Jim Courier, former World No.1, called it the revenge tour. Last year, Jannik Sinner missed out on some of the biggest events on the tennis tour—Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo and Madrid—since he was serving a three-month doping ban. In 2026, the mild-mannered Italian with a jackhammer of a backhand, picked up titles in each of those tournaments, stringing together one of the most dominant runs in the sport.
Starting with the title at the ATP 1000 in Paris last year, Sinner won five Masters titles in a row, and became the first man to do so. Masters 1000 is not quite the Grand Slams, but it’s the next best thing in tennis. They feature the crème de la crème of the sport.
More importantly, he has managed to sustain success on diverse surfaces and conditions. Paris is played on indoor hard courts near the end of a long, tiring tennis season, Indian Wells and Miami make up the “Sunshine double”, the US outdoor hard-court swing after the Australian Open, Monte Carlo heralds the start of the clay season in European spring and Madrid is unlike any other clay event since the altitude of the Spanish capital makes the ball zip faster. Sinner hasn’t just survived the subtle shifts; he has thrived in it. In the first four Masters tournaments this year, Sinner has a perfect 23-0 record, and has just dropped two sets en route.
“I see a lot of people kind of, not criticising, but saying that Jannik is a little bit too much of a robot,” Casper Ruud, the two-time French Open finalist, said in Rome recently. “When you realise how difficult tennis is and you can make tennis look robotic, it shows how good you are.”
Though he has conquered all in recent weeks, he will touch down at this year’s French Open, which begins on 24 May, seeking redemption. Sinner had been within touching distance of winning the clay-court Grand Slam in 2025—he held three championship points, 0-40 on Carlos Alcaraz’s serve, in the fourth set. But his Spanish rival saved all three match points and defeated Sinner 4–6, 6–7(4), 6–4, 7–6 (3), 7–6 (10-2) in a match that lasted 5 hours and 29 minutes.
It was a gladiatorial duel, one that Roger Federer believes helped tennis “move on” from the era of Big 3 (Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic). At the end of it, Sinner sunk into his chair, shell-shocked and empty.
Alone at the Top
A year on, he returns to the site of one of his most scarring defeats as the man to beat. Dust and glory, like the single by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, featuring Sinner. Ranked No.1 in the world, the 24-year-old is soaring while the only men to beat him at the Grand Slam stage for the past year are hurting.
Two-time defending champion Alcaraz will miss the French Open due to a wrist injury, leaving the throne vacant. Djokovic, who will turn 39 during Roland Garros, defeated Sinner in the semi-final of the Australian Open in January but has been nursing arm and shoulder injuries since. Between the two majors, he played in only two tournaments, losing in the quarterfinals in Indian Wells before suffering a shock second-round defeat to 20-year-old qualifier Dino Prizmic at Rome Masters.
“It’s not an ideal preparation (for French Open),” Djokovic said after losing in Rome, the last Masters stop on clay before Paris beckons. “I don’t recall last time I had in the last couple years a preparation where I didn’t have any kind of physical issues or health issues coming into the tournament. There’s always something. Kind of a new reality that I have to deal with.”
A battered and bruised Djokovic is still chasing the elusive 25th major that will decidedly crown him as the greatest Grand Slammer of all time. In 2025, he reached the semi-finals of all four majors and reached the final in Melbourne earlier this year. Every time he has only fallen to either Sinner or Alcaraz, the two dominant forces of this generation.
While Djokovic’s muscle memory is still taking him deep into the Slams, the rest of the field is yet to discover the staying power to truly make a mark. A best-of-five match is possibly the most gruelling prospect in the sport, with the soft, slow clay draining energy and sowing seeds of indecision and doubt. There are few who have been able to match up to Sinner and Alcaraz in recent times on any surface. With Sinner in this form and having gained this momentum, the scope of contenders has narrowed down further.
“Everybody’s struggling against him,” said Alexander Zverev after Sinner handed him a 6-1, 6-2 drubbing in less than an hour in the final of Madrid Masters. “He doesn’t have dips; he doesn’t have phases where he goes down. That’s why he’s world No.1. To me, that’s more spectacular, keeping the level the whole time.”
“There’s a big gap between Sinner and everybody else right now,” the German added. “And I think there’s a big gap between Alcaraz, myself, maybe Novak, and everybody else.”
The rankings back his take. In the latest ATP world rankings, released on 11 May, Sinner lords over everyone else with 14,350 points. Alcaraz is second with 12,960 points but after that there is a massive dip, with Zverev ranked No.3 in the world with just 5805 points.
If Sinner wins at Roland Garros, he will become only the seventh man in the Open Era (post 1968 when tennis was opened to professionals and stopped being solely an amateur pursuit) to win a career Grand Slam.
Queens of Clay
Also seeking resurgence on clay is four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek. After making her territory with three straight championships from 2022-24, Swiatek inexplicably stumbled last year. She failed to defend her titles in Madrid and Rome before going down to Aryna Sabalenka in three sets in the French Open semi-finals, thus ending her 26-match winning streak at the major.
The body blow on red dirt seemed to strengthen her resolve on grass, which has historically been her least favoured surface. Before Wimbledon 2025, Swiatek had never been past the quarterfinal at SW19. But the Pole went on to win the Championships, dropping only one set during the tournament. She dropped the hammer in the final, defeating Amanda Anisimova, scripting a comeback of her own, 6-0, 6-0.
Since winning Wimbledon though, the 24-year-old has not been able to carry the momentum, or the consistency. In the first two tournaments on clay, in Stuttgart and Madrid, she managed a patchy 2-2 record. But as she sets for Paris, to reclaim her crown, she will be accompanied by kingmaker Francisco Roig. Swiatek, who trains at the Rafa Nadal Academy, has hired the 14-time French Open champion’s former coach to guide her through this tricky period in her career.
While women’s tennis still does not play to an expected script, unlike the men’s game where the top two own almost every big trophy, it is a lot more stable at the top. Apart from Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina and Coco Gauff are leading the pack. Gauff is the reigning French Open champion, Rybakina clinched her second major at the 2026 Australian Open and World No.1 Sabalenka captured the 2025 US Open. Among them, Rybakina is the only one who has won a title on clay (Stuttgart) ahead of this year’s French Open.
For Sabalenka, the search for a first French Open title continues. Dominant on hard courts, the big-hitting Belarusian hasn’t found the same success on natural surfaces —clay and grass—so far. Soft clay, where the top layer of the surface is powdered brick, saps the pace from the ball while propelling it higher. As the ball slows down and rallies get longer, patience is paramount. That tempo or temperament hasn’t always suited her game, but over time, Sabalenka has proved she can adapt.
At the 2025 French Open, she knocked out four-time champion Swiatek, including 6-0 in the deciding set. In a nervy championship clash against Gauff, however, she fell just short, losing 7-6 (5), 2-6, 4-6. The tune-up to the French Open hasn’t been ideal for Sabalenka either, as she lost in the quarterfinals in Madrid and was upset in the second round in Rome.
With none of the tour leaders building enough momentum ahead of the French Open, the women’s race remains wide open.
Circle of Life
In the last few weeks, there’s another Spaniard called Rafael that has been creating dust storms on clay. Rafael Jodar, 19, 2024 boys’ US Open champion, has announced his arrival on the big stage.
After capturing his first ATP title in Marrakech in April, he made the semi-final in Barcelona and quarterfinal in Madrid, where he took the attack to Sinner before falling in straight sets. The wiry teenager, who dons oversized T-shirts and a baseball cap, doesn’t yet quite have the presence of his namesake and idol, but there is a whisper of the top-spin menace that Nadal championed. Ranked outside the top 600 last year, Jodar’s has shot up to 34 on the back of his recent run.
Jodar, a sophomore at the University of Virginia, will lead a brigade of exciting young talent at the French Open. Joining him will be fellow teenager Joao Fonseca, who can unsettle any opponent with his shot speed, Belgium’s Alexander Blockx and French star Arthur Fils.
While the youngsters will be keen to make a mark, at the other end of the spectrum are Stan Wawrinka and Gael Monfils, who are preparing to walk into the sunset.
2015 champion Wawrinka, 41, and local favourite Monfils, 39, have been handed wild cards for the French Open with both set to retire at the end of the 2026 season. If Monfils brought unfiltered joy to the tennis court, Wawrinka showed how to stand tall among giants, winning three majors at the height of Big 3 dominance in men’s tennis.
Seasons change. The young replace the old. Fresh chapters will be written at the French Open, new legends formed. All of them hoping to prove, to live up to, the Napoleon Bonaparte’s famous quote inscribed on the tiers of the main court: “Victory belongs to the most tenacious.”
Deepti Patwardhan is a sportswriter based in Mumbai.