Sloane Stephens believes this year's French Open is wide open

PARIS—Sloane Stephens cruised against Arantxa Rus in the first round at the French Open, but says it's tough to guess who might win the wide-open tournament.

“I would say now, and no matter what, anyone, any week can win. Anyone can beat anyone on any day,” Stephens said. “We play sports so it's anything can happen. But I think now it's up for grabs, and I think whoever takes their opportunity best is the person who, is the winner at the end of the week. But if you have that confidence and you're playing well, anything can happen.”

Stephens, who won her first Grand Slam title at the US Open, has been an example of that, hardly winning a match for the next few months before then capturing her second-biggest title at Miami.

On the clay courts, though, Stephens did not reach the quarters in any of her three events before the French Open.

Daily Serve from Roland Garros—Day 1 recap:

At the French Open, Stephens has reached the fourth round four times, but she has yet to reach the quarters. Each time, she has been defeated by a top competitor—Sam Stosur, Maria Sharapova, Simona Halep, and Serena Williams.

Because Stephens was injured and did not play the 2017 French Open, she could go even higher than her current ranking of No. 10 if she has a good tournament. But she says she's not concentrating on that.

“Every week you have to compete and play against people. And there's people ahead of me that want to keep their ranking and that are defending points and there's a lot of pressure,” Stephens said. “I try not to focus too much on points and defending and next year and practice, blah, blah, blah. It's way too much to think about. So you just have to play. Because at the end of the day, literally anything can happen. And tennis is so crazy that you could think that you're going to drop 500 points, but then the person above you drops 500 points and you're the same exact spot. So that's just kind of how it works.”

Stephens is also the No. 10 seed.

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