Before each day of play at Roland Garros, we'll preview and predict three must-see matches.

In the age of 32 seeds at the Slams, the real tournament starts in the third round, and it starts with a bang at the bottom of the women’s draw. Sharapova has always had Stosur’s number; she won their first nine meetings and is 14-2 against her overall. She’s also a two-time French Open champion. Yet this one is tough to call. Stosur, the 2010 Roland Garros finalist, led Sharapova by a set here last year before going into free fall. More important, she’s played lights-out tennis over the last month. Winner: Sharapova

The flaky vs. the gritty. Monfils is 28 and Cuevas 29, yet the Frenchman and the Uruguayan have faced off just once, at the 2008 U.S. Open, where Monfils won in straight sets. It almost certainly won’t be as straightforward this time around. Cuevas, after spending two years on the sidelines with injuries, is having the best 12 months of his career. He’s won three clay-court titles, and, after a decade on tour, he reached a career-high ranking of No. 21 three months ago. Cuevas loves to grind; Monfils loves to fly. Will Cuevas be the perfect straight man for Monfils’ air show over Paris? Or will he bring the Frenchman crashing back to earth? Either way, it might take awhile to find out. Winner: Monfils

Pity these two second-tier Slam contenders. Despite all of the mayhem in the women’s draw, they remain stuck between a rock and a couple of hard places in the bottom quarter of the women’s draw—Carla Suarez Navarro is above them, Sharapova and Stosur are below them. But whatever happens to the winner down the road, Kerber-Muguruza, which will pit the Spaniard’s slugging vs. the German’s running, should make for an entertaining match in itself. Kerber leads their head-to-head 3-0, but all of those wins have come on hard courts. Muguruza, a quarterfinalist in singles and semifinalist in doubles here last year, plays well in Paris. Winner: Kerber

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