The No.1 seed is back in Paris chasing the one Grand Slam trophy missing from his collection.
Jannik Sinner is back in Paris chasing the one Grand Slam trophy missing from his collection – and it is hard to see who is going to stop him.
Sinner’s return to Roland-Garros brought back many memories, some good and some bad. His first final here last year made history (it is, in many people’s eyes, one of the greatest matches ever) but then there were the three championship points that got away from him. They must still haunt him.
How would he react to stepping back on Court Philippe-Chatrier for his first practice session? As it turned out, he was perfectly fine. The final with Carlos Alcaraz had been, quite simply, one hell of a match and Alcaraz won it; Sinner didn’t lose it.
“Of course I still think back [about] what happened, but still very positive feelings,” the world No.1 said. “It's a very special tournament for me, and it has been increasingly better year after year, and last year we were very close. But the feelings and the connection with the crowd was very nice. A lot of kids, which I really like to see. It was very nice also: the stairs up, the walk on.”
Clearly, there is no lingering scar tissue. Since that Sunday afternoon last summer, the Italian has been all but untouchable. He won his first Wimbledon title five weeks after the Paris heartbreak and even if Alcaraz beat him in the US Open and Novak Djokovic stopped him in Australia, almost everything else he has touched has turned to gold.
The result is that he is the overwhelming favourite to win his maiden title here and complete his career Grand Slam. But he is also ever so slightly tired – he has barely had a day to himself as he has collected his five trophies (and counting) this season.
“It has been a very long but very positive period,” he said. “I'm lucky to be in this position. I think it's always better to be in a position where you win and you start to feel tired than you feel very good but you lose a couple of rounds.”
It was a good point, well made, save for the fact that Sinner so rarely loses “a couple of rounds” it makes the argument irrelevant. And that is the problem facing France’s Clement Tabur on Tuesday: how does the world No.171 who has never reached a tour-level final, much less won one, beat the best player on the planet who can count his losses since this time last year on the fingers of one hand? Courage, Clement. Courage.
ROLAND-GARROS
18 May - 7 June 2026
