French Open 2022: Naomi Osaka ready for Roland Garros return
Japan’s Naomi Osaka says her return to the French Open has been “positive for the most part” after initially worrying what the reaction would be to her pulling out of last year’s event.
Japan’s Naomi Osaka says her return to the French Open has been “positive for the most part” after initially worrying what the reaction would be to her pulling out of last year’s event.
Reigning Gonet Geneva Open champion Casper Ruud moved to within one win of retaining his title Friday, blunting big-serving American Reilly Opelka 7-6(2), 7-5 to reach the final in Switzerland.
The Norwegian, who beat Denis Shapovalov in the Geneva final last year, demonstrated great agility against Opleka as he soaked up the World No. 18’s thunderous groundstrokes in the lively conditions to extend his perfect ATP Head2Head series record against the fourth seed to 4-0.
Ruud has yet to drop a set this week, having arrived at the ATP 250 event off the back of a run to the semi-finals in Rome. By reaching the final after 90-minutes, the second seed is the first player to advance to multiple Geneva championship matches since home favourite Stan Wawrinka lifted the trophy in 2016 and 2017.
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The 23-year-old, currently No. 9 in the Pepperstone ATP Race To Turin, is aiming to capture his second tour-level title of the season after clinching the crown in Buenos Aires in February.
Ruud has won five of the past six ATP 250 clay-court events he has played and will look to improve that record when he faces Portugal’s Joao Sousa in the final on Saturday.
Sousa overcame former World No. 7 Richard Gasquet 6-2, 6-2 to advance to his 12th ATP Tour final, but first on clay since 2018, when he lifted the trophy on home soil in Estoril.
It is the second time the 33-year-old has reached the championship match in Geneva, after enjoying a run to the final in 2015. Sousa captured his fourth tour-level crown in Pune in February.
#NextGenATP star Chun-hsin Tseng will make his main-draw debut at Roland Garros after defeating German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-3, 6-3 in the third qualifying round on Friday.
Tseng of Chinese Taipei has captured two ATP Challenger Tour titles this season and is currently seventh in the Pepperstone ATP Race To Milan. The 20-year-old, who did not drop a set in qualifying, broke Stebe five times to advance after one hour and 41 minutes.
Tseng made his Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open in January, losing to Oscar Otte in the first round.
Slovakian Norbert Gombos booked his spot in the main draw in Paris for the third time, overcoming Dutchman Tim Van Rijthoven 7-6(6), 7-6(5) in one hour and 42 minutes. The World No. 115 upset Croatian Borna Coric en route to the third round at Roland Garros in 2020.
In his third qualifying attempt, Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas reached the main draw in Paris with a hard-fought 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(10-5) triumph over Chile’s Nicolas Jarry. Varillas, who lost in qualifying at the Australian Open in January, rallied from a break down in the third set to advance after two hours and 56 minutes.
Andrey Kuznetsov will make his sixth Roland Garros appearance after he downed Argentine Marco Trungelliti 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. The World No. 227 reached the third round in Paris in 2015.
American Bjorn Fratangelo secured his spot with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Nino Serdarusic. The 28-year-old also came through qualifying last year, before he lost to Briton Cameron Norrie in the first round.
Pavel Kotov, who won an ATP Challenger Tour title in January, overcame Pedro Cachin 6-3, 6-2, while Argentine Camilo Ugo Carabelli defeated American Alexander Ritschard 7-6(6), 6-2. It is the first time the 22-year-old has qualified for a Grand Slam.
Frenchman Geoffrey Blancaneaux broke new ground by qualifying for his home Grand Slam for the first time in what was his sixth attempt. The 23-year-old downed Daniel Masur 6-1, 6-3 in 69 minutes.
Emma Raducanu is set to make her senior debut in a French Open where a wave of young stars are ready to further stamp their mark.
It’s no surprise that a Spaniard leads the ATP Tour in clay-court match-win percentage for the 52 weeks leading up to Roland Garros. But rather than King of Clay Rafael Nadal, it’s the 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz who paces the field, according to statistics from the Infosys ATP Performance Zone.
Alcaraz holds a 23-3 clay record over the last 52 weeks, including his third-round run in his Roland Garros debut last year — good for an 88.5 per cent match-win rate. Alcaraz has won four clay titles in the last year, with three this season. He won his first ATP Tour title in Umag last July, and followed it up with triumphs in Rio de Janeiro, Barcelona and Madrid this season to rise to a career-high of No. 6 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
Remarkably, the man from Murcia has won more titles than matches lost on that clay-court run, which is highlighted by a 16-1 mark on the surface in 2022.
Novak Djokovic is second on the clay win-percentage list, compiling a 21-3 record for an 87.5 per cent win rate. Seven of those victories came last year in his Roland Garros title run, and five came last week en route to the Internazionali BNL d’Italia trophy. Djokovic also won the one-off Belgrade Open just prior to Roland Garros one year ago, scoring four match victories to claim the title in his home city.
Both Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud have more clay wins than Alcaraz over the last 52 weeks, with the Norwegian earning a tour-leading 28 wins and five titles over that period. Tsitsipas stands at 25-5 with two titles (Lyon 2021, Monte Carlo 2022), his 83.3 per cent win rate third behind Djokovic. Ruud’s five clay titles have came in Geneva, Bastad, Gstaad and Kitzbuhel last season and in Buenos Aires this February.
Diego Schwartzman is the only other player to reach the 20-wins mark in the last 52 weeks. His 22-10 record gives him a 66.8 win rate, putting him 10th by that measure.
In addition to multiple-title winners Alcaraz, Djokovic, Tsitsipas and Ruud, the following men have also lifted clay trophies in the past 12 months (listed by clay-court match-win rate): Pablo Carreno Busta, Sebastian Baez, Andrey Rublev, Sebastian Korda, David Goffin, Pedro Martinez , Reilly Opelka, Holger Rune and Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
The unveiling of the Roland Garros men’s singles draw on Thursday served up a potential quarter-final meeting between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, with Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev joining them in a loaded top half. But before we look too far ahead at the possibilities, ATPTour.com takes a look at five of the best matchups that are already locked in.
Stefanos Tsitsipas beat #NextGenATP Italian Lorenzo Musetti twice in 2021, on the hard courts of Acapulco and the clay of Lyon — both at the semi-final stage. The Greek enters Roland Garros with a 31-10 record and one title this season, his 31 match wins leading the ATP Tour. Tsitsipas has posted a 14-1 record on the European clay, kickstarted by his Monte Carlo title defense in April.
Musetti, who reached a career-high of No. 51 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in early May, enters Paris after a successul run to the Madrid last 16 as a qualifier. The 20-year-old defeated Top-50 opponents Ilya Ivashka and Sebastian Korda before retiring with a leg injury against Alexander Zverev in the Spanish capital. Musetti missed his the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and was handed a tough first-round draw as he looks to bounce back in Paris.
The first meeting between these two men comes on one of the game’s biggest stages, with both players entering Paris in strong form.
While Denis Shapovalov has the superior 2022 record at 16-9 to Holger Rune’s 9-9, the Dane has won an individual title this season while his opponent has only been as far as the semi-finals in Dubai. The 19-year-old Rune earned his first ATP Tour title in Munich, helping him move up to third place in the Pepperstone ATP Race To Milan.
Shapovalov opened the season by helping Team Canada to the ATP Cup title. He reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open, Doha and Rome in addition to his Dubai run.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was done no favours ahead of his swan song at Roland Garros. The 37-year-old Frenchman faces one of the Tour’s most feared clay-court stars in the opening round as he prepares for the final tournament of his professional career.
Casper Ruud leads the ATP Tour with 28 clay-court wins over the past 52 weeks, according to Infosys ATP Performance Zone stats, not including his progress to the semi-finals week in Geneva. He rebounded from a 4-4 start to the European clay swing to reach the last four in consecutive weeks in Rome and Geneva.
Tsonga enters Paris with a 2-5 tour-level record in 2022, with both of his victories coming in France (Montpellier, Marseille). His meeting with Ruud will be the pair’s first ATP Head2Head matchup.
Pablo Carreno Busta and Giles Simon will meet for the seventh time in the Roland Garros opening round, but for the first time since 2019. The Spaniard leads the series 4-2, including a 2-1 mark on clay. Four of their previous meetings have come at the ATP Masters 1000 level, in addition to a second-round meeting at the 2018 Australian Open, won by Carreno Busta via retirement.
Simon is playing in his final Roland Garros, having announced his plans to retire following the 2021 season. With a 498-390 career record (1-4 this season), the Frenchman is two wins away from a milestone 500th career victory.
Carreno Busta could also reach a match-wins landmark in Paris — he enters with a 246-195 career record (16-11 on the year) and could notch win No. 250 by reaching the quarter-finals.
A first-time matchup of young guns pits the 23-year-old Alex de Minaur against the 21-year-old Hugo Gaston. The Aussie has enjoyed a strong start to 2022, his 19-10 record (prior to Lyon) including runs to the Australian Open last 16 and the Barcelona semi-finals, where he held a match point against eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz.
De Minaur has not lost in the first round in five clay events on the European swing, and could enter Paris on the heels of his first ATP Tour title of the season. He will face Alex Molcan in the Lyon semi-finals on Friday.
Gaston reached the Roland Garros last 16 in 2020, beating Stan Wawrinka and taking Dominic Thiem to five sets in his main-draw debut at his home Slam. The Frenchman’s best result of 2022 came in Miami, where he notched two victories — including a straight-sets win over John Isner — to reach the last 32 at the ATP Masters 1000 event.
British number one Cameron Norrie reaches the Lyon semi-finals as his French Open preparations continue in ideal fashion.
Top 12 Group have partnered with ATP and IMG to launch an exciting new series of team competition as part of the ATP Champions Tour. The Legends Team Cup – ATP Champions Tour will pit two teams of tennis legends against each other across three action-packed, competitive three-day tournaments, with the first event set to take place in Pula-Istria, Croatia from 1-3 August.
Eight-time Grand Slam winner Ivan Lendl and Wimbledon Champion Pat Cash have been appointed as captains of the two five-player teams that will face off at the three tournaments hosted in exclusive destinations across the world.
Lendl and Cash have already made spectators dream and move countless times and this tournament will be the ultimate fight between these two legendary athletes. Alongside the non-playing captains, the first players to be announced for the series are two-time doubles Grand Slam champion Radek Stepanek, former World No. 2 Tommy Haas, and former World No. 4 Tomas Berdych.
The Legends Team Cup – ATP Champions Tour will announce the additional seven superstar players, all ranked in the Top 20 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, over the coming weeks. A team draft is set to take place during the UK’s famous grass-court season, at the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic’s ATP Champions Tour event at London’s Hurlingham Club. There, team captains Lendl and Cash will draft the full lineup of players into their respective teams, which they will go on to represent for the season.
For the first time in the tennis world, The Legends Team Cup – ATP Champions Tour will be played in spectacular venues at exclusive destinations for this one-of-a-kind series of events. The first location is Pula- Istria, Croatia, at the breathtaking Amphitheater, the second and grand finale sites will be revealed in the weeks leading up to the first event.
Each tournament day will consist of two singles and one doubles match, with the team with the most points at the end of the three days being crowned the winners. The teams will also play to become the series champions, which will be awarded at the end of the third tournament in November.
Zeljko Franulovic, the Tournament Director for the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters for the past 17 years, will serve as Tournament Director for Legends Team Cup – ATP Champions Tour from 1st July.
Marten Hedlund, President and CEO of Top 12 Group and Founder of the Legends Team Cup – ATP Champions Tour, said: “Legends Team Cup – ATP Champions Tour is an opportunity for the players who still have the hunger and the drive to keep playing at the very top of their game. Our aim is to create a new exciting series of competition, by attracting players and audience that are truly passionate about tennis. Iconic players playing in spectacular iconic venues is a thrilling concept”.
Ross Hutchins, ATP Chief Tour Officer, said: “The ATP Champions Tour plays an important role in celebrating our sport’s greatest icons at events all around the world. We’re delighted to welcome the Legends Team Cup onto the calendar this season and for fans to experience Champions Tour tennis in an exciting new format.”
Nikhil Waugh, Tennis Event Director at IMG, the company that operates the ATP Champions Tour, added: “The Legends Team Cup and its unique team format with Ivan Lendl and Pat Cash, two greats of the game, as captains promises to inject the ATP Champions Tour with renewed life and we are excited to work together to develop this series. The standard of tennis and competitive drive of the players on the Legends Team Cup will be a great asset and we can’t wait to see the action unfold.”
Britain’s Emma Raducanu will make her French Open debut against a qualifier, while Novak Djokovic is set for a tricky title defence.
Roland Garros top seed Novak Djokovic will have his work cut out for him as he seeks to defend his title in Paris. The World No. 1 could face Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals, with the 13-time champion drawn into his quarter as the fifth seed.
Carlos Alcaraz also joins them in the top half as the sixth seed, and could face Djokovic or Nadal in the semi-finals. Alcaraz, who will be making his second appearance at the clay-court Grand Slam, was placed in third seed Alexander Zverev’s quarter.
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Daniil Medvedev anchors the draw on its bottom line, with fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the third quarter alongside eighth seed Casper Ruud. Andrey Rublev, seeded seventh, is a potential quarter-final opponent for Medvedev.
Speaking at the draw ceremony, Djokovic expressed his gratitude for the full return of fans at the Stade Roland Garros.
“It’s amazing to see the amount of people that came this week during the qualifying week and also at the practice sessions,” he said. “A lot of people on the centre court and on Court Suzanne Leglen as well. It’s fantastic to see that because you can see how much they miss tennis, how much they are passionate and how much they love this sport. And of course for us players, it’s an incredible feeling to have the crowd.
“Particularly for me at this stage of my career, they are one of the main factors of why I still play professional tennis and why I compete. The energy that you get from the crowd, the excitement is something very important for us.”
Djokovic will open play against Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka and could face Diego Schwartzman or Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round.
Nadal’s first-round opponent is Aussie Jordan Thompson, with Stan Wawrinka looming as a potential second-round opponent. Ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime and 17th seed Reilly Opelka are potential fourth-round matchups for the Spaniard.
Both Alcaraz and Zverev open against qualifiers, with the unseeded Dominic Thiem a dangerous floater in that second quarter. Thiem faces Hugo Dellien in the first round, with the winner to face 21st seed Karen Khachanov or a qualifier in the second round.
The third quarter features three of the draw’s more intriguing opening-round matchups. Tsitsipas will take on #NextGenATP Italian Lorenzo Musetti, 14th seed Denis Shapovalov faces #NextGenATP Dane Holger Rune and Ruud takes on wild card Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, with the Frenchman set to retire following Roland Garros.
Medvedev will seek his first clay win of the season against Facundo Bagnis in the opening round, while Rublev opens against Soonwoo Kwon. Also in the fourth quarter, 11th seed Jannik Sinner will face a qualfiier in the opening round, while 16th seed Pablo Carreno Busta faces home favourite Gilles Simon in the Frenchman’s final Roland Garros before his planned retirement at the end of the year.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Nadal was a 12-time Roland Garros champion. He has won the title 13 times.