2025 Roland Garros qualifying contenders — Quotes from Rome
By Joey Dillon
The IX: Tennis Tuesday with Joey Dillon, May 20, 2025
Howdy, y’all and Happy Tennis Tuesday! We’re going to bypass the Rome predictions I gave last week right away and dive into the second Grand Slam of the year! Now, main draw at Roland Garros action begins Sunday, so I’ll be sure to scope through the draw and give my initial thoughts next week. However, for now, we’ll delve into probably my favorite pre-Slam coverage I do every tournament — letting you all know about three players in the qualifying tournament that could do some damage in the main draw.
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128 players also make up in the feed-in tournament and there are some journeywomen, rising stars, players once at the top of the game, you name it. That’s what makes Grand Slam qualifying so exciting — you have all of these players desperate to take one of the 16 berths in the main draw where the big money and points are.
Now, lets get to business.
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(1) Yuliia Starodubtseva
I always try to include the top seed here for an unfortunate reason. 11 out of 10 times, the top seed in Grand Slam qualifying shouldn’t even be in this draw. Currently, Starodubtseva is ranked No. 86 in the world — which is well inside main draw entry. However, in case you didn’t know, the cutoff for the main draw of a tournament is six weeks prior and the Ukrainian was outside of the Top 100 at the time. I’ve mentioned her in the past as someone you were wanting to get to know as she went from an unranked graduate of Old Dominion to the Top 200 her first year on tour in 2022.
Since then, she’s been acclimating from dominating on the ITF World Tour to the grueling big stage. Last year, she had a big breakthrough by making the quarterfinals in Beijing and she almost matched that same result this month in Madrid. The 25-year-old came from qualifying to make the fourth round that included an upset over Liudmila Samsonova. Qualifying is something you don’t want to see Starodubtseva’s name as last year, she became the first player to qualify for all four Grand Slams in the same calendar year. While no easy feat, you would expect someone of that caliber to not need to be in qualifying again. The inconsistency Starodubtseva has had is what’s keeping her in limbo — the five wins she earned in Madrid were the only ones she earned the entire clay court season entering Paris. Still, she’s taking inspiration from compatriot Dayana Yastremska, who was in the same position as a Top 100 top seed at the 2024 Australian Open and found herself in the semifinals two weeks later. Time will tell if qualifying will garner her another breakthrough.
(17) Bianca Andreescu
I won’t lie, it’s weird seeing Bianca Andreescu’s name in any qualifying draw. The 2019 U.S. Open champion is currently ranked No. 102 after her latest layoff that saw her away from the tour for six months. She came back a month ago at the WTA 250 in Rouen and after some slow form, the Canadian brought out the flair that saw burst on the stage six years ago. The 24-year-old entered Rome and got her first singles win since October and then earned massive Top 20 wins over both Donna Vekic and Elena Rybakina before falling to Zheng Qinwen after holding a set.
Lets be clear — a healthy Bianca Andreescu is amazing for the game of women’s tennis. She has a wide variety of tools at her disposal, carries a bit of swagger and honestly, is captivating to watch. Unfortunately, two issues have plagued her — injuries and mental health. Andreescu tends to find herself in epic, grueling matches and her body has just been fragile her entire career. She was out for nine months between 2023 and 2024 with a back injury, which was after an ankle surgery and then her 2025 return was delayed by an appendectomy. In 2021, she took a leave for her mental health after her rise up the rankings admitting that she struggled to love the game and needed to rediscover herself. Now, she seems to be in a good space both mentally and physically and in Paris, already earned the first double bagel victory of her professional career. If there’s a qualifier a seed would want to avoid, it’s Andreescu.
Carson Branstine
We’ll talk about one more Canadian who is unseeded, making her Grand Slam debut and likely someone you’ve never heard of. Fun fact, Carson Branstine is actually American but has a Canadian mother and was able to switch passports after Tennis Canada offered support. Branstine and Andreescu are quite good friends and partnered up to capture junior Grand Slam doubles titles at both the Australian Open and Roland Garros in 2017. She ended up going the collegiate route, first starting out at the University of Southern California but never played a match before transferring to the University of Virginia. It wasn’t a fit there either and she found her home at Texas A&M University, finishing her career by helping the Aggies claim the 2024 NCAA team title.
Unfortunately, if you think Andreescu has had a long history with injuries, it’s been even worse for the 24-year-old. Branstine essentially lost five years of prime tennis development as a junior and young adult because of hip and knee surgeries. The procedures and the COVID pandemic kept her from competing at USC and in fact, just over a year ago she was debating continuing with tennis and attending law school. Branstine would then take the fall of 2023 off to play some ITF events and she won back-to-back W15 titles. She continued taking online classes in the spring and made two W35 finals before surprising the college tennis world by playing the SEC and NCAA championships to finish her college career. Since then, she’s been rising fast, taking a W75 tournament for her biggest title to date, as well as W50 and W35 titles. This year, she’s found her biggest result by qualifying and making the final of a WTA 125 event in Cancun and has broken the Top 200. She’s a player that is eager to make the big leagues and show the world what she can do. For now, it’s dependent on how her body holds up but she’s a player that I expect to break the Top 100 sooner than later with the right setup.
Now, on to links!
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This Week in Women’s Tennis
After 10 years in the organization, Steve Simon is retiring from the WTA at the end of the year. A replacement for his role as the tour’s Chairman will take place and be announced once filled.
In a dream fortnight, Jasmine Paolini became the first Italian to win the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in 40 years by defeating Coco Gauff in the final. She then finished an incredible run by winning the doubles title with Sara Errani over Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens.
Katie Boulter and Mayar Sherif won WTA 125 titles in Paris and Parma, respectively. The Paris doubles title was won by Irina Khromacheva and Fanny Stollar, while Jesika Maleckova and Miriam Skoch took home Parma’s.
No. 1 Georgia captured the NCAA team title this weekend, knocking out No. 2 Texas A&M in a close 4-0 encounter. The Bulldogs were led by No. 1 Dasha Vidmanova, who became the third women’s player to win NCAA team, singles and doubles titles in her career. She joins Stanford players Nicole Gibbs and Linda Gates to hold career Triple Crowns.
The president of the Italian Tennis Federation wants to make Rome an actual fifth Grand Slam, but could that actually happen?
Speaking of college tennis, Raquel Atawo is continuing to climb the coaching ranks after a longtime career on tour:
For the first time in six months, reigning Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova is back on tour at the place that saw her first singles title the week before she stunned the world in Paris.
Emma Raducanu and Naomi Osaka have accepted wildcards into the first WTA 500 grass tournament of the year at Queen’s Club.
Sloane Stephens will be in Paris, adding her name to the list of pundits for TNT’s Roland Garros coverage:
Marsha Wolak once saw herself on tennis’ biggest stage, but now she’s traded one pressure cooker for another with the World Series of Poker.
Well done, Peyton Stearns who has more guts than I’ll ever have and etched her name in the history books with her tiebreak run in Rome.
Paula Badosa and The 1916 company are collaborating together to launch an official jewelery line.
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Tweet of the Week
Clara Tauson gets a stan card for this:
Five at The IX: Rome Week 2
Q. The smile still hasn’t come off your face since match point. Can you talk us through the emotions, why it meant so much here.
JASMINE PAOLINI: Yeah, it’s pure joy. It’s a dream to win in Rome, of course, I don’t know for every maybe kid that’s playing in Italy. It’s amazing. I’m really happy about it.
I’m enjoying the moment. It’s an amazing one.
Q. How do you balance the emotion of getting so close and knowing you’ve had such a good clay season leading into Roland Garros?
COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I think it’s both confidence and motivation to do better. Hopefully I can get to the final in Roland Garros and maybe the ‘third time is a charm’ thing is a real thing. That’s looking so far ahead.
Overall I lost to two quality opponents, Aryna in Madrid and Jasmine here. So yeah, I think I have a lot to improve, a lot that I can work on.
I made the final with those errors. Made the final maybe not playing my best tennis. It just gives me confidence if I can find that good form heading into Roland Garros, I can do well there.
Q. What lessons would you take from Rome leading into Paris?
EMMA RADUCANU: I think I’ve taken the lessons that I need to, like, for me to have success, I need to keep swinging, committing to my forehands. The first three rounds, I had a lot of success doing that.
I think I also need to just work on, like, for me to see the ball today that I was receiving was really valuable. I haven’t really played these top opponents very often because I haven’t been in the tournaments for long enough. For me to be kind of playing them now is good exposure. I can take lessons, in practice try to replicate certain balls that are really heavy, really shaped, unpredictable.
I think I’ve been trying to work so much on just, like, basics of trying to develop a weapon that some shorter balls that I have to finish, to use some finesse. I think I need to run up to them and learn how to do something with that, as well.
Q. I want to ask about clay. It feels like you hit the ball very good. In Madrid looked better for you. You have your best results in Rome. Do you feel that the clay in Rome is suitable like in Olympic Games or just your feelings?
ZHENG QINWEN: Well, in Madrid when I play this year, I think generally my personality was going a bit too rush everywhere so I couldn’t stay really calm there on court when I face down situation.
After the last Madrid, I think a lot that I should be more stable on clay, I should be more calm outside the court, I should practice with myself better not only on court, also outside of the court. I think that’s give me a lot of benefits to stay under control under pressure the same as before.
If I’m too much up and down in the practice, I feel like I’m not going to make it in important moment. But today I really make it because she’s really close to come back in the second set.
I’m really happy that I hold the pressure and I get the match today. It was really not easy, no.
Q. If you could go back and play the Elina of 2017, 2018, what would be your tactics be and who do you think would win?
ELINA SVITOLINA: That’s interesting.
Well, definitely I strike the ball bigger right now. I feel like I have a bit more power. I play little bit different right now.
Uhm… Well, I wouldn’t give away my tactics, that’s for sure (laughter).
Q. Even to yourself?
ELINA SVITOLINA: Yeah, even to myself. I keep it a secret (smiling).
But yeah, I feel like it’s two different players. Right now people are hitting bigger. They are going more for their shots. Before it was more about, like, chess game. Even when I played against Simona, we had such long rallies with a different kind of tactics against each other.
Yeah, now it’s more about who’s bravest, who takes the opportunity first, then strikes.
Q. Are you saying you would win now?
ELINA SVITOLINA: Yeah, I would think so (laughter).
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| By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer |
| Tuesdays: Tennis |
| By: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer |
| Wednesdays: Basketball |
| By: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The Next |
| Thursdays: Golf |
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