Caroline Wozniacki and Eugenie Bouchard each have reached a major final in the last 12 months. Clay is not their favorite surface, but they hold top-eight seeds at Roland Garros and have the balanced games to mount a strong run. It all starts on Tuesday for them with a couple of tricky opponents.

Caroline Wozniacki versus Karin Knapp

As the fifth seed, Wozniacki is the clear favorite to win this match.  She is also a decent dark horse pick for the entire tournament.  She is extremely fit and consistent, qualities that are often rewarded on clay.  Additionally, she has already had a very solid season, garnering a title in Kuala Lumpur and logging finalist appearances in Auckland and Stuttgart. In the quarterfinals at Madrid, Wozniacki went to a third set with one of the Roland Garros contenders, Maria Sharapova.  Suffice it to say, the Dane has sustained the high level of tennis she exhibited last summer en route to reaching the US Open final, and she has put herself in a prime position to do well here in Paris.

Veteran Knapp has not enjoyed nearly the same level of success in her career as Wozniacki.  Nor has she had as much to write home about throughout the first quarter of 2015.  But the Italian has turned things around this spring.  In addition to reaching the quarterfinals in Marrakech, she also picked up the title in Nürnberg, so in spite of the hard courts being her preferred surface, she ought to be feeling confident on the dirt.

Belief and the mental strength of each of these competitors is going to be huge in this match.  It is easy to see from where Wozniacki will draw her belief.  She has won her only two previous meetings with Knapp, has far more experience competing at this elite level, and between her fitness and consistency, must like the odds of her game holding up over the long haul of the match.  None of this is to say that Knapp will necessarily be intimidated by the Dane or the occasion, however.  Before injuries hampered her progress, Knapp was ranked firmly within the top 40 and looking to continue her ascent up the rankings.  Furthermore, she knows she is capable of playing top-notch tennis.  She lost an epic to Sharapova in the second round of the 2014 Australian Open, 10-8 in the third, and her most recent meeting with Wozniacki in Istanbul last year went the distance. 

In addition to that, it is the Italian who has the bigger game, particularly off the forehand wing, so she enters this match knowing that she is in the better position to control what is happening on the court.  And though it is true that Knapp has only ever escaped the first week of a major on one occasion, Roland Garros has historically proven to be the worst major for Wozniacki.  The former No. 1 lost here in the first round last year and in the second round in 2013.  There is no reason that Knapp cannot deal another early loss to the Dane this season.

The chances are that the consistency and experience of Wozniacki will win the day on this occasion, but if Knapp comes out firing on all cylinders, do not dismiss her chances of knocking off the fifth seed.

Eugenie Bouchard versus Kristina Mladenovic

Tennis analysts often talk about how a player “needs” a win.  Such talk is sometimes an exaggeration of a player's current situation, but in the case of Eugenie Bouchard, it is pretty accurate.  The young Canadian was the new “It” girl and darling of tennis in 2014, but her 2015 campaign has thus far proved to be nothing short of a nightmare.  She needs to turn things around, but if she hopes to do that here in Paris, she will first need to complete the tough assignment of taking out home favorite Kristina Mladenovic in the opening round.

Bouchard knows she can get a victory over Mladenovic.  She is after all ranked in the top 10, and she did not get there by mere accident.  The Canadian had a phenomenal 2014, reaching the semifinals or better at the year's first three majors, including a run to the finals of Wimbledon.  She has earned her share of big wins and has pushed the game's top players on a relatively consistent basis.  It is also worth noting that Bouchard has typically played her best tennis at the majors, so irrespective of what has transpired to this point in the season, there is reason to believe that she may find her form to book a place in Round 2.

Mladenovic also will be feeling optimistic about her chances of reaching the second round of Roland Garros.  The young Frenchwoman has never been beyond the first week of a Grand Slam in singles play, but she still has some semblance of experience of going deep at a major, thanks to the handful of mixed doubles titles she has earned in her young career.  And although grass is her favorite surface, she has shown she has some clay-court chops with her play this spring.  She reached the final four of Marrakech and went one better in Strasbourg before falling to Samantha Stosur in the final.  Those results may have come at the smaller tune-up events for Roland Garros, but regardless they do signify that she is presently playing better ball than the Canadian.

It is the present form of both players that has so many people smelling an upset in this opening round.  While Bouchard easily won their lone encounter, it came two years ago in Canada on carpet and is unlikely to have any impact on Mladenovic's prospective outlook on this second meeting.  Bouchard has also failed to string together back-to-back wins since Indian Wells in March.  Her recent struggles have been well publicized, and the Frenchwoman will be keenly aware of the crisis of confidence from which the Canadian is currently suffering.  Couple that with Mladenovic's superior firepower and the home crowd support, and it is Bouchard who is the one facing a tall task in this match.

As previously noted, Bouchard saves her best for the majors.  That has already been the case this year, since she managed to reach the last eight of the Australian Open despite so many other poor results to this point.  All of that said, however, Mladenovic is playing better, has the home crowd behind her, and all of the pressure is on Bouchard to live up to her seeding and defend her performance of a year ago.  Bouchard may pick up the much-needed victory, but everyone, including Mladenovic, knows that she is ripe for the upset.