The 20 year old Anisimova, seeded 27th in Paris, reached the fourth round at January's Australian Open in Melbourne, where she defeated Osaka 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(7-5) in a two hours fifteen minutes long third round match in the duo's only prior meeting.

Osaka withdrew from Roland Garros last year citing her mental health after first refusing to participate in mandatory post match press conferences.

From 2018 to 2021, Osaka won two US Open titles as well as two Australian Open titles all on hard courts but has struggled on clay; never advancing yet past the third round at Roland Garros.

World number one Iga Swiatek of Poland has won her last five tournaments and could face the former number one and 2018 Roland Garros champion Simona Halep of Romania in the fourth round.

World number one and defending Roland Garros champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia could meet the 13 time Paris champion Rafael Nadal of Spain in the quarterfinals before possibly facing the red hot 19 year old and 6th seeded Carlos Alcaraz of Spain in the semifinals.

Alcaraz won the Miami Open in March before upsetting Djokovic, Nadal as well as the third ranked Alexander Zverev of Germany en route to winning the title in Madrid.

Alcaraz became the only player ever to defeat Nadal and Djokovic in the same clay court professional tournament.

The player who emerges from that half of the men's draw could face either the fourth seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece or the second seeded Daniil Medvedev in the championship match.