The French Open has now started, and here are some notable results:

The women:  Petra Kvitova played!  It’s great to see her back after the dreadful hand injury sustained earlier this year.  She lost in the second round to Mattek-Sands, and her movement around the court was a bit sluggish.  Her hitting looked normal for her, however, which indicates that the hand problem is a thing of the forgettable past.

Early exits by Kerber and Konta have opened up the draw.  Kerber’s play has been inconsistent of late, but Konta’s loss is a big surprise.   Favorites left in the draw are:

1) Svetlana Kuznetsova:  A former champ playing very well.  Look out for her.

2) Elina Svitolina:  She has been playing the best tennis on the tour over the past several weeks.  She could have a major breakthrough here.

3) Simona Halep:  She has also been playing very well.  Lost to Svitolina in the Italian Open final.  A veteran of the big stage.

4) Karolina Pliskova.  Big weapons, very determined.  Clay favors power players who move relatively poorly, as is the case with her. 

They have a chance:  Madison Keys, Agnieska Radwanska and maybe Venus Williams??  Not Venus’ best surface, but she’s playing well and relaxed in the twilight of her career.

The men:  The only real surprise was the early loss by Alexander Zverev, who won his first Masters 1000 event the previous week by beating Djokovic in the final of the Italian Open.  He perhaps had a bit of a letdown after that, but he also had a tough early round opponent in Fernando Verdasco.

The other top men are looking very strong – Nadal, Djokovic, Wawrinka, Nishikori, Thiem.  Hard to know what to expect from Murray and Djokovic, who have been very inconsistent over the past few weeks.  Nadal has a great chance to win number 10 here.  Thiem is the best clay player after Nadal, and must be considered a real threat.

Other players looking good include Dimitrov, Goffin and Nick Kyrgios, who appears, at least for now, to be concentrating on playing well rather than on theatrics and unsportsmanlike conduct.  He should be interesting to watch.