The second Grand Slam of the year, The French Open, is here and while not a lot of big names take to the court just yet, women's no.1 Angelique Kerber is set to play her first match today against Russian Ekaterina Makarova.
The German has not had the best of tennis seasons with her two standout performances so far being at the Dubai Tennis Championship and the Monterrey open where she reached the semi-finals and finals. As for her opponent, Makarova has had an even tougher 2017. The Russian has not been able to get past the round of 16 in any of the tournaments she has taken part in and she will have to produce something really special to beat Kerber.
Also read: French Open 2017 women's draw
While Kerber will definitely be the favourite to progress to the next round, the world no.1 does not fancy clay court tournaments so much. She has 14 wins and 10 losses at the French Open with her best performance coming in 2012 when she reached the quarter-finals. Even in the tournaments building up to the French Open, Kerber suffered early exits (Madrid Open and Italian Open).
Despite struggling in clay court throughout her career, Kerber feels that once she stats winning matches on clay court surfaces she will be able to perform better and she hopes it happens at the French Open.
"I need matches. And I need matches where I can start to play and feel my tennis. I also need winning matches. I need to go out and try to find my game, to fight, to try to move well because moving on clay is really difficult for me," RolandGarros.com quoted her as saying.
"During practice, I am working on moving around the court and being ready for more rallies. Actually, I'm practising not bad, but I have to show this in my matches, and I think this is what I need now to try to do. It's just a process. And then we will see."
Just like her 2017 has gone so far, Makarova has never really had a good run at the French Open with her two best performances coming in 2011 and 2015 when she made the round of 16. Despite that, it would not be fair to rule her out just yet.
The Russian is known for causing a lot of upsets in tennis and has defeated the likes of Dominika Cibulkova, Simona Halep, Serena Williams and Petra Kvitova. So despite Kerber being the favourite, Makarova could end up surprising her and with the German struggling in clay, it could work in her favour.
The two have faced each other 11 times in the past and Kerber won seven of those matches and although Makarova was given a walk over in their previous meeting in Sydney, the German won the last match they played at the Stuttgart open.
Where to watch
The French Open match between Angelique Kerber and Ekaterina Makarova is scheduled to start at around 12.30 pm local time, 4 pm IST and 11.30 am BST.
TV and live streaming information
India: TV: Star Sports Select 1 and 2 HD. Live streaming: Hotstar
France: TV: Eurosport, Eurosport 2. Live streaming: Eurosport Player
Europe: TV: Eurosport 1, ITV Sports. Live streaming: Eurosport Player
USA: TV: NBC Sports, ESPN. Live streaming: Tennis channel
Africa: TV: SuperSport. Live streaming: Super Sports live
Middle East: TV: beIN Sports.
Asia: TV: Fox Sports, CCTV 5
