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.
A new French Open champion will be crowned on Sunday with Alexander Zverev gunning for his first Grand Slam title against two-time Grand Slam champ Carlos Alcaraz.
Alcaraz, the heavy favorite to claim his first title at Roland-Garros, is off a five set thriller against soon-to-be-named No. 1 player in the world Jannik Sinner, while Zverev finally breakthrough after making three consecutive semifinals in the French Open, beating Casper Ruud in four sets.
Zverev has had a grueling journey to his second ever Grand Slam title, starting by beating the best clay court player in Rafael Nadal, playing two five set matches, and now facing arguably the future of the sport in Alcaraz.
The Spaniard is the heavy favorite, here’s our full betting preview for the French Open Finals.
The question surrounding this one will be if Zverev can finally get the monkey off his back and win a Grand Slam title.
Despite some long matches, Zverev has been at the top of his game in 2024, one set away from advancing to the Australian Open Finals and 12 straight wins on this surface that includes a title in Rome. However, this will be by far his stiffest test against the phenom that is Alcaraz.
Fitness concerns have plagued Alcaraz for much of this year, but there has been no denying his excellence at Roland-Garros. Last year, as the tournament favorite, Alcaraz lost to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals, cramping up in the middle of the match. Can he avenge his own loss?
There is no denying Alcaraz is the better player, and that’s indicated in the odds, but Zverev has proven to be capable of neutralizing some of the Spainard’s physical success on the court, sporting an elite backhand.
It’s worth noting that Zverev leads the head-to-head between the two 5-4, winning two of three on this surface, including a four set victory at the 2022 French Open.
Alcaraz has the firepower to win this match in straight sets, but Zverev has improved on his service games to drag matches into tiebreakers and extend the match.
An upset could be brewing at Roland-Garros, but I believe it will take a while. I’ll go for the over games as my preferred bet in the French Open Finals.
PICK: OVER 38.5 Games (-112)
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.
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.
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.
