French Open
French Open 2024 Tips
The most prestigious clay court tournament gets underway from 20th May – 9th June this year as Roland-Garros Stadium in Paris plays host to the 128th French Open.
It is considered to be the most physically demanding tennis tournament in the world with the clay courts offering tough conditions to push the players to their absolute limits.
Below is all the information you need about the clay season’s biggest tournament.
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The Overview
The French Open is the Grand Slam which signals the end of the clay court season on the ATP Tour every year. The French Open is the only Grand Slam played on clay, with the US and Australian Open on hard court and Wimbledon played on grass.
The French Open is played over three weeks at the Roland-Garros Stadium in Paris. Since its inception in 1891, the French Open has attracted all of tennis’ best players and has played host to many memorable matches.
The tournament is made up of 128 competitors in both the men’s and women’s singles tournaments, and 64 doubles pairings in the men’s, women’s and mixed doubles competitions. Last year’s men’s final was the most watched with an average of 4.6 million viewers, peaking at 6.4 million.
Where and when?
The French Open begins on the 20th of May, lasting for three weeks until the Men’s final brings the curtain down on the 9th of June.
The competition all takes place in the Roland-Garros Stadium complex, which hosts 18 clay courts, in France’s capital city of Paris.
Previous winners
Any major winner will have their own place cemented in the history books and a French Open title is no different. With some of the most physically demanding action, winning the French Open is considered to be one of the greatest achievements in tennis.
As with any of the major tournaments in the tennis calendar, the French Open cements itself as one of the most lucrative challenges, with both singles champions of 2023 (Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek) taking home an eye-watering €2.3 million.
Rafael Nadal is at the epicentre of success, and with a record 14 titles to his name he is the most dominant player of a single tournament in the history of the sport, earning him the nickname the ‘King of Clay’. Rafa has played in 18 French Opens, winning 14 – including 115 matches along the way, of which Nadal has won 112 with a win rate of 97%. Nadal has also never lost a French Open final having been eliminated in prior rounds three times and withdrawing once.
Many other tennis greats have lifted the trophy on multiple occasions including Novak Djokovic, Björn Borg, Steffi Graf, and Serena Williams.
Men’s Singles
As with every year, we find ourselves with the world’s greatest singles player across both the Men’s and Women’s categories. Despite withdrawing from the Barcelona Open with an injury, Spanish talent Carlos Alcaraz is the market leader to top the podium at 11/8 to take the torch from fellow countryman Nadal and fly the flag for Spain. Jannik Sinner sits second in the betting at 9/4 and, having won the Australian Open earlier this year along with two ATP Tour events in Rotterdam and Miami, he sits at number two in the ATP world rankings – a career high.
Naturally, one can’t leave out Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal when talking about major tournaments such as Roland Garros. The former, a three-time winner here and defending champion, comes here with every chance as a player who can perform on any surface, and is alongside Sinner at 9/4 to take home the trophy. The King of Clay will arrive in Paris the 4/1 fourth favourite, hoping to add one more French Open title to his existing tally of 14 in the Open Era, which is an insane statistic as it is.
There is a dark horse in the betting who sits at a nice price, and that is the Norwegian sensation Casper Ruud. Ruud has taken the runner up’s medal in the last two renewals of this tournament and at 10/1 looks a large price for a player with such motivation to not strike out for a third time in a row. He is in fine form at the moment having dismissed world number one Djokovic in the semi finals of the Monte-Carlo Masters, losing out to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.
Women’s Singles
Iga Swiatek is the reigning champion and is the short-priced favourite ahead of this year’s French Open at EVS, looking for three consecutive wins in this tournament. Swiatek is the currently world number one, having won most recently at the Indian Wells Masters tournament, beating the talented Greek Maria Sakkari in straight sets. Second in the market is Aryna Sabalenka at 4/1, who reached the semis in last year’s renewal. Sabalenka had a great start to the year when picking up the first Grand Slam of the year in Australia for the second time in a row, and will be on the hunt to add another Grand Slam to her CV.
If there’s one woman who has been making waves in the tennis world of late, it’s Coco Gauff, who shocked the world when she won the US Open on home soil at the end of 2023 at the age of 19. More recently, the American lost out in the semis against Sabalenka back in Australia this year and in 2022 lost against Swiatek in the final at Roland Garros. At 8/1, she looks a generous price for such an impressive talent who will be keen to pick up another Grand Slam title.
The aforementioned Sakkari sits at 40/1 in the betting but, having reached the final, semi final and quarterfinal in her last three tournaments, this looks too big a price. Sakkari has never won a Grand Slam with the closest she’s ever been being in 2021 at the French Open where she lost in the semi final, but, we know she’s capable of playing some extremely good tennis and looks the value bet.
