The season’s second grand slam occasion — the French Open — is right here, with 128 gamers in every of the lads’s and ladies’s singles attracts trying to elevate the title at Roland Garros.
This 12 months’s French Open, which is able to use its first day to pay tribute to retired legend Rafa Nadal, guarantees loads of storylines to be careful for.
This is the whole lot it is advisable know.
Schedule
The French Open males’s and ladies’s singles predominant draw begins on Monday, Could 25, with the ladies’s remaining scheduled for Saturday, June 7 and the lads’s remaining to happen on Sunday, June 8.
NOTE: The opening day’s schedule will seem right here following the singles attracts on Thursday at 1 p.m. BST.
Males’s singles bracket | Girls’s singles bracket
Key particulars and methods to watch
Dates: Could 25 to June 8
Venue: Roland Garros, Paris
The way to watch: The French Open will likely be broadcast reside on TNT Sports activities and discovery+ within the UK. You too can observe reside updates on ESPN.
The British hopes
British tennis will likely be extra hopeful than typical coming into this 12 months’s French Open, with stars Jack Draper, Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter all having fun with some success on clay this season.
Draper reached the ultimate of the Madrid Open earlier than dropping to Norway’s Casper Ruud in three units. He then made it to the Italian Open quarterfinals in Rome, solely to be stopped by eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz.
The 23-year-old is but to make it previous the primary spherical after dropping his opening matches prior to now two years. Nonetheless, he’s anticipated to make a greater run this day trip.
Within the girls’s draw, Raducanu has put apart her aversions to clay and mananged to earn some success — the spotlight of which got here on the Italian Open the place she gained three matches in a row on the floor for the primary time in her profession.
She was stopped in her tracks in Rome by American Coco Gauff, however she will likely be hoping to develop additional at this week’s Strasbourg Open — the ultimate occasion earlier than the French Open.
Elsewhere, Katie Boulter managed only one win between Madrid and Rome — towards world No. 64 Katerina Siniakova. Nonetheless, she entered the lower-ranked WTA 125k Paris occasion final week and emerged because the champion, elevating hopes that she has lastly tuned her recreation for the floor.
Different British gamers within the singles attracts this week embody Jacob Fearnley, Jodie Burrage and Sonay Kartal.
Who’re the favourites?
For the lads’s draw, it’s exhausting to look previous Italian Open finalists Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz because the clear favourites for the title. It was Alcaraz who took the title in Rome, profitable the ultimate in two units. He’s additionally the reigning champion at Roland Garros.
Do not look previous Sinner, although. Rome marked the world No. 1’s return to tennis after a three-month ban over two constructive doping exams in March 2024.
Within the girls’s draw, the bracket is a bit more open.
Iga Swiatek is looking for her fourth straight title at Roland Garros and her fifth prior to now six years. Nonetheless, she has been a degree under her imperious finest in current weeks, notably struggling a shock third-round Italian Open defeat to American Danielle Collins.
The contenders to unseat Switaek are quite a few. There’s American Coco Gauff, who reached the ultimate in each Madrid and Rome in current weeks, though she misplaced every time to Aryna Sabalenka and Jasmine Paolini, respectively. All three will likely be eyeing up the title.
There’s additionally 18-year-old Mirra Andreeva, who made the semifinals final 12 months however is embarking on a breakout season that has already seen her win two WTA 1000 occasions this season.
Prize cash
Prize cash for the lads’s and ladies’s singles champions is equal on the French Open, with every because of take residence £2.1 million out of a mixed £47m pot.
The runners-up will earn simply over £1m, whereas prizes lower for every spherical thereafter.
Winner: £2,166,912
Runner-up: £1,083,456
Semifinal: £586,341
Quarterfinal: £373,898
Spherical 4: £225,189
Spherical 3: £142,761
Spherical 2: £99,423
Spherical 1: £66,282
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