For the first time since the 2023 US Open, neither Jannik Sinner nor Carlos Alcaraz will lift a Grand Slam trophy. Sinner’s loss to Juan Manuel Cerúndolo ended a streak of nine consecutive major titles won between him and Alcaraz dating back to the 2024 Australian Open. With Alcaraz sidelined by a wrist injury and Sinner now eliminated, the tournament is wide open for a new champion to emerge for the first time since the Australian Open in 2024.
The question is who steps into the void.
NOVAK DJOKOVIC
The most compelling subplot now belongs to the 39-year-old Serb. Djokovic is playing just his fourth tour-level event of the season and is bidding for his 25th major trophy and fourth title on the terre battue. A win in Paris would hand him the outright record: 25 Grand Slams, more than any player in history across men’s and women’s tennis.
He is not a man in dominant form — he dropped a set in each of his first two matches in Paris, and earlier this year lost in the fourth round at Indian Wells and the first round at the Italian Open. But Djokovic’s reputation as the sport’s ultimate competitor in big moments remains the central fact of his career. He is one of only two men to have defeated Sinner this year, doing so in the Australian Open semifinals. Now, with Sinner gone, that scalp looks more significant by the hour.
His path is not easy. Friday’s third-round match against 19-year-old João Fonseca is a genuine test. Beyond that, two-time Roland Garros finalist Casper Ruud lurks as a potential fourth-round opponent.
ALEXANDER ZVEREV
The second seed is seeking his first major crown, having reached three Grand Slam finals before, including the 2024 Roland Garros final. Zverev has not dropped a set through his first two matches in Paris and takes the night session Friday against home favourite Quentin Halys — a match that will tell us something about his nerve under the Parisian crowd’s weight. Should both Djokovic and Zverev advance deep into the tournament, a projected semifinal between the two looms as the de facto men’s final of this fortnight.
CASPER RUUD
The Norwegian does not generate the same headlines, but his credentials on this surface are real. Ruud has already had to showcase his clay grit this week, holding off Roman Safiullin in a five-set first-round epic before racing past Hamad Medjedovic into the third round. A two-time Roland Garros finalist — in 2022 and 2023 — Ruud knows how to win matches in Paris when it matters. He meets Tommy Paul on Friday in what could be one of the more competitive third-round men’s clashes of the day.
THE NEXT GENERATION
In the section of the draw vacated by Sinner, 14th seed Luciano Darderi — a semifinalist at the Italian Open earlier this month and the highest seed left in that quarter — now has a significantly clearer path to the second week. Meanwhile, Rafael Jodar, 19 and ranked world No. 29, has emerged as another name embodying the next generation, with a draw that could take him deep.
What made this tournament so straightforward to predict a week ago — Sinner against the field, and back Sinner — is precisely what makes it so compelling now. The Coupe des Mousquetaires sits unclaimed, and the list of men who could genuinely lift it has rarely been longer.
