The 2026 French open has been the craziest one in recent memory. Even before the tournament started the mens defending champion Carlos Alcaraz had withdrawn with a wrist injury not just from Roland Garros but from  Wimbledon too. Then late in the first week the first shock came with Sinner losing to unseeded JM Cerundolo in the second round. The Italian was suffering from illness and lost in five sets after being two sets up and two breaks up in the third set. Novak Djokovic fans might have become very excited at this believing the way was clear for his 25th title but the 24 time major champion would be the next top mens player to exit in the third round to the young and talented Brazilian Joao Fonseca. Djokovic too was leading two sets to none but lost in what was arguably the best match of the tournament. 

   On the ladies side too the seeds were falling. Elena Rybakina the number two seed fell in the second round. Then in the next round we had Coco Gauff the defending champion losing to Anastasia Potapova after being up a set.

  Ukranian player Marta Kostyuk has been one of the most talked about players of the clay court season having won the Madrid masters and not having lost a single match throughout the season. But having struggled in the her second round match, it was uncertain how she would play against the four time champion Iva Swaitek in the fourth round. Swaitek though has struggled with loss of form after she won Wimbledon last year. And Kostyuk was the better player in their fourth round encounter winning in straight sets. Although on form it wasn’t an upset  on paper it was with Kostyuk the 15th seed beating the 3rd seeded Pole. Kostyuk followed it up by beating her compatriot Elena Svitolina in the quarterfinal. Svitolina too was in great form having won the Rome masters but her younger opponent prevailed in three sets. When fans thought they surely could not see any more upsets, the top womens seed Aryna Sabalenka lost to 25th seed Schnaider in the quarterfinal after being a set and a break up leaving the teenager Mirra Andreeva as the highest ranked player left at the semifinal stage. 

  On the mens side too surprises were in store as Fonseca lost to Jakub Mensik after beating another experienced player Casper Ruud. At the quarter final stage with most of the top seeds out the Canadian Felix Auger Aliasimme might have thought he had a chance to win a major but he couldn’t hold off the challenge from Italian Flavio Cobolli and lost in four sets after winning the first set which was another upset. 

 In the ladies semi finals the in form Kostyuk couldn’t find her best game on a windy day in Paris against Andreeva, the latter playing very well to win with  the loss of just four games. The much anticipated clash turned out to be a disappointment for the neutrals. In the other semi final the Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska beat Schneider to get through which made her the first ever qualifier to reach the Roland Garros final.In the final though she couldn’t put up much of a fight against the 8th seeded teenager Andreeva ,losing 6-3, 6-2 on another windy day in the French capital.

  On the mens side, in the semis, Zverev beat the Czech player Jakub Mensik in four sets. Much was expected from Mensik after he had beaten Fonseca in a thrilling high quality match but apart from the third set, he couldn’t deal with the big hitting of Sasha. Then came the big shock when the unseeded Italian Matteo Arnaldi announced that he wasn’t healthy enough to compete in the second semi final giving his fellow Italian Cobolli a berth in the final. The mens  final turned out to be an exciting five set match. Cobolli started slowly losing the first set after being broken 3 times but managed to keep holding his serve in the early stages of the second until the  Zverev serve faltered and the Italian managed to serve out the set. Zverev took the third set by breaking Cobolli at 5-4 but Cobolli managed to clinch a tight fourth set in a tiebreak. Zverev seemed to struggle with cramps from the end stages of the fourth set but managed to play his best tennis  in the decider while Cobolli seemed to struggle. The much greater experience of Zverev in the final stages of grand slams seemed to help him and he finally secured the prize that has always eluded him despite him getting to the final on multiple occasions. A grand slam title.

  The action now will move to the grass court season and although we can certainly say that we wont see as many upsets and shocks as at the clay court slam, there will be plenty of exciting tennis.