6 to an in-form Danielle Collins in the second round of the WTA 500 event after an injury scare.
The 2021 US Open winner will begin her Roland Garros campaign against Wang Xinyu — who is ranked one place higher than her.
Who is Wang Xinyu?
Wang Xinyu was born on 26 September 2001 in Shenzhen in the Guangdong province of China.
Since she started playing tennis at the age of six, Wang has been coached by her father Wang Peng, a former head coach of the Chinese women’s national tennis team and the Shenzhen tennis team. Her mother, Jinghui Zhou, is a former basketball player.
Wang has described her own game as “aggressive and decisive”, while her bio on the WTA website reveals her favourite surface is hard-court and her favourite tournaments are the Australian Open and the US Open.
The Chinese star turned pro in 2018, and she has amassed a 238-167 singles record. She is currently the world No 42 and reached a career-high singles ranking of 32 in October 2023.
The 23-year-old is yet to reach a WTA Tour singles final, with her best result to date her run to the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 event in Wuhan in October 2024.
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Her best Roland Garros singles result is reaching the third round in each of the last two years
Wang has won four doubles titles, including the French Open in 2023, while she was a silver medallist in mixed doubles at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
How has Wang Xinyu performed in 2025?
Wang holds a 9-11 record at WTA Tour level in 2025 and she arrives at this year’s French Open with a 1-3 season record on clay (3-4 including Challenger level).
The 23-year-old’s best result so far this year is reaching the semi-finals at the WTA 250 in Singapore.
Have Emma Raducanu and Wang Xinyu played before?
Wang won the pair’s first and only previous encounter 6-1, 6-7(0), 7-5 in 2021 on the indoor hard courts of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz tournament.
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