Tennis starlets Venise Chan Wing-yau and Zhang Ling take on some of the best young players in the world at the French Junior Open, which started in Paris yesterday.
The second week of Roland Garros sees the juniors take to the courts for their moment in the spotlight. There will be many players hoping to make a name for themselves on the Parisian clay.
Competition will be intense in the girls' singles draw, as only three of the world's top-25 ranked juniors - Viktoria Azarenka, Agnes Szavay and Urszula Radwanska - are missing.
Venise and Zhang qualified for the Open by virtue of their rankings. Venise, 16, is now ranked 26 among the world's juniors, and Zhang, who moved to Hong Kong from the mainland two years ago, is ranked 44.
Last week, the girls tuned up for the Open by competing at the group one Astrid Bowl in Charleroi, Belgium. Zhang lost to Kimberly Couts of the United States, 4-6, 5-7, in the first round of the girls' singles, while Venise was beaten, 1-6, 3-6, in the second round by 55th-ranked Ana-Clara Duarte of Brazil.
Top players in the girls' draw at the Open include Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland), Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark), Ayumi Morita (Japan) and Raluca Olaru (Romania).