a look ahead to saturday

Simona Halep and Sloane Stephens will face off for the French Open title on Saturday with Halep, the No. 1 seed, vying for her first Grand Slam title and Stephens, seeded 10th, vying for her second.

0-3: Halep's record in Grand Slam finals. She lost to Maria Sharapova at the 2017 French Open, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4; Jelena Ostapenko at the 2017 French Open, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3; and Caroline Wozniacki at the Australian Open in January, 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4.

1-0: Stephens career record in Grand Slam finals with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Madison Keys at the 2017 U.S. Open.

16-14: Halep's career record in tournament title matches.

6-0: Stephens career record in tournament title matches.

5-2: Halep's advantage in head-to-head matchups, including four straight, most recently in the semifinals of the 2017 Western & Southern Open semifinals, which Halep won 6-2, 6-1.

6-4, 6-3: The final score of Halep's win over Stephens in their only other match at Roland Garros, in 2014.

• Hopefully I will be better than previous ones." — Halep.

• "Both of them are similar in the sense that if you can get them off of the baseline, then you can open up the court. I think if you try to go angles with them, you're going to be the one that's running — and not like it." — Madison Keys, who lost to Stephens in the semifinals on Thursday.

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