By Ross Kelly
A week after golf’s second major wrapped up, tennis’s second major will take center stage in Paris.
The 2025 French Open begins Sunday, with the men’s singles final set for June 8. Carlos Alcaraz is the reigning champion, and while the King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, is no longer competing, Novak Djokovic is a part of the 2025 Roland-Garros field. Meanwhile, the top-seeded Jannik Sinner is coming off a three-month doping suspension, so there are plenty of things to talk about regarding the men’s side. Here are the top storylines.
Djokovic Seeking a Class of His Own
Last year Djokovic was the defending French Open champion but had to withdraw from the quarterfinals due to injury. He enters Roland-Garros this year without a championship in each of his last five Grand Slams, which is his longest drought since 2017-18. Joker sits on 24 Grand Slam titles, which is already the most ever on the men’s side, but he’s tied with Margaret Court, who won 24 on the women’s side. No one has 25 Grand Slam victories, and Djokovic certainly wants to make more history.
But he’s now 38, and he’s looking every bit of his age. Djokovic doesn’t have a single ATP Tour victory this year, and he had none last year. He did, however, have a non-ATP victory, and it is both meaningful and pertinent. Djokovic won gold at the 2024 Summer Olympics, which just so happened to come at Roland-Garros, so he’ll look to summon whatever propelled him to that win in his quest this year.
Alcaraz Aims for Grand Slam No. 5
While Joker has 24 Grand Slams, he had just one such win at the age of 22, which is Alcaraz’s age, and the latter is going for his fifth major title. That shows how impressive the Spaniard has been at such a young age, and he enters Roland-Garros as the defending champion after a clear progression. Alcaraz made the third round in his French Open debut in 2021, reached the quarters in 2022, made the semifinals in 2023, then won it all in 2024.
There isn’t another level Alcaraz can reach, but he can stay at this one if he wins again. A fifth Grand Slam would surpass Jim Courier’s total and leave him just one behind legends Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg. His clay court results this season certainly indicate that he could rise up the Grand Slam winners list—of his three 2025 tournaments on a clay surface, he won two and lost in the final of the other.
From Suspension to Champion?
The top-ranked player in the world, and the top-seeded player in the men’s draw, Sinner can expect a chorus of boos whenever he takes the clay courts in Paris. It has nothing to do with his game but rather the fact that he just returned from a three-month doping suspension. After winning the Australian Open in January, WADA handed down the ban due to a failed 2024 test, and the timing of it favored Sinner in that the suspension ended in time for the second major of the year.
But the Italian hasn’t had the best success on clay. Of his 19 singles titles, just one has come on a clay surface, despite his competing in 26 clay court tournaments. Sinner has been ranked No. 1 in the world since June 2024, so his performance in Paris will heavily determine if his top ranking reaches a full calendar year by the tournament’s conclusion.
American Drought
You have to go back to the 2003 French Open, when Alcaraz was 1 month old, to find the last time an American man made the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros. That was Andre Agassi, and Agassi was also the last American to win this tournament back in 1999. That’s an entire generation of failures for the Red, White and Blue, at least on the men’s side, as American women have won four French Opens this millennium.
No. 4 Taylor Fritz is the top-seeded player from the United States and the only American in the top 10. He had a career-best fourth-round showing in last year’s French Open before losing to eventual semifinalist Casper Ruud. Fritz did win a bronze medal on clay at last year’s Olympics, albeit in doubles, but he represents America’s best chance at ending this 22-year drought.
No Country for Old Men
With last year being Nadal’s swan song at Roland-Garros, there are just three active French Open champions on the men’s side. There’s defending champion Alcaraz, three-time winner Djokovic, and 2015 victor Stan Wawrinka. But the Swiss is now 40, ranked just 132nd in the world, and hasn’t advanced past the second round of the French Open in five years.
But his experience can’t be discounted, nor can his seven singles titles on clay, and Wawrinka was able to turn back the clock rather recently. Last year at 39, he became the oldest tournament quarterfinalist in ATP Tour history at the Stockholm Open, then won that match and became the third-oldest semifinalist in the tour’s history. He’s hinted at retirement in the past, so this could be his final trip to Roland-Garros, and he’ll certainly want to represent for the old guys.
