Grandma against her little granddaughter

This opening round brings face to face two generations with opposite trajectories: a 19-year-old teenager who grew up watching Roland-Garros from the junior stands, and a 34-year-old veteran playing her twelfth main draw at the Parisian Grand Slam.

Tereza Valentová, coached by Libor Salaba, comes in with three consecutive losses on European clay, which tempers expectations for her debut. But her 52-week performance indicators remain solid: a 53% win rate against top-100 opponents, and an edge on serve, return, and break-point handling. Her 2–3 career record on clay at WTA level is the only objective downside, but the sample is too small to make it a decisive argument. As the 2024 Roland-Garros junior champion in both singles and doubles, she knows the venue and the surface well.

Magda Linette, coached by Mark Gellard, made a big statement in Miami in March by coming back against Swiatek from 1–6 down to win 7–5 6–3. The impact was real. But on clay in 2026, the numbers don’t back it up: 2–4 over the last 52 weeks at WTA level, with declining indicators in virtually every area of the game, from first serve to return to break-point conversion. Her experience at Roland-Garros, with third rounds in 2017 and 2021, belongs to another phase of her career.