In the post-Rafael Nadal era of the French Open, uncertainty is king
Two days before the start of the French Open, a string of stars trickled in to talk to reporters at Roland Garros. There was the ascendant Carlos Alcaraz, fresh off palling around with three-time major champion Aryna Sabalenka at a practice session. Jannik Sinner rolled through, making his first appearance at a Grand Slam tournament since serving a three-month doping ban. Madison Keys dropped by, as did Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and other top seeds fans will flock to watch over the next two weeks.
More than 300 miles southeast, the man with more Grand Slam trophies than all of them combined wiped his brow on his shirtsleeve and prepared to serve. Novak Djokovic needed 2 hours and 15 minutes to win his semifinal against the 90th-ranked Cam Norrie at the low-level Geneva Open on Friday. He had traveled far from Roland Garros in hopes of getting closer to playing his usual, exceptional level of tennis.
His plan was working, and not a moment too soon. Friday’s match was just the third Djokovic has won on clay in 2025 after an uninspired start to the year and a dismal clay-court season. He defeated Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz 5-7, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-2) in Saturday’s final to win his 100th ATP title and first since the lone tournament he won in 2024: the Paris Olympics.
Nine months after capturing that career-affirming gold medal, Djokovic will return to Roland Garros with a goal that seems opposed to his current reality. He isn’t the only one – there are several big names hoping a trophy in two weeks’ time helps to reassert their dominance.
The Serb is chasing a 25th Grand Slam singles title that would break his tie with the Australian champion Margaret Court for most all time. Yet he has no coach, having dissolved his short-lived partnership with rival-turned-adviser Andy Murray, and of the five tournaments he has played between his semifinal runs at the Australian Open and Geneva Open, he lost in the opening round of four.
“Kind of new reality for me, you know, trying to win a match or two, not really thinking about getting far in the tournament,” Djokovic said after his first-round exit in Madrid last month. “It’s a completely different feeling from what I had in 20-plus years of professional tennis, so it’s kind of a challenge for me mentally to really face these kind of sensations on the court, going out early now regularly in the tournaments.”
Djokovic turned 38 on Thursday, and though he has spoken openly about on-court challenges piling up as his career stretches on, he has given no indication that his retirement is imminent. Roland Garros instead presents another opportunity to engage his defining skill and turn an improbable situation into a triumph.
“I’ll try to make the most out of these new circumstances that I have, particularly on Grand Slams, where it counts the most for me, at least where I would like to do my best,” Djokovic said. “So, let’s see what happens.”
That might as well be the motto for this year’s French Open. Fourteen-time champion Rafael Nadal is retired, Djokovic is struggling, and top-seeded Sinner still isn’t a sure thing after the ban, despite a run to the finals of the Italian Open last week. On the women’s side, even four-time champion Swiatek is searching for her best tennis.
The surest thing at the first post-Nadal French Open is his countryman Alcaraz, the 22-year-old defending champion and No. 2 seed in search of his fifth Grand Slam title.
Alcaraz has won three titles this year, two of which came on clay, and shouldn’t face much resistance through the tournament’s early rounds. His rival Sinner has a trickier path – he’s slated to play back-to-back matches against Frenchmen in the first two rounds, could face No. 5 seed Jack Draper in the quarterfinals and then, if a dozen things go right for fans, face Djokovic in the semifinals.
Uncertainty hovers over the women’s draw as well, thanks mainly to Swiatek’s recent frustrations. The Olympic champion has not reached a final since winning the gold medal at Roland Garros last year. She starts her tournament trying to shelve recent disappointment and find success with Wim Fissette, the coach she hired in November who most recently worked with four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka.
Swiatek lost in the second round of the Italian Open – on clay, her strongest surface – to American Danielle Collins, who’d beaten her just once in their previous eight meetings. Before that, she lost in the semifinals in Madrid to Gauff 6-1, 6-1 for Gauff’s first win against Swiatek on clay.
The reward for her struggles? A No. 5 seed and a draw dotted with land mines, including a potential second-round matchup with 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu, third-round matchup against ever-dangerous Marta Kostyuk and a potential fourth-round matchup against her greatest adversary, the audacious former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko whom Swiatek has never beat.
Should she survive all that, she could face last year’s runner-up Jasmine Paolini in the quarterfinals and top-seeded Sabalenka in the semifinals.
Sabalenka, a three-time Grand Slam champion, is chasing her first French Open title and has big hitters peppered throughout her draw. Second-seeded Gauff has had a strong clay-court season and could end up battling a couple of her countrywomen, as the No. 7 seed and reigning Australian Open champion Keys, No. 31 Sofia Kenin and No. 9 Emma Navarro all sit in her quarter of the draw.
The most enticing first-round matchup on the women’s side might be Osaka against the No. 10 seed from Spain Paula Badosa. Osaka won her first title since 2021 at a Challenger tournament – the level below the WTA tour – on clay this month. She, like Djokovic, turned to a lower level event to build her confidence in these uncertain times.