World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka had a very encouraging start to her French Open campaign. The Belarusian superstar was entering the first round in stellar form on one of her lesser surfaces. The highlight of Sabalenka’s clay season so far was winning the Madrid Open for the third time in her career. That performance cemented her as one of the top 4 favorites for this tournament alongside four-time champ Iga Swiatek, former finalist Coco Gauff, and Italian Open champion Jasmine Paolini. Sabalenka has a very interesting draw in this tournament, but on Sunday, her focus was solely on Kamilla Rakhimova. The young Russian has found success on the surface before, making the third round of the French Open in 2023. Sabalenka, however, ran through her opponent, winning 6-1 6-0 to move onto the second round. The three-time major champion will now take on Swiss lefty Jil Teichmann. If Sabalenka can make it to the second weekend, there are some intriguing potential matchups on the horizon. One possible clash would be a fourth-round meeting with resurgent American Amanda Anisimova. Unlike most players from the United States, Anisimova has found some great success on clay, including a stunning run to the French Open semifinals in 2019. Should Aryna make a third straight quarterfinal at Roland-Garros, she could see a potentially even more dangerous opponent in No. 8 seed Qinwen Zheng. The 22-year-old from China is an electric player who was superb the last time she played in Paris. During the 2024 Paris Olympics, Zheng won the Gold Medal and recently beat Sabalenka in the quarterfinals of the Italian Open. In addition, Swiatek is in the same half of this draw, and while she has now been in her best form recently, the Polish superstar has won four out of the last five French Opens. Overall, while clay might not be Sabalenka’s best surface, she has a chance to collect a fourth slam trophy in Paris. And a win at Roland-Garros would be Aryna’s first major on a non-hard surface and put her one major away from the career grand slam, which coincidentally is at Wimbledon. It’s a long road to the Suzanne Lenglen Cup, but very encouraging for Sabalenka that she’s already in this kind of form. Now it’s all about maintaining this level as the tournament goes on.