The 2024 edition of the Roland-Garros Grand Slam tournament begins this Monday, May 20 with qualifying.
The 2024 edition of the Roland-Garros tournament promises to be more uncertain than ever. Between May 26 and June 9, the 128 participants in the men’s and women’s tables will try to win the Musketeers Cup and the Suzanne Lenglen Cup on the clay court of the Auteuil greenhouses. The qualifications begin this Monday, May 20.
For the first time in many years, no favorite really emerges in the men’s draw a few days before the start of the tournament. The title holder and world number one Novak Djokovic has indeed had a difficult start to the season. For the second time in his career, he arrives in Paris without having won a single tournament since January. Worse, he didn’t reach the final of any of the tournaments he played, with early eliminations at Indian Wells and Rome. In the top five, there is also uncertainty for Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, both bothered by injuries for several weeks and uncertain for the French Open.
For what will undoubtedly be the last Roland-Garros of Rafael Nadal’s career, the master of the place, fourteen times winner at Porte d’Auteuil, has not yet officially confirmed his participation. The Mallorcan has indeed been returning to the courts for a few weeks but is struggling to regain his rhythm and his level of play.
The women’s circuit, on the contrary, has shown more continuity and regularity in recent weeks, with a stable top four and regularly in the last four of the tournaments. If Coco Gauff will have to resolve her service problems to return to the Roland-Garros final after that of 2022, Rybakina and Sabalenka seem able to win the tournament. But to do this it will be necessary to achieve the feat of beating world number one Iga Swiatek, three times winner of the tournament and double title holder. At only 22 years old, the Pole is on “Nadalesque” bases on clay, with 75 victories in 85 career matches played on the surface and already three Grand Slams and three WTA 1000s.
The tournament organization has revealed the wild cards for the main draw and for the qualifications. Richard Gasquet and Alizé Cornet, who both announced the end of their careers, will have the opportunity to say goodbye to the Parisian public. Among the women, the other guests in the main draw are: Chloé Paquet (140th), Fiona Ferro (146th), Elsa Jacquemot (153rd), Jessika Ponchet (150th) and Kristina Mladenovic (221st). Nine French women will be able to try their luck in qualifying, from Monday May 20. They are: Séléna Janicijevic (217th), Manon Léonard (284th), Margaux Rouvroy (286th), Alice Tubello (371st), Jenny Lim (499th), Tiantsoa Sarah Rakotomanga Rajaonah (550th), Astrid Lew Yan Foon (601st) as well as the two young people Sarah Iliev (643rd, 17 years old) and Daphnée Mpetshi Perricard (1233rd, 15 years old).
Among the men, in addition to Richard Gasquet the wild cards for the main draw were distributed to Alexandre Müller (109th), Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (123rd), Harold Mayot (130th), Terence Atmane (137th) and Pierre-Hugues Herbert (140th). Once discussed, the possibility of giving a wild card to Dominic Thiem, double finalist of the tournament and who announced his retirement at the end of the season, was not retained. The Austrian will therefore have to go through qualifying, unless the packages allow him to enter the main draw directly.
The overloaded calendar does not change the dates of Roland-Garros which will take place from May 20, 2024 with the start of qualifying to Sunday June 9, 2024, the day of the men’s final.
If the ticketing system remains as in previous years, tickets will now be 100% dematerialized. There will be three phases. The first tickets will be sold to club presidents and then to licensees of the French Tennis Federation, before the ticket office opens to the general public on Wednesday March 13 at 10 a.m. You need to pay at least €39 for access to the side courts during the main tournament, and €50 minimum to have a place in the stands of the Philippe Chatrier court. Resales of places are also planned in the run-up to the tournament and during the fortnight.
The overall allocation for Roland-Garros 2024 was revealed on April 25, 2024. In 2024 the overall allocation is up 7.8% compared to last year, and amounts to 53.478 million euros according to the press release of Roland Garros.
At Roland Garros, the official program for each day, available on the official website, can sometimes be disrupted. Indeed, if the start time of the day is quite clear, it is very difficult to predict the exact end time of the matches. The main constraints for organizers: weather and sunset time. In fact, only the Philippe-Chatrier court has a retractable roof and can host night matches. The other courts do not have lighting.
Broadcasters of Roland Garros in 2024, France TV and Amazon Prime (subscribe to Amazon Prime Video) have renewed their contract until 2027. France Télévisions will broadcast all of the day’s matches while Amazon Prime will broadcast all 11 sessions at night from the first Sunday to the last Wednesday of the tournament. Unlike last year, Amazon Prime will no longer have exclusivity for matches on Simonne Matthieu. The two media outlets reached an agreement. They will co-broadcast the semi-finals of the women’s and men’s singles draws, the women’s and men’s doubles and the mixed doubles final.
Here is the record of the French Open at Roland-Garros since the Open era