21 May 2014 | Tennis Queensland

Sunday marks the beginning of the French Open at Roland Garros where Queensland will boast three of Australia’s eight main draw contenders.

World No.20 Samantha Stosur, the 2010 French Open runner-up and semi-finalist at the event in 2009 and 2012, will lead the Australian charge alongside Bernard Tomic and wildcard recipient Ashleigh Barty.

After celebrating her 18th birthday last month, Ashleigh Barty will enter the French Open eligible to compete unrestricted on the WTA tour for the first time.

With a world ranking of 182 Barty’s focus for the year so far has been to contest the qualifying rounds of high-level ITF events.

Barty will head to her third French Open looking to build on her maiden Grand Slam victory in Round 1 of the tournament last year.

“It’s really exciting to be awarded a wildcard into the French Open,” she said.

“I’ve obviously played at Roland Garros a few times now, including when I was a junior, so I’m familiar with the site and there’s just no better clay than at Roland Garros. It’s pretty special when you get there.

“I’ll give it a real go, you never know what’s going to happen. I’ve just got to go out there, keep my chin up and see how I go on the day.”

The Queenslanders will be joined by Lleyton Hewitt (SA), Marinko Matosevic (Vic), Matt Ebden (WA), Casey Dellacqua (WA) and Nick Kyrgios (ACT).

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