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An executive summary of what every fan should now about Roland Garros
The tennis world has descended on Paris for the year's second Grand Slam, with Roland Garros set to begin Sunday. Several tournament favourites share the top half of the draw, with World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and 13-time champ Rafael Nadal in the first quarter and the fast-rising Carlos Alcaraz in the second along with third seed Alexander Zverev.

Daniil Medvedev is back from injury for his second clay-court event of the season, with fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas joining him in the bottom half.

ATPTour.com looks at 10 things to watch this week.

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1) Djokovic Defending Title & More: The Serbian, seeking a third Roland Garros title, is also aiming to defend his position atop the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. His status as World No. 1 is under threat in Paris from Medvedev and Alexander Zverev as Djokovic defends 2,000 points from his 2021 title run.

The 34-year-old can draw level with Nadal at 21 Grand Slam singles titles with the trophy, and would become the first man in history to win all four Slams three times with another triumph in Paris. After winning his first title of 2022 and securing his 1,000th match win at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, Djokovic has found top form after a difficult start to the season.

The Serbian opens against Yoshihito Nishioka and could face Alex Molcan in the third round, with the in-form Slovakian coached by Djokovic's former coach Marian Vajda.


2) Nadal Out To Reclaim Throne: The Australian Open champion can get halfway to a calendar-year Grand Slam by lifting the Roland Garros trophy for a record-extending 14th time, a triumph which would also extend his Grand Slam title record to 22. The Spaniard fell to Djokovic in the 2021 semi-finals and could now face his rival in this year's quarter-finals.

Nadal opened the 2022 season in blistering form, starting the year at a personal-best 20-0 and winning titles at ATP Tour events in Melbourne and Acapulco in addition to his Aussie Open run. He also reached the Indian Wells final before being sidelined with a rib fracture. He has since posted a 3-2 record on the European clay, reaching the Madrid quarter-finals before struggling physically with his chronic foot injury in a Rome defeat to Denis Shapovalov.

The 35-year-old Nadal faces Aussie Jordan Thompson in the opening round and could face Stan Wawrinka in the second round. He enters Roland Garros with a record 105 wins at the event and a record 97.2 per cent match-win rate.

3) Alcaraz In New Territory: The 19-year-old's rapid rise has been the big story on the ATP Tour in recent months, his season-best four titles helping him reach a career-high of No. 6 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. He has won ATP Masters 1000 titles in Miami and Madrid in addition to claiming ATP 500 crowns in Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona. Alcaraz takes a 10-match winning streak into Paris after completing a Spanish trophy double.

Competing in his fifth major main draw, and his second Roland Garros, he is seeking to improve upon a quarter-final showing at the 2021 US Open. But Alcaraz is in new territory as a Grand Slam favourite in Paris, where he qualified and reached the third round last year in a successful debut.

The Spaniard, who holds a 28-3 record on the season, could join his countryman Nadal by becoming the second teenager to win a Grand Slam men's singles title in the last 30 years. He faces Juan Ignacio Londero in the first round.

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4) Tsitsipas, Zverev Seek Repeat Runs: Tsitsipas won a five-set semi-final against Zverev in 2021, and both men return with ambitions for another deep run in Paris. The Greek enters with a 31-10 record on the season, his 31 victories leading the ATP Tour. The Monte Carlo champion is 15-5 at Roland Garros and lost to Djokovic in five sets each of the past two years. He faces a tough opening test against #NextGenATP Italian Lorenzo Musetti.

Zverev has reached finals in Montpellier and Madrid but is still seeking his first title of 2022. The German reached the semi-finals or better at three events on the European clay swing, advancing to the last four in Monte Carlo and Rome in addition to his Madrid run. He faced Tsitsipas in the semi-finals at all three events, scoring a victory in the Spanish capital. Zverev takes on Sebastian Ofner in the opening round.

5) Rublev, Ruud, Sinner Among Contenders: Seventh seed Andrey Rublev is a three-time ATP Tour champion in 2022 and looks to build on his quarter-final run one year ago in Paris. Casper Ruud enters Roland Garros on the heels of his second title of the season in Geneva. Seven of his eight tour-level titles have come on clay, but the eighth seed has never progressed beyond the third round in Paris, the stage of his exit in each of the last three years. Jannik Sinner, seeded 11th, has reached five quarter-finals this season, including at the Australian Open. He also reached the last eight one year ago at Roland Garros.


6) Medvedev Back In The Nick Of Time: The World No. 2 missed a chunk of the clay swing with a hernia, but returned last week in Geneva. Though Medvedev lost to Richard Gasquet in his first match back, the competitive play will serve him well as he seeks to improve upon his quarter-final showing in Paris last year.

The Australian Open finalist opens against Facundo Bagnis of Argentina.

7) Two-Time Finalist Thiem Steps Up Injury Return: Dominic Thiem is still seeking his first match win after returning from a right-wrist injury in April. He has played exclusively on clay in his five events in 2022 with the intention of building up his match sharpness for Roland Garros. Though Thiem won his first major at the 2020 US Open, Roland Garros has been his most consistent Slam. Prior to a first-round loss in 2021, he reached two finals, two semis and one quarter-final in the previous five years. His 28 wins in Paris are his most at any Slam.



French Farewells: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon, two of 15 Frenchmen in the men's singles draw, are both playing the final Roland Garros of their decorated careers. Tsonga, 37, is playing the final event of an 18-year career that saw him break into the Top 5 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings (No. 5 in 2012), reach a Grand Slam final (2008 Australian Open) and win two ATP Masters 1000 titles (2008 Paris, 2014 Toronto). His 121 Grand Slam wins are the most all-time of any Frenchman.

Gilles Simon, also 37, will retire at the end of the 2022 season. Both he and Tsonga debuted at Roland Garros as wild cards in 2005. A 14-time tour-level titlist, Simon reached a high of No. 6 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in 2009.

9) Americans Dot The Draw: The 15 Americans in the men's singles draws is the joint-most from any nation, alongside hosts France. The U.S. contingent features seven seeded players, led by 13th seed Taylor Fritz and also including Reilly Opelka, John Isner, Frances Tiafoe, Sebastian Korda, Tommy Paul and Jenson Brooksby. Isner, the 23rd seed, has reached the fourth round three times in Paris, the best previous result of any American in the draw alongside Korda's 2020 run to the last 16, where he lost to Nadal.

There are no seeded Frenchman among their 15 entrants. Argentina and Spain each have 11 men in the singles draw, the only other nations with double-digit participants.

10) Ram/Salisbury, Herbert/Mahut Among Doubles Contenders: While the doubles draws have not yet been set, two-time Roland Garros quarter-finalists Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury have been confirmed as top seeds, with Great Britain's Salisbury sitting atop the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings and Ram the World No 2.

Defending champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut are seeded third as they seek a third title at their home Grand Slam, while Rome champions Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic will make their team debut in Paris as the second seeds.

Two-time finalist Thiem also in action Sunday

The Sunday start of Roland Garros includes opening-round matches for Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev and Felix Auger-Aliassime in Paris. The year's second Grand Slam begins exclusively with singles action, with 20 men's matches on the slate.

ATPTour.com looks at some of the matches to watch on Day 1 in the French capital.

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[6] Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) vs. [LL] Juan Ignacio Londero (ARG)
The first ATP Head2Head meeting between this pair will close play on Court Philippe Chatrier, with Alcaraz one of the men to watch in his second appearance at Roland Garros. The Spaniard enters the clay-court major with a tour-leading four titles in 2022 — three on clay — and a 28-3 season record. He sits at a career-high of No. 6 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings as a result of that breakout success.

After reaching the third round as a qualifier in a successful Roland Garros debut last year before losing to Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff, Alcaraz returns as one of the favourites to lift La Coupe des Mousquetaires in two weeks' time. He brings a 10-match winning streak into the event after completing a Spanish title double in Barcelona and Madrid, downing Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in consecutive matches on his way to glory in the latter.

Londero last competed in an ATP Tour event in February when he qualified and won one main-draw match in Santiago. His best 2022 result came in February, when he won six straight sets to reach the Cordoba semi-finals. The 28-year old won his lone tour-level title in Cordoba in 2019 and reached a career-high of No. 50 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings later that year.


[3] Alexander Zverev (GER) vs. [Q] Sebastian Ofner (AUS)
Third on Court Suzanne Lenglen, Zverev and Sebastian Ofner meet at a Grand Slam for the second time following the German's straight-sets win in the Wimbledon 2017 third round – their only previous matchup.

The third seed brings strong clay-court form into Paris, having reached the semi-finals or better at all three ATP Masters 1000 events on the European clay swing. In between last-four showings in Monte Carlo and Rome, he reached the final in Madrid. Zverev's 18-6 record at Roland Garros is his best at any major by win percentage, as are his three trips to the quarter-finals or better. His best run came last year, when he reached the semis before dropping a five-setter to Stefanos Tsitsipas. Zverev also faced the Greek in all three of his recent semi-finals, earning a victory in Madrid.

"It's been a consistent clay court season," the German said ahead of his Roland Garros opener. "I thought I picked up my level of game with each tournament on the clay court season, so I hope I can play my best tennis here. Obviously [I'm] a little bit disappointed I didn't win a title on the clay this year... If I win the title here, then I'm more than happy about my clay-court season."

Ofner, the World No. 218, is competing in his first tour-level main draw since he reached the Los Cabos second round last July. He won an ATP Challenger Tour event in Prague in April, his best result of the 2022 season.


[9] Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) vs. Juan Pablo Varillas (PER)
The first ATP Head2Head matchup between Auger-Aliassime and Juan Pablo Varillas is the second meeting of their professional career, with the ninth seed winning a 2016 Futures match against the Peruvian, also on clay. They will be second on Court Philippe Chatrier on Sunday.

The 21-year-old Canadian won his first ATP Tour title in Rotterdam in February and followed it up with a trip to his 10th final in Marseille. Auger-Aliassime is 0-2 at Roland Garros, but enters Paris in tremendous form at the Grand Slams. After his loss to Andreas Seppi one year ago in the French capital, he has gone on to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals, the US Open semis and the Australian Open quarters. More recently, he has reached four straight ATP Tour quarter-finals, including at the ATP Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Rome.

Varillas reached a career-high of No. 104 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings earlier this month and counts a qualifying run to the Cordoba last 16 as his best tour-level result of 2022. He has also reached four semi-finals, including one final, on the ATP Challenger Tour this season.

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Best Of The Rest
Dominic Thiem seeks the first win of his comeback from a right-wrist injury on Court Simonne Mathieu against Bolivia's Hugo Dellien. The Austrian, a two-time finalist at Roland Garros (2018-19), is also looking to bounce back from a surprise first-round loss to Pablo Andujar last year in Paris.

John Isner, one of 15 Americans in the men's singles draw, opens against Quentin Halys, one of 15 Frenchmen in the draw. Those two nations lead the way in terms of tournament participants, with Argentina and Spain each providing 11 main-draw competitors.

Other seeded players in action include No. 15 Diego Schwartzman (vs. qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov), No. 18 Grigor Dimitrov (vs. Marcos Giron), No. 21 Karen Khachanov (vs. qualifier Nuno Borges), No. 25 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (vs. Tallon Griekspoor), No. 26 Botic van de Zandschulp (vs. qualifier Pavel Kotov) and No. 31 Jenson Brooksby (vs. Pablo Cuevas).