The 5 French Open women’s singles title favourites – ranked!

Oli Dickson Jefford 19 May 2025 2:29 PM

Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, and Coco Gauff.

This time next week, the French Open main draw will be underway.

The women’s singles event will see 128 women vying for glory at Roland Garros, and there is a sense that the tournament is more open than it has been in recent years.

Here, we rank the five leading contenders to lift the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen title on June 7th.

5) Jasmine Paolini

Projected seed: No 4
Best French Open result: 2024 runner-up

Paolini will head into Roland Garros brimming with confidence after her stunning run at the Italian Open, ending a 40-year wait for a home women’s singles champion in Rome.

The 29-year-old’s campaign in Rome was a reminder to everyone that 2024 was no fluke and that she is no ‘one-season wonder’, returning to her career-high of world No 4 thanks to her triumph.

It was Paolini’s first singles title in over a year, but it comes exactly at the right time, just a week out from the second Slam of 2025 – and at a tournament where conditions are fairly similar to the clay of Paris.

A surprise Roland Garros finalist in 2024, it would come as no shock to see the Italian return to the championship match in 2025.

4) Mirra Andreeva

Projected seed: No 6
Best French Open result: 2024 semi-final

A year on from her major Grand Slam breakthrough, and in her first Slam as an 18-year-old, it feels like Andreeva is a genuine major contender for the very first time.

Her run to the last four in 2024, where she beat Aryna Sabalenka in the quarter-final, was a significant sign of her quality on the biggest of stages, and she has progressed even further up the WTA pecking order since then.

Scintillating runs to her first WTA 1000 titles in Dubai and Indian Wells this year have propelled her inside the top 10, with a string of wins over several of the WTA’s biggest names.

Andreeva’s momentum has cooled slightly, but back-to-back quarter-finals in Madrid and Rome should provide her with enough of a platform to be a significant threat.

3) Iga Swiatek

Projected seed: No 5
Best French Open result: Champion 2020, 2022-24

Imagine explaining to someone after last year’s French Open that Swiatek would not win a title over the next twelve months, and would fall as low as world No 5 in the WTA Rankings.

Both scenarios seemed all but impossible last summer, but a significant dip in form for the Pole means she enters Roland Garros under a major cloud, a round-three exit in Rome compounding her struggles.

Swiatek’s dominance on clay and overall aura is under threat – but her incredible record at Roland Garros means she remains among the very leading contenders to triumph.

She has only lost twice in Paris, and her four women’s singles titles are only bettered by Chris Evert and Steffi Graf in the Open Era.

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2) Coco Gauff

Projected seed: No 2
Best French Open result: 2022 runner-up

After a tough spell across the opening months of the year, Gauff has looked somewhere back towards her best across an important clay swing.

The 21-year-old is yet to pick up a singles title in 2025 but was the runner-up in both Madrid and Rome, playing some of her best tennis of the year – and showcasing her trademark grit when needed.

Gauff’s thrashing of Swiatek in Madrid, her third straight win over the Pole and first on clay, may be the most significant result of the season to date, and her return to world No 2 is naturally significant in terms of her draw prospects.

A former Paris finalist, Gauff has reached at least the last eight of Roland Garros the past four years and looks primed to go deep once again in 2025, perhaps even winning her second singles major.

1) Aryna Sabalenka

Projected seed: No 1
Best French Open result: 2023 semi-final

Arguments could be made for both Swiatek and Gauff being atop the list of French Open favourites, though it feels like Sabalenka is the woman to beat at every event this year.

The world No 1 has a commanding lead atop the WTA Rankings and has already reached six finals in 2024, the most for any woman at this stage of the season since Martina Hingis in 2001.

Sabalenka was the beaten finalist in Stuttgart before winning her third Madrid Open title and, despite a surprise quarter-final loss to Zheng Qinwen in Rome, comes into Roland Garros off a strong clay swing.

Though she has never reached the final in Paris, her Grand Slam consistency in recent years is head and shoulders above the rest of the field.

In the form of her life, and with only quarter-final points to defend, the Belarusian is the favourite.