Heat, meltdowns, and surprises shake French Open

French Open – Roland Garros has turned into a high-heat, high-pressure test, where Jannik Sinner’s winning streak ends in the second week, Aryna Sabalenka describes a “very deep, deep, dark hole” after losing a quarterfinal, and a 49-year drought of first-time men’s and wom

PARIS — By the time Roland Garros got going under a first-week heat wave, it wasn’t just the crowds that felt exposed. Players did, too, as temperatures climbed to at least 32 degrees Celsius (90 Fahrenheit) every day.

On a clay court that had to be drenched at night to keep it from drying out. the tournament delivered the kind of disruption fans rarely see at the majors. Jannik Sinner’s 30-match winning streak was swallowed during the opening week’s heat. Aryna Sabalenka, the fellow No. 1, described her quarterfinal collapse as falling into a “very deep, deep, dark hole.”.

It has been a French Open full of breaks in rhythm, and even the semifinals are reshaped by the chaos: no former major champions reached the men’s and women’s semifinals for the first time at a Grand Slam in 49 years.

Madison Keys, the 2025 Australian Open champion who reached the fourth round, summed up the mood—part shock, part entertainment. “It’s always exciting when crazy things happen,” she said. “As a tennis fan, it’s been fun to watch.”

The heat was the first, blunt force on the scoreboard. After Jakub Mensik edged Mariano Navone in a fifth-set tiebreaker in the second round. he cramped up. then fell to the clay following match point and required medical attention on the court. He was eventually removed in a wheelchair. Still, Mensik bounced back to reach the semifinals, where he lost to Alexander Zverev. Zverev will meet Flavio Cobolli in Sunday’s final.

Casper Ruud’s body fought for control in a different way. He was on the verge of passing out during a five-set win over Roman Safiullin in the first round. saying he felt “like a zombie almost.” To try to recover for the deciding set. Ruud conceded the fourth set 6-0 “to get my pulse and body temperature down.” He said: “Luckily that ended up working.”.

The conditions weren’t just uncomfortable. They changed the physics of the match. With the air hot and courts forced to stay alive, the pace of play was faster and balls were bouncing higher than they do under cooler conditions.

Sinner’s “hit the wall” moment arrived early enough to stun everyone watching him as the overwhelming title favorite. Already without two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz. who missed the tournament with an injured right wrist. it looked like Jannik Sinner’s momentum would carry him deeper than anyone expected.

Instead. in the second round. the top-ranked Sinner wasted a two-set and 5-1 lead in the third against 56th-ranked Juan Manuel Cerundolo. Sinner said he started feeling dizzy and “very low on energy” when he needed to win just one more game. He then won just two of the next 18 games. struggling to cool himself with bags of ice and a hand-held fan on changeovers. “I just kind of hit the wall,” Sinner said.

Even Djokovic didn’t escape the tournament’s pattern of fading when it mattered most. A day after Sinner’s collapse. 39-year-old Novak Djokovic also surrendered a two-set advantage and lost to 19-year-old João Fonseca. Djokovic. a 24-time Grand Slam champion. said he had physical issues on another hot day. telling the crowd: “I was barely standing on my legs toward the end of the match.”.

Fonseca beat Ruud in the next round before his breakthrough run ended with a loss to Mensik in the quarterfinals.

The most public mental crash came from Sabalenka, who entered her quarterfinal with Diana Shnaider with the kind of control that can feel absolute—until it suddenly isn’t. Sabalenka was leading 4-1 in the second set and was within two points of victory when she proceeded to lose 12 of 13 games.

Afterward, Sabalenka said she wanted “to quit tennis right now.” She added: “You know those rooms where you just go in and you smash everything. Probably I will spend a whole day tomorrow over there destroying stuff. Maybe it will help. Maybe not.”

Shnaider went on to lose in the semifinals to Maja Chwalinska, who became the first qualifier in French Open history to reach the championship match. Mirra Andreeva beat Chwalinska for the title Saturday.

Sabalenka’s own words captured how quickly the match slipped away. “I don’t know when was the last time that happened to me that I lost 10 games in a row,” she said. “Mentally I got into a very deep, deep, dark hole. … I just couldn’t get back mentally on track.”

While heat and momentum flips have defined Roland Garros. the men’s final still points to the strange paths created when familiar names drop out. Flavio Cobolli, the 14th-ranked player, reached his first Grand Slam final with help from two Italian withdrawals. Matteo Berrettini retired because of a left hip injury with Cobolli leading 7-5, 5-2 in their quarterfinal. Matteo Arnaldi withdrew before their semifinal because of a virus.

Sunday’s final will pit Zverev against Cobolli. For Zverev, it is his fourth major final as he seeks an elusive Grand Slam title to conclude this wacky tournament.

Whoever lifts the Coupe des Mousquetaires will also become part of a long gap in the sport’s familiar storylines. The winner will be the first man other than Alcaraz, Sinner, Djokovic, or Rafael Nadal to win a Grand Slam since Daniil Medvedev at the 2021 U.S. Open.

Keys, watching the shakeups unfold, offered a final reminder of what this tournament has been: a refusal to let eras stay locked in place. “We’ve had so many long eras of these four people are the only people that we think are going to win,” she said. “Makes the sport interesting, at least.”

French Open Roland Garros Jannik Sinner Aryna Sabalenka Novak Djokovic heat wave Alexander Zverev Flavio Cobolli Casper Ruud Madison Keys Maja Chwalinska Mirra Andreeva