QUEEN WEN COURTS PARIS ONCE MORE

Even without the strength in numbers, the Chinese tennis contingent, led by Paris Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen and rising men's ace Buyunchaokete, is approaching this year's French Open with major ambitions.

With the memories of her golden finish at Paris 2024 still fresh, Zheng returns to Roland Garros touted as one of the title favorites for this year's French Open, but insists that she will keep her expectations in check, noting that it's a different challenge to go all the way at the clay-court major compared to her Olympic triumph.

"I will say that I always feel confident going back to Roland Garros. But, at the same time, I know it is still a bit different," Zheng said in her pre-tournament interview.

"Because the Olympic Games were one week, while the French Open is two weeks, so you need to prepare your body for a longer time and you need to win seven matches in a row, one more match than the Olympics.

"You have to be prepared for every type of player. This year, I will try to be more complete with my clay court game," said Zheng, who was eliminated by unseeded Ukrainian Elina Avanesyan in the third round last year.

The 22-year-old world No 8, who described the Olympic gold medal as her biggest career achievement so far, has backed up her French Open credentials with a series of resurgent performances on clay recently.

Zheng's Rome Open quarterfinal win against bitter rival Aryna Sabalenka last week, having previously lost to the Belarusian star six times in a row, has certainly served up an extra confidence boost.

Still, she needs to step it up a gear if she is to break out from a strong and open field in the French capital.

"I always tell my team that, if I could choose which Slam to win first, it would be Roland Garros," said Zheng, who made an immediate mark by fighting into the fourth round on her Roland Garros debut in 2022 in her first full year on the WTA Tour.

"It's the major where I reached my first Grand Slam round-of-16. I have a lot of special memories here.

"But, last year, the result didn't go the way I wanted. So, this year, I will come back with a stronger mindset and more fight."

A surging group of international stars, led by the mighty No 1 seed Sabalenka, four-time Roland Garros winner Iga Swiatek and red-hot Rome Open champion Jasmine Paolini, suggests that Zheng will need to dig deeper on the tricky and unpredictable surface.

"It's not easy to finish a point (on this surface). Everybody has to fight so hard, which makes tennis on clay more interesting," she said.

"I don't think there is any player that I don't want to play against, or that I want to avoid, because, in my head, I've already prepared. If I want to win the title, I have to be able to beat everyone there.

"It doesn't matter who I face, because if I finish the whole tournament without beating a player that I have never beaten before, that's not fun. I love the challenge."

Alongside Zheng, only one other Chinese woman, world No 42 Wang Xinyu, has made it into the main draw through rankings, while 89th-ranked Yuan Yue also qualified as a substitute.

Men's solo entry

On the men's side, only world No 70 Buyunchaokete appears in the draw, with 71st-ranked teen star Shang Juncheng and No 81 Zhang Zhizhen both having withdrawn due to injuries.

The quartet makes it the smallest Chinese contingent in three years at Roland Garros, which seems to be an almost sacred place for Chinese tennis, thanks to Zheng's Olympic victory and retired legend Li Na's groundbreaking 2011 French Open win.

China's Olympic mixed doubles silver winner Wang (pairing with Zhang) will also need to draw on her own sweet memories at Paris 2024 to change her fortunes and fuel her first deep run in this year's clay court swing.

The 23-year-old power hitter has lost three out of four matches on clay this season, with her only W being a straight-sets victory over German qualifier Eva Lys in the first round at WTA 500 Strasbourg, France, on Monday.

She was stopped by Kazakhstan's 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina the following day, and has not yet rediscovered her best form on clay, it seems.

In the men's draw, China's sole entry Buyunchaokete, known as "Little Bu" by fans, has raised his fair share of expectation by overcoming a strong field to reach the final of an ATP Challenger event in Turin on clay.

Bu's first run to a final on clay at an ATP tournament saw him upset Italy's former world No 9 Fabio Fognini in the second round, and Argentina's No 52 Camilo Ugo Carabelli in the semis, before being stopped by Kazakhstan's eighth seed Alexander Bublik in the title match.

That deep run, though, has helped Bu overtake his compatriot Zhang as China's top-ranked player on the ATP Tour, further consolidating his career upswing since his breakthrough results last fall, when he reached back-to-back Tour-level semifinals on home soil, first at the ATP 250 Hangzhou Open, and again at the ATP 500 China Open.

"Gradually, I think I've become more confident and comfortable facing this level of competition on the Tour," said Bu.