Sinner faces Tabur as Alcaraz injury reshapes French Open

Jannik Sinner opens the French Open against wild-card entrant Clément Tabur, stepping into a red-clay draw suddenly missing Carlos Alcaraz due to injury. On the women’s side, Coco Gauff begins against Taylor Townsend as the race to defend Roland Garros continu

Roland Garros opens this weekend with a draw that feels different from the usual script, and Jannik Sinner will feel it immediately when he walks onto the red clay for his first-round match.

In Thursday’s draw, Sinner was matched with Clément Tabur, a French opponent ranked a career-high 165th. Tabur received the wild card vacated by former champion Stan Wawrinka, who gained a late automatic entry.

Sinner won’t have the crowd on his side. not in the way he might have if he were facing a higher-profile name. But the bigger shift is what’s missing from the field. Two-time reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz is out with an injury that will also keep him from Wimbledon. leaving Sinner as the overwhelming men’s favorite on the surface.

That favoritism has been earned. Sinner is unbeaten in three months, riding a run of 29 straight matches and dropping just three sets. The French Open is the only major he hasn’t won. Last year. he came within a few points of ending that drought. taking three match points in the final before Alcaraz prevailed in what was described as an epic match.

In the absence of Alcaraz, Sinner’s clay résumé has become even more dominant. He has won all three clay Masters 1000s this season in Monte Carlo, Madrid, and Rome. The 24-year-old also holds the fifth longest winning run in the ATP Tour era since 1990. Only Novak Djokovic has a longer streak—43 straight wins from 2010 to 2011.

Sinner’s momentum isn’t just about this week. With his historic Rome title—his first as the first Italian men’s champion in 50 years—he became the second man after Djokovic to win all nine Masters, the biggest tournaments outside the Grand Slams.

Djokovic, meanwhile, continues to chase what would be an unprecedented 25th major title. The Roland Garros champion from 2016, 2021, and 2023 is in Paris even though his season on clay has been limited. He has only one match on clay this season and has played only three tournaments all year because of a shoulder injury. Djokovic will open against Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, and he couldn’t meet Sinner until the final.

The men’s draw also includes other familiar pressure points. No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev. still searching for his first major crown after reaching the 2024 final in Paris. will play against Benjamin Bonzi in the first round. Home favorite Arthur Fils—the highest-ranked French player at No. 19—opens against Stan Wawrinka in a matchup that sets up a notably charged start for the local crowd.

The shift in who stands closest to the title is most obvious when the women’s draw is placed beside it. Coco Gauff is trying to become just the third woman to defend the Roland Garros title this century. after Justine Henin and Iga Swiątek. Gauff begins her campaign against fellow American Taylor Townsend, a doubles specialist.

Gauff already has the benchmark clear. Her first Roland Garros title came with a victory over top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in the final a year ago. Since then, the pattern has been tight and often painful. Just like last year, Gauff was the runner-up at the Italian Open, losing the final to Elina Svitolina.

Sabalenka is seeded and still positioned for a familiar kind of drama. She is No. 4 and seeded to meet No. 1 Swiątek in the semifinals. But her clay form has been uneven. She remains perfect on hard courts at times, yet on clay she has been pushed. She was upset by American Hailey Baptiste in the Madrid Open quarterfinals and lost in the third round of the Italian Open to 36-year-old Sorana Cirstea.

In Rome, Sabalenka appeared visibly bothered by lower back pain. For the first round at Roland Garros, she will play Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, a Spaniard ranked 51st.

Elena Rybakina, ranked No. 2 and this year’s Australian Open champion, is in the same half of the draw as No. 3 Swiątek. Rybakina’s clay record includes mixed results: she has reached the French quarterfinals twice and begins against Veronika Erjavec of Slovenia.

Swiątek. the four-time French Open champion. lost to Svitolina in the Rome semifinals and is still reshaping her game under new coach Francisco Roig. who used to work with Rafael Nadal. Swiątek’s 26-match winning streak at Roland Garros ended in the semifinals last year when she lost to Sabalenka. This time, she opens against Emerson Jones of Australia, a wild card.

Svitolina. who is from Ukraine. claimed the Rome title for her first WTA 1000 trophy in eight years and is back in the top 10 after a maternity leave. Despite that surge. her history at these biggest stages is modest: she has never been past the semifinals of a Grand Slam and has never been past the quarterfinals at the French Open. Her first-round opponent is Anna Bondar.

For the men, the weekend’s opening matchup between Sinner and Tabur may look like a straightforward start on paper. But the bigger story sits just beyond the baseline—Alcaraz sidelined. Djokovic limited by a shoulder injury. and a favorite who has already felt the pain of coming within points of the title and now has a clear. if pressure-heavy. path ahead.

French Open Jannik Sinner Clément Tabur Carlos Alcaraz injury Wimbledon absence Novak Djokovic Roland Garros draw Coco Gauff Taylor Townsend Alexander Zverev Stan Wawrinka