PARIS: World number one Simona Halep finally gets her French Open campaign underway on Wednesday while Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev seek spots in the second round.
A look at three matches to watch at Roland Garros on Wednesday:
Simona Halep v Alison Riske
— Romanian top seed and world number one Halep is a two-time runner-up at Roland Garros – losing to Maria Sharapova in the 2014 final and giving up a set and 3-0 lead to lose to Jelena Ostapenko 12 months ago.
She was also runner-up to Caroline Wozniacki at January’s Australian Open which added to her frustrations as a Grand Slam bridesmaid.
The 26-year-old has endured a roller-coaster clay court season, a runners-up spot in Rome behind Elina Svitolina following back-to-back quarter-final runs in Stuttgart, where she lost to Coco Vandeweghe, and Madrid going down in straight sets to Karolina Pliskova.
Riske, the 27-year-old world number 83 has not won a match at Roland Garros since 2014 but the American enjoyed a run to the Nuremberg clay-court final at the weekend where she was defeated by Johanna Larsson of Sweden.
Halep holds a 2-0 career lead over Riske with a win on Rome clay in 2015.
