2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic is seeded 14th at this year's championships and she returns to Paris for a chance to become champion at Roland Garros for the second time. Ivanovic begins her campaign against 19-year-old French wild card Oceane Dodin.
Ivanovic's inconsistent season
Ana Ivanovic reunited with her coach Nigel Sears in July 2015 hoping that would give the Serb a renewed confidence to start winning big tournaments again and being in the top ten consistently but in 2016, it has been an up and down year for her.
She lost in the third round of the 2016 Australian Open to Madison Keys but she was momentarily distracted as her coach fell ill and had to be taken to the hospital.
The North American hard court season was disappointing for Ivanovic as she lost to Karolina Pliskova and Timea Bacsinszky in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open respectively.
Her preparation for the second Grand Slam tournament of the year on the European clay courts has been underwhelming. She suffered second round exits to Pliskova, Louisa Chirico and Christina McHale in Stuttgart, Madrid, and Rome respectively.
The 2008 champion has won only three matches coming into the French Open but she will be confident as she has won the title here before and she is comfortable playing on the courts at Roland Garros.
The former champion's tricky draw
Unfortunately for Ivanovic, she might have to wait another year to reclaim the title in Paris as she has a tough draw. Sorana Cirstea or last year's quarterfinalist Elina Svitolina could be her projected third round opponent and the toughest hurdle of them all will be overcoming the world number one and defending champion Serena Williams in the fourth round.
Ivanovic however, defeated Williams for the first time at the fourth round stage at the Australian Open in 2014 so it could be an omen for the Serb. Should Ivanovic become victorious over Williams in the fourth round (if they meet), Ivanovic will have to defeat project opponents Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals, Angelique Kerber in the semifinals and Halep, Kvitova, Radwanska or Muguruza in the final.
It would be an amazing achievement for the Serb to win the title in Paris again, should she face all of those projected players.
Head-to-head
This will be the first career meeting between Ana Ivanovic and Oceane Dodin.
Dodin is only 19 years old and she is in her fifth main draw appearance of a grand slam tournament. Dodin reached the second round of the Australian Open in 2015 defeating American Alison Riske and she also made the second round of the US Open by upsetting Ivanovic's compatriot and former world number one Jelena Jankovic in the opening round who was seeded 21st.
Final thoughts
Ivanovic desperately needs a win to kickstart her season properly and she made the semifinals at the French Open last year for the first time since she won the title in 2008.
Dodin will have the crowd on her side and she will be excited to play on Court Suzanne Lenglen and whilst she is expected to lose the match, she could cause Ivanovic some problems and upset the former world number one.
The French wildcard will have confidence coming into this clash as she's beaten a top player before at a grand slam but Ivanovic should win this match and progress deep into the tournament.
Prediction: Ivanovic to win in three sets.