The French Open will have a new television partner beginning in 2025.
The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported Friday that Warner Bros. Discovery—the home of TNT Sports— have agreed to a 10-year deal worth $650 million to televise the French Open in the United States. The deal starts in 2025 and runs through ’34.
NBC has broadcast the French Open in the United States every year since 1975, aside from 1980 to ’82 when CBS aired the event.
TNT Sports is best known for its NBA coverage, although the future of that partnership is in jeopardy as the league searches for a new television rights contract after the 2024-25 season. Multiple reports in recent months indicate the NBA is preparing to leave TNT behind as ESPN, NBC and Amazon will become its new broadcast partners.
Tennis isn’t the only sport Warner Bros. Discovery has splurged on outside of basketball in recent weeks. Last month, ESPN agreed to sublicense coverage of select College Football Playoff games to TNT for the next five years.
While the future of TNT’s beloved Inside the NBA show featuring Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal hangs in the balance, the network is set to head to the clay courts next spring.
When fans watched Novak Djokovic crush Robby Ginepri 6–0, 6–0, 6–3 in the first round of the 2005 French Open, could they have known what was coming next?
That turned out to be the first Grand Slam match win for Djokovic, who won his 369th such match Friday against Italy's Lorenzo Musetti 7–5, 6–7 (8), 2–6, 6–3, 6–0. With the win, he tied Swiss legend Roger Federer's record. Rafael Nadal is third with 314.
Musetti did not make it easy on Djokovic, but the 37-year-old defending champion recovered to take the final two sets. He will play Argentina's Francisco Cerúndolo Monday morning in the fourth round.
Djokovic's first match victory in a major came mere days after he turned 18, and took place so long ago that he won it while representing Serbia and Montenegro. Montenegro gained its independence from Serbia a year later.
Djokovic remains in search of his record 25th major championship.
The world No. 1 player Iga Świątek has normalized after a close call in the second round, is now on pace to make it three French Open titles in four years.
In Świątek's way is No. 6 Marketa Vondroušová, who isn't known for her clay court talent, but has taken advantage of an easy draw to make it into the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros. However, oddsmakers aren't giving her much of a chance against the No. 1 player in the world.
Vondroušová has enjoyed an easy path to the quarterfinal after a poor clay swing.
The world No. 6 player isn’t known for her clay court prowess and only won six of 10 matches in the run-up to the French Open. However, she hasn’t had to face a top 90 player thus far and is into the quarters, but she faces the toughest possible test in the No. 1 player in the world in Świątek.
Świątek has enjoyed plenty of success against Vondroušová, 3-0 all-time in official matches, including a 6-1, 6-2 win in the first round of the 2020 French Open.
After facing a match point in the second round against Naomi Osaka, Świątek has dropped six games across the last two matches and is back to her dominant form.
In this clay swing, Świątek is a blistering 18-1, and has dropped only three sets in those 18 wins.
When she wins, it’s typically in blowout fashion, so I’m counting on the odds on favorite to win with ease again.
PICK: UNDER 18.5 Games (-128)
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It may as well have been the slogan for the entire event, in the semifinals of the French Open, Carlos Alcaraz revealed that the key to winning clay court tennis matches was to enjoy the suffering. On Sunday afternoon, and then, as evening spread over Roland Garros, there was more suffering than enjoyment. But in the end, the Spaniard prevailed and won the third major of his ascending career, beating Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the final 6–3, 2–6, 5–7, 6–1, 6–2.
In a strange, mercurial and episodically brilliant match, Alcaraz overcame both himself and his opponent. If he did not achieve the peak level he displayed winning his other two majors, he showed a remarkable ability to turn a tennis match into a chess match, make subtle adjustments and reset after some inexplicable lapses.
Alcaraz won the first set 6–3, important given that he was trailing Zverev 4–5 in their head-to-head coming into the match. He then dropped the second set, as his level dipped. In the third set, he was up 5–2, on the cusp of a commanding 2–1 set lead, and then lapsed again losing five straight games. He recovered to win the fourth 6–1 and closed out the match with perhaps his best tennis of the afternoon.
In winning the title, the Spaniard, who only turned 21 last month, is now up to three majors. He is the youngest player to win a major on all three of tennis’s surfaces. He has now—get this—won more majors than all male players born in the 1990s combined.
Zverev, on the other hand, will be devastated. In his first major final in 2020, he squandered a 2–0 set lead against Dominic Thiem in the U.S. Open and lost in five sets. On Sunday, he was up two sets to one and couldn't close. Zverev showed an ability to compartmentalize in light of his legal matter being discontinued Friday, settling an abuse case brought by his former girlfriend. But this defeat will sting. With time, perhaps he will take solace in knowing he is the only player male or female to make it to the semifinals or better at Roland Garros in four straight years. But now, in his late 20s, the clock is ticking and an opportunity slipped away.
A theme of transition rang through this tournament. It was easy to forget that in the first round, Zverev beat Rafael Nadal, the 14-time champion, who may have played here for the final time. A week later, Novak Djokovic announced he couldn't play his quarterfinal match because of knee surgery. As old kings fade, a new one emerges. Alcaraz brings a versatile game, a knack for showmanship, an ability to hit the gas, but also—as he showed today—sometimes shrewdly hit the break. He now goes to Wimbledon to defend his title and win his fourth major. Did we mention he’s only 21?
