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World No. 1 Serena Williams begins her quest for a fourth Roland Garros title on Tuesday as the top half of the draw contests its first-round matches. We preview all the action here at WTATennis.com.

Tuesday, First Round

[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs. Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK #77)
Head-to-head: Williams leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Williams is one of nine Grand Slam winners in the main draw, and has four more major titles (21) than the other eight major winners combined (17).

Serena Williams will look to resume her march towards history in Paris this week after stumbling in the late rounds at each of the last two majors. The World No.1 sits just one behind Steffi Graf for the all-time Open Era record for major titles, but that fact is something that the 34-year-old American prefers not to dwell on. “I definitely block it out,” Williams said over the weekend in Paris. “I was one off last year, too. If I don’t win [Roland Garros] I’ll still be one off. It took me forever to get to 18. I was so stressed out. I don’t want to relive that at all.” On Tuesday Williams will hope for a stress-free encounter against Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova in the final match of the day on Court Philippe Chatrier. Rybarikova has struggled with a leg injury since reaching the quarterfinals at Indian Wells and the 27-year-old has only played once since then, retiring from a challenger match in Slovakia in the first set.

Pick: Williams in two

[26] Kristina Mladenovic (FRA #30) vs. Francesca Schiavone (ITA #95)
Head-to-head: Schiavone leads, 2-1
Key Stat: Mladenovic has notched a Top 10 win in each of her last two Roland Garros appearances.

Kristina Mladenovic’s Roland Garros legend is growing with each passing year as the Frenchwoman has notched some of the grandest, most emotional wins of her career on the terre battue. In 2014 she famously upset 2011 Roland Garros champion Li Na in the first round. Last year Mladenovic took out then-World No.6 Eugenie Bouchard in her opening match. Credit to Mladenovic. She’s embraced the challenge of playing at her home Slam and delivered inspiring performances in two consecutive years. But to do it again this year the 23-year-old will have to get past a woman with a Roland Garros resumé that is far more impressive than her own. Francesca Schiavone’s legend is already as big as it gets in Paris. “La Leonessa” pulled off one of the most magical runs in recent Grand Slam history when she took the title at Roland Garros in 2010, but the 35-year-old will likely need some more of her Paris magic if she is to book her place in the second round.

Pick: Mladenovic in three

[5] Victoria Azarenka (BLR #5) vs. Karin Knapp (ITA #118)
Head-to-head: Knapp leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Knapp dropped just two games in a straight-sets win over Azarenka at Roland Garros in 2007.

Nine years ago, Italy’s Karin Knapp notched one of her best career wins at a major against Victoria Azarenka at Roland Garros, dropping just two games in a first-round blowout. But that victory came early in Azarenka’s Roland Garros career, before she had fully acclimated herself to the red clay. These days Azarenka is a much more accomplished clay-courter with seven finals on the surface under her belt and three appearances in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros (including a semifinal in 2013). If Azarenka truly has put the back issues that have plagued her on clay this season behind her, she should be able to assert herself early and often against Knapp on Tuesday.

Pick: Azarenka in two

[3] Angelique Kerber (GER #3) vs. Kiki Bertens (NED #58)
Head-to-head: Kerber leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Kerber lost in the first round in both Madrid and Rome.

On Tuesday in Paris Angelique Kerber will play her first Grand Slam match since claiming the Australian Open title in January. How will she handle the challenge? The German has been through her share of ups and downs since that triumph, but by and large she has adjusted to her newfound notoriety with maturity, managing to stay grounded and focused on playing the high-quality tennis that she has become known for. But dealing with fame hasn’t been Kerber’s only challenge this spring. The World No. 5 has also struggled with a shoulder injury that could be a factor when she meets last week’s Nürnberg champion, Kiki Bertens, in her first-round match. “I’ve had a few practice days and that gives me confidence,” Kerber told reporters this weekend about her decision to skip last week’s event in Nürnberg to rest. “I used the days at home to have a lot of shoulder treatments. Physically I’m feeling good again. I was scared to play matches before Paris. Now I can serve and there are not so many pains.”

Pick: Kerber in three

By The Numbers

4 — Williams is bidding for her fourth Roland Garros title this year. If she succeeds she’ll pull even with Justine Henin and Helen Wills-Moody on the all-time leaderboard.

40 – Schiavone is fifth among active players on the Roland Garros win list. The Italian has gone 40-14 in her 15 appearances in Paris.

4 – In the Open Era the No. 1 seed has lost in the first round just four times at a major and never at Roland Garros.

-Chris Oddo, wtatennis.com contributor

On Thursday, defending French Open doubles champions Lucie Safarova and Bethanie Mattek-Sands take the court to start their bid for a third Grand Slam title as a duo. Standing in their way? None other than the World No.1s Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis – who are just five wins away from a ‘SanTina Slam’ – and a stacked draw filled with dangerous teams.

Ahead of their doubles opener, the pair sat down with CNN Open Court to discuss the origins of “Team Bucie,” their on-court chemistry, and Safarova’s return from a career-threatening illness.

PARIS, France – On a special Dropshot edition of the podcast, top tennis coach and commentator Darren Cahill joins the team at Radio Roland Garros to discuss why he chose to team up with Simona Halep, what his time in Romania has been like, and he expands on his coaching philosophy.

As Cahill says, he coaches Simona because he wants to, not because he has to. “I don’t have to do this,” he says. “I’m very lucky. I’ve worked with many great players, like Hewitt and Agassi. I want to do it. I think the world of her, I think she’s a great person, I think she’s a wonderful talent. I’m away from my family 25-30 weeks a year. Some people see it as a sacrifice. I look at it as a choice.”

More from Cahill: “I think a coach has to do their job and sometimes that is delivering a tough message. I haven’t always delivered the positive message to Simona, there have been times like in Rome, I delivered a couple of tough messages to her. They were not taken in a positive way straight way, but in time you go back on them and you talk about those discussions and you try and learn from them.

“And a coach is not always right either. Part of a coach’s job is to try and coach through the player’s eyes. I look at tennis a certain way and there are certain things that happen on the court and I don’t understand why they’re happening. So I have to sit down and ask questions to the player as to why they’re making certain decisions in those moment and quite often I’m wrong because the player doesn’t see tennis the way I do. So a good coach I think learns to coach a player through their eyes.”

Tune in to Radio Roland Garros for more interview and commentary from the French Open.

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on any podcast app of your choice and reviews are always helpful, so if you like what you’ve heard so far, leave us one. You can also get new episode alerts by following us on Twitter @WTA_Insider.