A glance at the French Open, the second Grand Sl🍒am te🍸nnis tournament of 2023:
SURFACE
Red clay
SITE
Roland Garros
SCHEDULE
Play begins Sunday at the only Grand Slam tournament that lasts 15 days (the other three are 14-day eve🐽nts). There are day and night sessions. The women’s🎉 singles final is Saturday, June 10; the men’s singles final is Sunday, June 11.
SEEDINGS
Defending champion I🐽ga Swiatek will be seeded No. 1 in the women’s bracket, with Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka next, Jessica Pegula at No. 3, and reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina at No 4. Carlos Alcaraz will be No. 1 in the men’s draw — his first time on the top line at a ma🦂jor tournament — followed by Daniil Medvedev at No. 2, two-time French Open title winner Novak Djokovic at No. 3, and 2022 runner-up Casper Ruud at No. 4.
2022 WOMEN’S SINGLES CHAMPION
Iga Swiatek, Poland
2022 MEN’S SINGLES CHAMPION
Rafael Nadal, Spain
LAST YEAR
Swiatek beat American teenager Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-3 in the women’s final for her second French Open trophy and third Grand Slam title overall. Swiatek grabbed a 4-0 lead and never looked back, compiling more winners and fewer unforced errors than Gauff. The victory extended Swiatek’s winning streak to 35 matches, one more than the best u🔯nbeaten run ever compiled by Serena Williams. Nadal overwhelmed Casper Ruud in the men’s final, taking 🐬the last 11 games of a 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 victory for his record-extending 14th French Open championship. The win, accomplished despite chronic pain in his left foot that required nerve-numbing injections, made Nadal the oldest men’s title winner at Roland Garros at age 36.
WHO IS MISSING
This is the first French Open in a quarter of a century without Nadal or Roger Federer in the field. Federer made his tournament debut in 1998; Nadal in 2005. Federer announced his retirement last year; Nadal said last week that he will miss the trip to Roland Garros for the first time since he started entering the event because of a lingering hip injury. He also said next season probably will be his last on tour. Other big-name players who will be missing from the bracket include 2018 champion Simona Halep (provisional doping ban), 2016 champion Garbiñe Muguruza (takin🍸g a break from the tour), four-time major winner Naomi Osaka (pregnant), three-time Grand Slam champ Andy Murray (focusing on the grass-court season and Wimbledon) and 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios (injured).
KEY STATISTICS
3 —൩ Past French Open women’s champions slated to be i🌸n the tournament: Swiatek (2020, 2022), Barbora Krejcikova (2021), Jelena Ostapenko (2017).
22 — Grand Slam singles titles for Djokovic, tied with Nadal for the men’s record and one away from the overall Open era mark held by Willi🀅ams.
PRIZE MONEY
Total prize money for the 2023 French Open is rising to a tournament-record 49.6 million euros — about $54 million. The two singles champions each will receive the pre-pandemic amount of 2.3 million euros — about $2.5 million — that waꦰs pai🤪d out in 2019, before dipping for the next two years.
