French Open 2025: Who to watch for at Roland Garros

Mint

24-05-2025

Mohamed, remember when tennis was easy?" Alexander Bublik needled chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani during a changeover in his round of 16 match against Jakub Menšík at the Madrid Masters last month. 'Like five years ago it was super easy to play tennis. A bunch of random people in the top 50, barely moving. Now this guy is not even top 5, not even top 10. F*** is that?"
Though Bublik's entertaining tennis took him to World No.17 last year, the Kazakh is known more for his histrionics and sometimes controversial comments. But in Madrid, where he duly went on to lose 3-6, 2-6 to Menšík, the 27-year-old provided an incisive commentary on the changing landscape of men's tennis.
A few years ago, it was a handful of players, namely Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who dominated the sport, leaving the rest fighting for scraps. But the end of the Big 3 era means every player believes they are in with a fighting chance for the big prizes. Infused with this new sense of self-belief, the younger generation is hitting the ball bigger and bolder than ever. They are not bowing down to the established world order.
Teen sensation Menšík blindsided everyone by racing to a title win at the Miami Masters, an ATP 1000 event that sits just below the Grand Slams in the sport's tournament hierarchy. The 19-year-old owns a powerful serve and has the big groundstrokes to dictate play from the baseline. He put them to great effect in Miami, blowing past more seasoned players like Arthur Fils and Taylor Fritz in the earlier round. In the final, he defeated Novak Djokovic to win his first tour title. Menšík fired 14 aces and faced just one break point against the best returner in the game to win in two tie-break sets.
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Menšík's triumph in Miami has created a definite buzz, but he is not the only one to defy odds and take coveted titles this year. Just two weeks before the Czech's breakthrough performance, Briton Jack Draper had snagged the Indian Wells Masters title. On the long clay stretch, Carlos Alcaraz won in Monte Carlo and Rome, Casper Ruud in Madrid. Alexander Zverev ruled in Munich; Holger Rune claimed the crown in Barcelona.
There are no set narratives, no overwhelming favourites anymore. It's anyone's game now.
CIRCLE OF LIFE
That sense of flux can be felt most keenly on clay, at its showpiece event, the French Open. The former kingdom of Rafael Nadal. No athlete has ever dominated a tournament quite like 'Rafa" ruled Roland Garros. Fourteen titles, five in a row from 2010-14, a 112-4 win-loss record. Nadal was singular in his pursuit for greatness on terre battue (beaten earth), the most attritional playing surface in the game. That was another way of saying the most tedious surface, till Nadal came along in all his gladiatorial glory. Sleeveless T-shirts, cut-off pants, bulging biceps and flying locks.
In the end, it was time, and not a young challenger that snatched away his crown. Having started his incredible run at Roland Garros with a title win on debut in 2005, Nadal was knocked out in the first round by Zverev last year.
When the 2025 French Open begins, on Sunday, it will mark the first time in 20 years that Nadal is not in the reckoning. However, the 38-year-old, who retired from the sport in November, will still make the trip to Paris. The Grand Slam will honour Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, and his legacy with a special ceremony on the opening day. It may also remind us that Nadal was an anomaly in history. And a tough act to follow.
In the run up to the 2025 French Open, responsibility to carry the torch forward has been foisted upon the top two players in the world—Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Alcaraz and Sinner are not only the leaders of the new generation, but they also split the four Grand Slam titles in 2024. While the Italian clinched the hard-court majors, Australian Open and US Open, Alcaraz won the European Slams, French Open and Wimbledon.
Sinner defended the Australian Open title earlier this year, but it hasn't been all smooth sailing for him. The Italian, who was caught in the doping net last year, as he twice tested positive for banned anabolic steroid clostebol, was finally suspended for three months this season. It had already been deemed that Sinner did not have 'intention to dope" and was thus given a reduced sentence. The timing of the ban could not have been better—tidily positioned in the window between the first two majors of the year.
His ban ended just before the start of the Italian Open. During his time off, Sinner was not once knocked off his World No.1 pedestal. Cheered on belligerently by his home crowd at Rome's Foro Italico, Sinner showed very few signs of his three-month exile. A blazing 6-0, 6-1 win over Ruud, who was fresh off his Madrid triumph and is a two-time French Open finalist, was the highlight of his dominant run in Rome.
It took an extraordinary performance from Alcaraz to stop Sinner in the final and snap his 26-match winning streak. With a 7-6 (5), 6-1 win over Sinner, the Spaniard ended the run up to the French Open the way he had started it—win an ATP 1000 Masters title triumph.
'Today I started the match really well," Alcaraz said of the Rome final. 'Tactically since the beginning till the last ball, I didn't lose the focus, which is great for me…I didn't do a roller-coaster."
It was just the kind of result he needed as he prepares to defend his French Open crown for the very first time. Alcaraz comes from a long line of Spanish conquerors in Paris, but he doesn't have a game tailored for clay. He is a little more adventurous, likes to make the play rather than waiting, deep in the trenches, for his rivals to make mistakes. The Spaniard's bravado and versatility has already brought him four Grand Slam titles. But winning last year's French Open, a rite of passage for any good Spanish player, would have taken a weight off his back. Only 22, Alcaraz could be gearing up to building his own legacy in Paris.
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This year's Roland Garros though feels the most open it has been in years. Not only because Sinner-Alcaraz are yet to ascend the level of consistency that set the Big 3 era apart, or because the second rung of players will come at them hard, but also because the last of the old guard is quickly fading.
Djokovic stands on the brink of history, unsure of his future. The 38-year-old is one major short of becoming the most successful Grand Slammer, one tour title away from completing a tally of 100. But those milestones are looking too far. He hasn't won a Grand Slam title in over a year, and his last big win came at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Serb began the European clay-court swing with two straight defeats and is reeling.
'(This is) kind of new reality for me, trying to win a match or two, not really thinking about getting far in the tournament," he said after losing to Alejandro Tabilo in Monte Carlo. 'Things are different, obviously, with my strokes, with my body, with my movement. But that's, I guess, the circle of life and the career. I will try to make the most out of these new circumstances, particularly on Grand Slams, where it counts the most. I'm not going into Roland Garros as one of the main favourites. Maybe that can help, I don't know, we will see."
SHIFTING SANDS
The balance of power also seems to be shifting in the women's field. Iga Świątek, the French Open champion in four of the last five years, hasn't quite recovered ground since coming back from a doping suspension at the start of the season.
Though she never enjoyed autonomy on hard courts, Świątek dominated the clay season. In 2025, however, she didn't even make the final in the three tournaments she played on the red dirt. While Jeļena Ostapenko stopped her in Stuttgart, Coco Gauff handed her a 6-1, 6-1 drubbing in Madrid semi-final while Danielle Collins swept past her in Rome. The Pole enters Roland Garros at World No.5, the lowest she has been ranked since 2022, and a crisis of confidence.
In her absence, the list of challengers for the French crown has grown. World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka leads the WTA Tour with three titles and six finals so far this season. Even though Sabalenka's big-hitting game is somewhat muted on clay, she powered through to the finals in Stuttgart and won the title in Madrid.
Then there is Jasmine Paolini, who captured the double crown at the Italian Open and Gauff, who reached the finals in Rome and Madrid. A little left of the field is Qinwen Zheng, whose most glorious moment came at Roland Garros last year, not at French Open but when she won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Chinese player scored another statement win over Sabalenka, in the Italian Open quarterfinals, to remind of the threat she poses.
The one player though that has re-energised the women's field this season is Mirra Andreeva. The Russian prodigy proved her mettle on the big stage as she clinched back-to-back WTA 1000 titles in Dubai and Indian Wells. The 17-year-old has the firepower to unsettle the biggest names in the game, but what sets her apart is her tactical maturity and flexibility, drawing comparisons with the great Martina Hingis. Andreeva defeated four Grand Slam champions—Markéta Vondroušová, Elena Rybakina, Świątek and Sabalenka—during that dream run. It may only be a matter of time before she joins their elite club.
Deepti Patwardhan is a sportswriter based in Mumbai.
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