Australian tennis great Todd Woodbridge is tipping Alex de Minaur to make his first deep run at Roland-Garros, which gets underway in Paris on Sunday.
World No.11 de Minaur has never reached the third round of France’s grand slam in seven previous attempts and will play American teenager Alex Michelsen (ranked 65th) in the first round.
“Never in men’s tennis over the last 15 or 20 years has this tournament been so wide open, and if you look at it like that, if you get the right draw, Alex can go deep,” Woodbridge told The Age.
Watch Roland-Garros 2024 live and exclusively free on Nine and 9Now. Plus four courts in 4K UHD on Stan Sport, the home of grand slam tennis
“He’s actually had enough wins against top players on clay that if it opens up the right way, he can sneak through. We’ve had the likes of Pat Rafter reach a semi before on the men’s side, so it can be done, but you need a bit of luck.
“It’s not Alex’s favourite (surface), but his mindset is as good as anybody.”
Here’s everything you need to know about Roland-Garros 2024.
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The two week tournament kicks off on Sunday, May 26 with matches from 7pm AEST and finishes on Sunday, June 9 with the men’s singles final.
— Sunday-Monday-Tuesday: First round (Women and Men)
— May 29-30: Second round (Women and Men)
— May 31-June 1: Third round (Women and Men)
— June 2-3: Fourth round (Women and Men)
— June 4-5: Quarter-finals (Women and Men)
— June 6: Women’s semi-finals
— June 7: Men’s semi-finals
— June 8: Women’s final
— June 9: Men’s final
He sure is and remains the world No.1 after recently celebrating his 37th birthday.
But the Serbian superstar hasn’t won a title this season and has played sparingly in 2024, sitting out Masters 1000 events in Miami and Madrid.
Djokovic also dropped coach Goran Ivanisevic in March and has not announced a replacement.
This is expected to be Nadal’s last appearance at Roland-Garros and he had been coy about whether he would compete this time after two seasons of off and on action because of injuries, including a surgically repaired hip that forced him to miss his favourite tournament a year ago.
The 37-year-old Spaniard – a 14 time champion of the clay court tournament – has a challenging first round match against No.4 seed Alexander Zverev.
“That’s going to be hard, but he is a warrior. Anything is possible with Rafa,” tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said.
MEN:
WOMEN:
The total prize money for Roland-Garros 2024 has risen to nearly $90 million, an increase of nearly eight per cent from last year.
The two singles champions each will receive $3.93m.
The 2024 Australian Open is being broadcast on Nine, with matches available to be live streamed via 9Now and Stan Sport.
Coverage of select matches will also air on 9GEM from 6.30pm AEST each night.
Stan Sport is streaming every match ad free, live and on demand with four courts in 4K UHD.
For all the Roland-Garros headlines, talking points and highlights, watch Grand Slam Daily, beginning next Monday and available every morning of the tournament on Stan Sport from 11am AEST.
Hosted by Chris Stubbs with renowned Australian player, coach and commentator Wally Masur, the pair will cross regularly over the course of the tournament to Duncan McKenzie-McHarg on the ground in Paris, who will be chatting with some of the biggest names in world tennis.
For the men, Carlos Alcaraz is narrowly the top choice for the men’s title, despite having missed time recently because of problems with his right forearm.
Next up is defending champion Novak Djokovic and Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner.
Sinner missed the Italian Open with an injury this month, while Djokovic has not played much this season.
Rafael Nadal is the seventh pick after the draw put him up against No.4 seed Alexander Zverev in the first round.
Iga Swiatek is a heavy favourite to win the women’s title for what would be her fourth Roland-Garros trophy and third in a row.
There is a big gap to the next player, two time Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, followed by 2023 US Open champ Coco Gauff and 2022 Wimbledon champ Elena Rybakina.
Men’s draw:
Carlos Alcaraz: $3.60
Novak Djokovic: $3.75
Jannik Sinner: $6
Alexander Zverev: $8.50
Stefanos Tsitsipas: $9.50
Women’s draw:
Iga Swiatek $1.57
Aryna Sabalenka $6
Cori Gauff $9.50
Elena Rybakina $11
Danielle Collins $19
*Sportsbet odds as of 2pm AEST on May 24
The site in Paris is Roland-Garros.
The surface is red clay courts.
Women play best of three set matches and men play best of five set matches.
There are day and night sessions on most days.
Men’s singles draw:
Alex de Minaur (AUS) vs Alex Michelsen (USA)
Jordan Thompson (AUS) vs Maximilan Marterer (GER)
Alexei Popyrin (AUS) vs Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS)
Chris O’Connell (AUS) vs Qualifier
Rinky Hijikata (AUS) vs Luciano Darderi (ITA)
Max Purcell (AUS) vs Qualifier
Aleksandar Vukic (AUS) vs Zhang Zhizhen (CHN)
Adam Walton (AUS) vs Arthur Rinderknech (FRA)
Women’s singles draw:
Daria Saville (AUS) vs Jasmine Paolini (ITA)
Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS) vs Dayana Yastremska (UKR)
Iga Swiatek got past Karolina Muchova 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 last year for a third career championship at Roland-Garros and fourth Grand Slam title overall.
Novak Djokovic defeated Casper Ruud 7-6, 6-3, 7-5 for his 23rd major trophy and he has since raised that total to 24.
It was Djokovic’s third title at Roland-Garros, making him the first man with at least three from each of the four slam sites.
0 — The number of times Rafael Nadal has lost consecutive matches on clay courts in his career.
He will face Alexander Zverev in the first round and his previous outing was a 6-1, 6-3 loss to Hubert Hurkacz at the Italian Open on May 11.
5 — The most grand slam final appearances by any woman in the field.
That is Victoria Azarenka’s total and she is 2-3 in those finals.
Iga Swiatek (4-0), Naomi Osaka (4-0) and Angelique Kerber (3-1) have all been to four major title matches.