Players and Doubles Partners to Watch in the French Open

5 Players to Look Out For in Men’s Singles

Rafael Nadal

Nadal will always be a favourite in the French Open, as he holds the record for the most titles in the competition with 13 wins. Nadal won his first French Open in 2005, and won back to back titles until 2008, he then won a further five back to back competitions from 2010 to 2014. He won his last four titles from 2017 to 2020. The only players who have managed to beat Nadal in the French Open were Djokovic in 2021 and 2015, and Soderling in 2009. Nadal struggled with injuries from 2015 to 2016, so considering he has won almost every edition with the exception of those years, he is a strong favourite.

Novak Djokovic

As mentioned before, if there is one player who may be able to stop Nadal, it is Djokovic. The Serbian played in his first French Open final in 2012, after beating Roger Federer in the semi-finals, he played Rafael Nadal in the finals. Nadal won the 2012 Open, and Djokovic would return to the finals in 2014 and 2015, playing against Nadal again and Wawrinka in 2015. He lost both finals, and in 2016 he came to the finals against Andy Murray, who he beat to win his first Coupes des Mousquetaires. Djokovic faced Nadal in the finals in 2020, and the Spaniard won a third time, but in 2021 the two met in the semi-finals and Djokovic beat Nadal in four sets. He faced Stefanos Tsitsipas in one of the most dramatic finals. Tsitsipas went ahead by two sets, but Djokovic fought hard to come back from behind and win the match.

Stefanos TsiTsipas

Tsitsipas grew up playing on the clay courts of Greece, and he is best described as an all-court player. Born in 1998, he turned professional in 2013, and participated in his first event on the ATP Challenger tour in 2015 while he was only 16 years old. In 2017 he debuted in his first Grand Slam in the qualifying rounds for the French Open. Though he was making waves, it was not until 2018 when Tsitsipas had his breakthrough. In 2018, Tsitsipas reached the Barcelona open finals without losing a set, he defeated three top twenty players in the ATP 500 series, moving him into the top 50. In 2019 he climbed to the semi-finals of the Australian Open, beating his idol Roger Federer in the fourth round.  He crashed out in the semi-finals where he lost to Nadal in straight sets. In the following year, Tsitsipas managed to reach the French Open semi-finals and make it all the way to the finals in 2021, where he lost in a dramatic match to Djokovic.

Carlos Alcaraz

Born in 2003, Alcarez is the youngest on this list and is one of the most exciting young talents in tennis. Starting his professional career in 2020, he qualified for the main draw of the Australian Open in 2021 at the age of 17. He won his Grand Slam debut, though he lost in the second round. He won his first match in the Madrid Open in the same year, breaking the record for the youngest player to win a match at the tournament, a record that was set in 2004 by an 18 year old Rafael Nadal. He also played in Wimbledon and the US Open, where he went all the way to the fourth round, breaking records for the youngest player to reach a fourth round in a Grand Slam. In 2022, Alcarez reached the third round of the Australian Open, and won his first ATP 500 title at the Rio Open. These achievements put him into the top 20 in the world rankings.

Dominic Thiem

Dominic Thiem is an Austrian player who has been ranked as high as No. 3 in the ATP rankings. He is the second highest ranking player from the country, after Thomas Muster. Thiem is a great clay court tennis player, with the Roland-Garros website even describing him as the heir to the throne. He has won 10 ATP events on clay, including at the Open de Nice Cote d'Azur in 2015 and 2016, the Croatia Open in 2016, Swiss Open in 2015, the Argentina Championship in 2016 and 2018, the Rio Open in 2017, the Lyon Open in 2018, the Barcelona Open in 2019 and the Austrian Open in 2019. In 2020 he won the US Open, his first ever Grand Slam. In the French Open, Thiem reached the semi-finals in 2016 and 2017 where he lost to Djokovic and Nadal. He reached the finals in the 2018 and 2019 French Opens, losing both to Nadal.

5 Players to Look Out For in Women’s Singles

Iga Swiatek

Swiatek is a Polish tennis player who is the youngest in the top ten of the WTA rankings, and was the no. 4 in the world in her career. Born in 2001, she started her career in 2016, impressing in the ITF women's circuit. She garnered international attention when she won gold at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in the women's doubles tennis tournament. She started playing in the WTA tour in 2019, and she made it to the fourth round of the 2019 French Open, where she was defeated by Simona Halep. In the following year, she met Halep once again in the same round, and did not drop a set or lose more than five games in any single match. She went on to win the 2020 French Open, and the following year she won the Italian Open.

Naomi Osaka

Osaka is a Japanese tennis player who was the first Asian player to be ranked No.1 in the WTA. She skipped joining the ITF Junior Circuit and went straight to the ITF Women’s Circuit in 2011 at the age of 14. She won her first WTA tour match in 2015, and then in 2016 reached the finals of the Pan Pacific Open. She lost the finals to Caroline Wozniacki, but was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year. In 2018, Osaka made her first big mark when she won the US Open. After winning her first Grand Slam, she won the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021, and won the US Open once again in 2020.

Simona Halep

Simona Halep is the most successful tennis player from Romania, having been ranked at world No. 1 in singles twice between 2017 and 2019. She started her professional career in 2010, and broke into the world's top 50 at the end of 2011. In 2014, she made it to the finals of the French Open. She would make it to the finals once again in 2017, but failed to win either. In 2018 she entered the French Open final where she beat Sloane Stephens in straight sets to earn her first Grand Slam. In 2019 she added to her Grand Slam tally with a title at Wimbledon.

Barbora Krejcikova

Krejcikova is certainly one of the favourites to win the French Open. To date, she has won 8 Grand Slam titles, including the doubles titles at the 2018 French Open and Wimbledon Championships, the 2021 French Open and 2022 Australian Open. She has also won in the mixed doubles events in the 2019, 2020 and 2021 Australian Opens. She won her first singles Grand Slam when she won the 2021 French Open. She has a career high singles ranking of world No. 2 and a career high No. 1 in doubles.

Garbine Muguruza

Spanish tennis player Muguruza won her first French Open in 2016, when she beat Serena Williams in a huge upset. She reached her career high ranking of world No.1 in 2017 after she won her second Grand Slam at Wimbledon, where she beat Venus Williams. She made it to the quarterfinals in the French Open the following year but was knocked out of the tournament by Simona Halep, who eventually won the competition. Muguruza came close to winning her third Grand Slam when she came to the 2020 Australian Open finals, but lost in a tense final to Sofia Kenin.

How to Bet on the Top Players

There are many options when it comes to placing bets on matches, and it certainly adds to the thrill of watching these talented players.

While tennis betting is highly entertaining, it is a form of gambling and must be done responsibly. If you should need more help on how you can gamble responsibly, you can look up organisations such as gambleaware.co.uk