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This year's French open is a week late starting on 31st May and qualfying is the week starting May 24.

Mens qualifying entry list came out today and 4 Indians are in the list.

Sumit Nagal , Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Yuki Bhambri with his protected ranking.

As of now, Sumit just sneaks it as 32nd seed based on his current ranking. But, that will change as how his ranking and those around him change before the qualfying draw is made.

But, I guess relistically, he is the only one with real chance of going deep in qualifying draw here.

Sumit should make it into the main draw. With a bit of luck, so will Prajnesh. Yuki might surprise us positively too, although I wonder whether his body will last 3 matches on clay. RamK should look to maximize his results on grass, but any wins at RG on clay will be a nice bonus.

Good that Yuki is on it. Which means he is fine health wise.

Don’t forget Ankita and Karman, especially starting this year, French open will have the same draw size for women as that of the men’s in the qualifying level.

Yes, how could we forget the women?? Ankita, in particular, should be raring to go, despite her mental block about clay. Karman will use her protected ranking to get in, but she needs to find some form quickly to make an impact.

Just saw that Karman has not entered French open qualies with her PR and was really surprised as to who would give up on prize money for grand slam qualies especially when Karman is in Europe.

Checked the WTA rulebook and it says a player can use her PR only for 2 grand slams. Karman used one for Australian open qualies. So, I guess she will reserve one for either Wimbledon or US open.

Strange rule this. I do not think it is there for ATP.

Thanks, Sameer. I was not aware of that rule in WTA!

Yes, I also did not know but just could believe that Karman had not entered FO qualies when she is in Europe and is playing a 15K tournament on clay next week. So, she just checked the WTA rulebook to see if there is anything there and found this.

I have not checked ATP rulebook but I am pretty sure it is not there because else Yuki would not have entered FO qualies.

Thanks Sameer, wasn't aware of this WTA rule.

sameerph wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:55 pm This year's French open is a week late starting on 31st May and qualfying is the week starting May 24.

Mens qualifying entry list came out today and 4 Indians are in the list.

Sumit Nagal , Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Yuki Bhambri with his protected ranking.

As of now, Sumit just sneaks it as 32nd seed based on his current ranking. But, that will change as how his ranking and those around him change before the qualfying draw is made.

But, I guess relistically, he is the only one with real chance of going deep in qualifying draw here.

It would be huge if any one of these players could make it into the main draw.

Sumit Nagal (who has played in the main draw of the last two Slams, making R2 at the US Open) should be expected to qualify in quite comfortably this year at the FO, given his successes on clay.
Prajnesh has at least a decent chance of making it in as well. He played all 4 Slams in 2019, and the AO in 2020 as well. In 2018, he narrowly missed playing in the main draw of the French Open (having received a Lucky Loser slot, which he lost because he had left the venue to play a Challenger the following week).

Yuki pulls out of the qualifying draw at Roland Garros.

Vatsal claims that Yuki withdrew from the US Challenger (after one doubles match) because he had Covid. If that is true, then he probably doesn't yet feel strong enough to play again. Hopefully, he will start the grass season early.

Will Sania play in Paris? Haven’t heard anything concerning her spring/summer schedule.

Sadly, Sania isn't playing the French Open.
Visa issues are challenging, especially as she needs to travel with her son -- as well as sister Anam (to look after her son when she is playing) and preferably father Imran, who coaches her (and often the doubles pair as well). But getting all those visas is proving quite troublesome at this point, and they are having to make tough decisions about bargaining with countries for visas for a subset of those they want. This is ridiculous, that countries (and especially the WTA) are not making things any easier for a new mother to pursue her playing career properly. Most other players don't need visas to most of these countries, especially from Europe or the US.

Sania is fully planning to play the grass season, culminating with Wimbledon.