There’s a magic to the French Open.
The brilliant crimson clay courts at Stade Roland Garros are iconic and have ruined 1000’s of completely good tennis sneakers.
Giants of the game have come and conquered the grounds (Rafael Nadal far more than others), and the likes of Rene Lacoste leveraged success on the event past simply trophies, constructing a legendary sportswear model.
Historical past is all the time on the desk on the French Open, and this go-around isn’t any totally different. Earlier than anybody can write their names within the historical past books, let’s look on the most attention-grabbing storylines forward of this yr’s event, which begins first-round play on Sunday.
The 2026 males’s singles champion is a consequence which appears most inevitable. Italian famous person Jannik Sinner is effectively positioned to seize his first French Open title and full a profession Grand Slam.
Sinner is on a 29-match profitable streak courting again to February, most lately capturing the Italian Open title to turn out to be the primary Italian man to take action since 1976.
It was his sixth consecutive Masters 1000 event victory. No different man has gained greater than 4 such tournaments in a row. Sinner and Novak Djokovic are the one two males to win all 9 Masters 1000 tournaments, which have been launched in 1990. Djokovic was 31 when he completed this feat. Sinner is 24.
“What you’re doing is difficult to explain with phrases,” Italian Open finalist Casper Ruud informed Sinner following their match final Sunday.
It doesn’t harm to strive.
Sinner’s elite mixture of energy and poise makes him almost unbeatable. Within the final yr, he leads the ATP Tour in per cent of service video games gained (93.1) and return video games gained (32.3). That’s categorical dominance. By no means too excessive or low, Sinner’s quiet confidence is scary for opponents.
There may be additionally a explicit harm to Sinner’s largest rival that helps his already nice probabilities at profitable the title.
Reigning back-to-back males’s singles champion and high rival to Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, is on the sideline this time round. Alcaraz, meant to be chasing fellow Spaniard Nadal’s ludicrous 14 Roland Garros titles, harm his wrist on the Barcelona Open simply over a month in the past.
Alcaraz introduced earlier this week that he can even miss Wimbledon, which doesn’t start till late June.
Alcaraz is greater than a thorn in Sinner’s facet; he’s a profession Grand Slam champion with a 10-7 profession head-to-head file towards the Italian, with two wins to Sinner’s one in Slam finals towards each other. To not point out, Alcaraz is a yr youthful at 23.
All 9 Grand Slams for the reason that starting of 2024 have been gained by both Sinner or Alcaraz. For at the very least the following two Slams, the destiny of this streak rests on one man’s shoulders.
Victoria Mboko, No. 9 within the girls’s draw, is arguably Canada’s brightest star within the sport. The 19-year-old Torontonian is recent off her greatest end at a serious, making it to the fourth spherical in Australia.
On Friday, Mboko knocked off Jaqueline Cristian in three units to advance to the Strasbourg Open ultimate, which is a tune-up event for Paris. Mboko persevered by way of a medical timeout early within the match and didn’t look again. She’ll tackle Emma Navarro of the U.S. within the ultimate on Saturday.
Mboko is nearing household-name standing domestically, and might make her presence identified far past Canada with a deep Roland Garros run. She faces 20-year-old Czech Nikola Bartunkova in Spherical 1.
No. 24 seed Leylah Fernandez, who fell to Mboko within the Strasbourg quarters, is the opposite Canadian girls within the occasion. She matches up with American Alycia Parks.
Fourth-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime leads theCanadian males, taking over Germany’s Daniel Altmaier within the first spherical. The Montreal native began the clay season sturdy, reaching the quarterfinals in Monte Carlo and falling to Sinner. In three tournaments since, Auger-Aliassime has not made it previous the spherical of 16, even falling within the spherical of 64 in Rome.
Nonetheless, Auger-Aliassime is the one Canadian man since Milos Raonic to be ranked top-five.
Unseeded Canadians embrace Denis Shapovalov, who opens his event towards qualifier Jaime Faria of Portugal, and Gabriel Diallo, who is about to fulfill Australian James Duckworth.
The boys’s facet will see a brand new champ, however Coco Gauff is poised to defend her 2025 girls’s title. The 22-year-old American has been stable on clay this season, reaching the ultimate in Rome earlier than falling to Elina Svitolina.
Apart from No. 1-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, who has gained three tournaments this season, the WTA Tour has seen a mixture of winners. 5 totally different girls have gained the six Masters 1000s this season.
Sabalenka is much forward within the WTA rankings, however she has not been in high type as of late, falling within the spherical of 32 at Rome. The runner-up eventually yr’s event is a four-time Slam champion, however is searching for her first titles at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
No. 4 Gauff should knock off stiff competitors en route to a different ultimate, like No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina, who gained the Australian Open earlier this yr, and No. 3 Iga Swiatek, who’s a four-time champ at Roland Garros.
Gauff will kick off her event towards pal and compatriot Taylor Townsend.
Off the courtroom, rigidity has been brewing on the ATP and WTA circuits concerning participant compensation. Stars like Sabalenka and Gauff have spoken out towards Grand Slam event administrators for not elevating the gamers’ share of complete income.
A number of high gamers have mentioned there are points with every of the main tournaments when ti involves revenue share. Whereas the entire prize-money purse at Roland Garros has gone up by over 5-million euros (roughly $8 million CDN) since final yr, the income share has decreased from 15.5 per cent in 2025 to 14.9 per cent this yr.
Gauff and others expressed an openness to boycott future Slams, however these talks have since simmered. That being mentioned, many top-10 gamers together with Sinner and Sabalenka plan to quietly protest by withholding or refusing media availability.
Because the event goes and the draw wanes, it is going to be attention-grabbing to see how far the game’s stars will go to hamper the media operations and to trigger a stir.
Alcaraz is harm, Djokovic is comparatively outdated, and as talked about, Sinner is just one man. There’s a actual probability that one of many sport’s younger up-and-comers could make a run in Paris.
Arthur Fils is a candidate. Enjoying on residence soil, and in one of the best type of his profession, the 21-year-old Fils has by no means made it previous the fourth spherical at a Slam.
The Frenchman has no points on clay, capturing the Barcelona Open in April. Fils missed a lot of final yr with a again harm and plummeted down the ATP rankings, however fittingly making a run again towards the highest 10.
The 23-year-old Ben Shelton has grown his star within the final yr, profitable the Nationwide Financial institution Open offered by Rogers in 2025, and the Munich Open final month — the latter a clay ATP 500 event.
Shelton is the highest-seeded American on the boys’s tour at No. 5. A robust lefty, Shelton has performed assured tennis of late and is trying to recover from the hump as a two-time Grand Slam semifinalist.
It’s not all concerning the kids.
Some tennis legends are set to make their ultimate French Open appearances subsequent week, most notably the ‘Flying Frenchman’, Gael Monfils.
One of the crucial beloved French gamers of the final half-century, Monfils hasn’t made a Slam ultimate, however has charmed crowds with trick photographs and his infectious smile. He introduced earlier than the season that he’ll retire following the marketing campaign.. He’s set to play fellow Frenchman Hugo Gaston in what ought to be a roaring first-round match.
In the meantime, 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka is within the midst of his farewell tour, and is about to tackle Fils in Spherical 1.
Anticipate Belgian David Goffin and Romanian Sorana Cristea to obtain heat welcomes and farewells of their ultimate Roland Garros appearances. Each have had modest success on the event over time.
