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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Two top 10 foes meet at Roland-Garros in the French Open quarterfinals on Tuesday evening.
World No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz has owned his career series against No. 9 Stefanos Tsitsipas, winning all five matches against his Greek opponent in his career. Can the Spanish phenom continue his excellence on clay in hopes of pushing closer to winning his first French Open title?
Here are the odds and our best bet for the Tuesday quarterfinal matchup:
Both players have been lightly tested during this Grand Slam tournament, but it’s tough to look past the historical results and see that Alcaraz is a justified favorite, winning all five matches, including last year in this same situation.
In the 2023 French Open, Alcaraz beat Tsitsipas 3-0 (6-2, 6-1, 7-6) to advance to the semifinals. While Alcaraz has dealt with some injury issues this year in the lead-up to Roland-Garros, there is still a gap between the two and I believe the Spaniard is well-equipped to handle his opponent.
Alcaraz has made his first serve at 67% or higher in all four matches thus far, making it hard for any opponent to generate much traction while returning and hoping to get breakpoints. Further, given Alcaraz’s ability on clay to return, he has broken 35% of opponent's games in 86 non-French Open clay matches in his career, I trust him to cash in on more opportunities throughout the match.
Tsitsipas hasn’t proven to be able to compete with Alcaraz in the past, and while fitness concerns were an issue at the start of the tournament, I’m confident that the former No. 1 in the world can win in straight sets to get to the semis.
PICK: Alcaraz 3-0 (+145)
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
Iga Swiatek continues to dominate in her run to win a third consecutive French Open title as she crushed Anastasia Potapova 6–0, 6–0 in the fourth round on Sunday.
Swiatek didn't drop a single game in the match, which only lasted 40 minutes. This was the quickest match in Swiatek's career thus far. In fact, she only lost 10 points during the entire match. The games never went to deuce, and Potapova never forced a break point.
The World No. 1 was at a loss for words with her commanding performance on Sunday when she spoke after the match.
"I was just really focused and really in the zone," Swiatek said. "It went pretty quickly, pretty weird."
Ever since Swiatek turned 23 on Friday, she's been on a tear. She beat Marie Bouzková in straight sets in the third round, too. Swiatek's journey hasn't been fully a breeze, though, as her second round match vs. four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka went into a decisive third set.
Swiatek will face No. 5 Marketa Vondrousova in the quarterfinal on Tuesday, June 4. This is Swiatek's fifth consecutive quarterfinal at the French Open.
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.
He is a man who needs no introduction. Especially here, where his statue adorns the grounds. But when Rafael Nadal came out Monday for his first match of the 2024 French Open, the courtside announcer did his thing. Taking a breath, he summoned Nadal by name and then ticked off the years he had won the title.
Fourteen in all. It’s a joke of a tally. The recitation of which enabled a somber occasion to start with some levity.
Presumptively, this was to be Nadal’s last French Open, his final raging against the dying of the light. He turns 38 next week. His current ranking slums outside the top 250, the kind of grim math that comes when your body doesn’t let you play—much less win—many matches.
He entered the tournament unseeded, jarring in itself. And, the tennis fates did their thing, yielding a first-round opponent of … Alexander Zverev, the fourth seed, the player who won last week’s big preview event in Rome, one of the top contenders, the last player at Roland Garros to push Nadal.
So it was these last dance vibes that came edged with a wince. The Rolling Stones or Elton John can announce a final tour. They may not hit every note. But they also don’t lose in straight sets to, say, Mumford & Sons.
Tickets to the most anticipated first-round match in the history of tennis—it's not hyperbole: try and name another—fetched $5,000 on the secondary markets and brought out both royalty and tennis nobility. Though he plays Tuesday, Novak Djokovic was in the stands. As was Carlos Alcaraz, the betting favorite to win this event. Iga Świątek, the defending women’s champion, finished her first-round rout, showered and took a seat.
As for the match itself … it played out as expected. Nostalgia and hope are powerful intoxicants. But eventually, they regress to the mean, and talent and time win out.
There were moments when Nadal did a convincing Nadal impersonation, striking the ball ferociously, picking off volleys, looking like the clay court impresario whose career record at this venue, going into Monday, was 112–3. There were times when he looked like a man in his late 30s—playing a fine opponent, more than a decade younger. There were times when he looked fresh, and there were times he looked physically spent, as one would expect from any player who had gone more than 450 days without playing a best-of-five match.
Nadal was, inauspiciously, broken to start the match, and Zverev took the first set 6–3. Nadal broke Zverev and served for the second, electrifying the crowd. When he failed to close, the deflation was palpable. When he lost the second set in a tiebreaker, this went from an exercise in potentially witnessing history to an exercise in potentially witnessing Nadal’s final match, at least at the French Open.
Nadal addressed the Roland Garros crowd following the match, saying he wasn't sure if this was his last French Open. / Clive Mason/Getty Images
The third set was Nadal's insistence on not going quietly. He got up an early break but then gave it up and fell 6–3, 7–6, 6–3. Respectable? Absolutely. But not the result befitting a 14-time champ.
You cite the comical, flattering stats, you also have to cite the downers. For the first time in nearly 20 years, Nadal lost in the first round of a clay event. For the first time here, he lost in the first round. For the first time ever, he has now lost back-to-back matches on clay.
Credit Zverev for compartmentalizing, ignoring the occasion, locking in mentally, and simply bringing his flagrant talent—especially on his backhand—to bear. He can now pivot from this momentous match to trying to win his first major, a distinct possibility. (Zverev's appeal of a penalty order issued by a German court stemming from domestic abuse allegations made by his ex-girlfriend goes to trial during the tournament.)
As for Nadal … who knows? He called off a retirement ceremony the tournament had planned. It’s not that he’s being coy about the endpoint of his unrivaled career. It’s that, by all accounts, he genuinely doesn’t know when the ride will end. Ironically his last match might be in Paris in two months, assuming he fulfills his vow to play in the 2024 Olympics.
He left the court wearing a look of resignation. One that suggested he has played the French Open for the last time. But also—a champion to the end—that he genuinely thought he could take this match.
On Monday, Zverev won. So, alas, and as ever, did time.
World No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz on Friday announced his withdrawal from the upcoming Italian Open, which begins on May 6 in Rome, in a post onto his account on X, formerly Twitter.
Alcaraz, whose bid to win a third straight Madrid Open fell short after a three-set loss to Andrey Rublev on Wednesday, revealed that he experienced "some discomfort" in his right forearm.
"I felt some pain after playing in Madrid, some discomfort in my arm. Today I did some tests and I have a muscle edema in my pronator teres, a consequence of my recent injury. Unfortunately I will not be able to play in Rome. I need to rest so I can recover and play 100% pain free. I am very sorry, I will see you next year @InteBNLdItalia," Alcaraz wrote.
Alcaraz first sustained the arm injury during a training session in Monaco prior to the start of the clay court season. The Spaniard was then forced to miss both the Monte Carlo Masters and the Barcelona Open, but managed to tough out the injury in the Madrid Open, wearing a compression sleeve on his right arm.
It's unclear if Alcaraz will be healthy enough to play in the ATP Tour's second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open, which begins on May 20.
Alcaraz, 20, holds a 15-4 record and has won one singles title (Indian Wells) thus far in 2024.
