Martina Hingis will begin her bid for her first French Open crown against AmericanHingis Begins French Open Quest Against Raymond doubles specialist Lisa Raymond (WTA #80). Ranked #14 but seeded 12th thanks to the withdrawals of Mary Pierce and Lindsay Davenport, the Swiss Miss drew a number of potentially interesting match-ups in Roland Garros these coming two weeks. Here is a look at her possible opponents.

1st round
Lisa Raymond

2nd round
Julia Schruff - Hingis beat her in straight sets in Berlin this year.

3rd round
Tatiana Golovin - Impressive young French player who reached the semis in Miami, but injured her ankle and has not played since. It will be a tough match IF Golovin is in form, but she has not played a single match on clay this year, so this remains to be seen.

or Jie Zheng - one of the few Chinese players doing wonders in both singles & doubles as of late. No clear weapons, but is consistent and speedy around the court.

4th round
Elena Dementieva - 2004 Roland Garros finalist who can beat anyone on a good day & lose to anyone on a bad day. She beat Hingis 3 straight times (including last February in Tokyo) before Hingis took her revenge in Berlin. Their head-to-head stands at 3-3.

Quarterfinals
Kim Clijsters - World #2 and winner of Warsaw this year. Clijsters’ season so far shows a mixture of brilliant tennis with a few patches of inconsistency. She ended Hingis’ Australian Open run last January, winning in 3 sets.

Semifinals
Justine Henin-Hardenne - Defending champion & last year’s unbeaten queen of clay who surprisingly did not win any clay tournament this year. Still, this lady has the most beautiful game for clay, and if playing her best will be very difficult to beat.

Or Nadia Petrova - World #3 who has enjoyed an impressive 3-tournament winning streak coming into Roland Garros. She should be considered a favorite to win this title, right next to Henin-Hardenne.

Final
Amelie Mauresmo - Riding high with confidence after winning her first grand slam in Australia & reaching the top #1 ranking. Mauresmo has beaten Hingis twice this year, the last one in 3 close sets on clay. Surprisingly, though, Mauresmo has not performed particularly well in the French Open, despite it being on home soil.

others: Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova or Venus Williams

The French Open remains to be the only grand slam missing in Martina Hingis’ trophy collection. She was a finalist twice (1997 & 1999), a semifinalist 3 times & even won the junior title as a 12-year-old. After winning in Rome last week, Hingis brings some confidence into Paris while remaining realistic about her chances. She said she still considers herself an underdog but is “a good (dark) horse”.

This year’s French Open will definitely be an exciting one. For the first time, the tournament will begin on Sunday (May 28), with Hingis playing her first match on Monday or Tuesday.

World number eight Elena Dementieva will be back at her pain-au-chocolate city as the French open begins in Roland Garros.

Seeded 6th this year, she starts her campaign on the red-hot clay of Roland Garros against Slovakian Martina Sucha. These two players have never faced before, but theoretically, Elena should advance easily, since the world number sixty three has yet to claim a win over a top ten.

Should Dementieva advance beyond the first round, her next opponent will be either American Vania King or Ukrainian Viktoriya Kutuzova, and none have ever faced Elena before.

As third round gets underway, Israli Shahar Peer poses the main threat, as the Israeli has been in excellent form lately, claiming the title in Istanbul over top seed Anastasia Myskina in a third set tiebreak. If Dementieva overcomes this difficult teenager, she might have a chance to beat Martina Hingis for the fourth time in her career, since they’re in a collision route for a fourth-round clash.

After that, and assuming she sends the Swiss Miss packing, Dementieva is almost certainly getting a showdown versus Kim Clijsters. These two have met already three times this year with Clijsters leading the series 2-1 and 10-3 overall. For the semifinals, things will get pretty tough with the semifinalist of the third quarter coming almost certainly from the quarterfinal clash between Nadia Petrova and Justine Henin-Hardenne (Petrova holds a fantastic 15-0 record in clay courts this season, including three victories with two being at the Tier I level).

In the final the possibilities are quite open with the main contenders for the finals being world number one, if she puts the pressure of home soil away, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, who has yet to play a clay court match this season, 2004 Roland Garros champion Anastasia Myskina and in-from Svetlana Kuznetsova. Other players to look out for are Russians Dinara Safina, who reached the final in Rome, claiming wins over Clijsters and Dementieva along the way, Maria Kirilenko and Anna Chakvetadze. From Italy, the power of Flavia Pennetta and the will of Francesca Schiavone will certainly do their best to go deep into the draw, as well as Czech teen sensation Nicole Vaidisova, who claimed her first clay-court title in Strasbourg this Sunday.

Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic defeated Peng Shuai of China to win the championship title at the Tier III clay court Strasbourg International. The Czech took her sixth career WTA title, beating Peng in two sets, 7-6 (6) and 6-3. The Chinese played her first WTA final. Peng defeated the defending champion Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain earlier in the semifinal.

“I am going to Paris as well prepared as I can be,” the 17 year old said, where she will meet Marta Domachowska in the first round. Vaidisova is seeded 16th at Roland Garros.

“This is the best preparation for Roland Garros. To win an event on the same surface is the best preparation you can have. I am extremely happy with my week here in Strasbourg.

“I had to get cut down on my errors to get back on track. She had a couple of chances in the tiebreak to take the set, but I was luckier. We were both very nervous,” the Czech youngster said.

“I reached my first final and that is a good thing. Now I will forget about this loss and concentrate on the Grand Slams,” Peng said, who will meet Russian Elena Vesnina in the French Open first round.

Shahar Peer of Israel defeated top seed Anastasia Myskina of Russia to win the title at the Istanbul Cup in Turkey. The 19 year old took her third title this year after defeating Myskina in three sets, 1-6, 6-3 and 7-6 (3). Earlier Peer won in February at Pattaya City in Thailand and two weeks ago in Prague, Czech Republic.

“This is my biggest victory, to beat someone ranked as high as Myskina,” said Peer. “This was an amazing end to the tournament. I never gave up, and I kept believing in myself.”

“Its great to win another tournament before the French Open, so I am going to go to Paris really high on confidence.”

Myskina failed to take her 11th career title. The Russian had to play the Istanbul final with an injured right arm.

Mary Pierce, the former French Open winner, is not able to compete at this year´s event at Roland Garros due to injuries. The Frenchwoman, who won the second Grand Slam of the year in 2000, said she is having problems with her foot and groin. Serena Williams also pulled out of the French Open and already announced her withdrawal from Wimbledon due to a chronic knee injury.

“I made my decision on Thursday evening with my doctor and my coach”, 31-year-old Pierce said. “I am not competitive yet.”

Pierce injured her right foot during the Open Gaz de France in February and has not played a match since then.

Williams only played four matches in the past eight months. This year she only played at the Australian Open, where she reached to the third round.

“These past months have been very frustrating for me personally, as I have had taken time off to fully mend the chronic knee injury,” the 24 year old said in a statement.