“I don't think the draw would be any different with Serena for me," Pliskova said at her pre-event press conference. "It's still tough draw. Still a lot of players who you have to beat, so you have to win seven matches to win this tournament. So it doesn't matter who is there. So even Serena, I don't think she was unbeatable.
"Some young players coming up, and some different which were injured and not ready and didn't play are back now. Even Vika [Azarenka], I heard she's gonna come back after Paris. It's open, but not because of Serena, I felt.”
The tall, hard-hitting Pliskova doesn't like clay, but says that in Rome she played pretty well, reaching the quarters before losing against Elina Svitolina. At the start of this year, she won the hard-court event in Brisbane. She also reached the 2016 U.S. Open final, barely losing against Kerber in three tough sets.
Whether she can go very deep at the French Open is also an open question.
“I’m going to do my best, but I think the title and talking, even talking about [the] title, is really far for me," Pliskova said. "Maybe just in [a] couple days or after [the] first two rounds, then anything can happen. Last year even Garbine, she was also probably not the favorite of the tournament before the tournament, so I believe everyone has the chance.”
