Last Tangle in Paris: 10 Takeaways from a Wild, Wacky Roland Garros

By Richard Osborn

If someone tells you they saw this coming, well, they’ve probably got a bridge to sell you, too. 

The truth is, no one could have predicted the way things went down at Roland Garros in 2026. Even if they called for a certain Italian and a certain Pole to reach the men’s and women’s singles finals, respectively, they sure didn’t have Flavio Cobolli or Maja Chwalinska on their bingo card. 

We had hail. We had swirling winds. We had extreme heat. We had illness. Nothing seemed to go as expected. Case in point: This was the first major not to feature either Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner as the champion since the 2023 US Open, won by Novak Djokovic. And after Coco Gauff’s title defense came to a halt, there were no men’s or women’s Grand Slam champions through to the Round of 16 of a major for the first time since the 1959 Australian Open. 

CincinnatiOpen.com looks back on a wild and wacky Roland Garros. Here are 10 takeaways: 

1 | FOR SASCHA, THE WAIT IS OVER 

After three straight defeats in a Grand Slam final — the 2020 US Open, 2024 Roland Garros and 2025 Australian Open — Alexander Zverev began to think it might never happen for him, that his unwelcomed notoriety as the best player never to have bagged one of the sport’s four most prized trophies was indeed fitting. This time last year, the German was at perhaps the lowest point of his career — both on and off the court: “I’ve been through a lot of difficulties in life, generally,” he said. “I’ve never felt this empty before.” But on Sunday in Paris, the 29-year-old finally realized his tennis dreams, outlasting Italy’s Flavio Cobolli over four hours and 16 minutes, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1. And he did it on a court upon which he’s experienced the best and worst moments of his career, none more painful than his semifinal tumble against Rafael Nadal in 2022, when he severed ligaments and fractured bones in his right ankle — an injury that nearly cost him his livelihood. “Now no matter what happens, I will always be a Grand Slam champion, and nobody can take that away from me,” said Zverev, the Cincinnati Open champion in 2021. “Maybe my mind will just be a little bit calmer when I play a final, meaning that even if I lose it, I will still be a Grand Slam champion. This trophy is very important for me, because if I would have lost this one, the self-belief would have gone down a lot. But now that I’ve won it, I feel like I can do it again.” 

2 | BETTER THAN IN MY DREAMS 

In a fortnight full of surprises, that Mirra Andreeva would become the youngest Roland Garros champion since Monica Seles in 1992 shouldn’t have caught anyone off guard. Even at 19, the 5-foot-9 baseliner has been flashing this big-title promise for a few years, a dogged competitor with an aggressive game and a high tennis IQ. In 2025, Andreeva claimed back-to-back WTA 1000 titles in Dubai and Indian Wells, and made both her Top-10 and Top-5 debuts. Now she’s Grand Slam champion. “I’ve had dreams, I’ve had a lot of thoughts on how it’s going to happen, if it’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen, where,” said Andreeva, coached by International Tennis Hall of Famer Conchita Martinez. “I would say that the feeling in real life is so much better than in your dreams. It just feels looking at this trophy and realizing that this is actually true, and I can call myself a Grand Slam champion.” 

3 | ARYNA’S ANGST 

Aryna Sabalenka will have to wait a little longer for her first major singles title away from the hard courts. A two-time winner at both the Australian Open and US Open, the reigning world No. 1 waltzed into the quarterfinals at Stade Roland Garros without so much as dropping a set. She then held a commanding 6-3, 4-1 advantage against Diana Shnaider, only to surrender 12 of the next 13 games and fall, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0. “I guess, mentally, I got into a very deep, dark hole over there, and I just couldn’t get back on track,” confided Sabalenka, who a year ago also saw her early momentum snuffed against Coco Gauff in the title match in Paris. “Just want to quit tennis right now.” Tennis can be cruel. But Sabalenka, the Cincinnati Open champion in 2024, will likely rebound on the quick, another opportunity before her in Wimbledon, where she has reached the semifinals on three occasions. 

4 | SINNER’S STALL 

If ever there were a runaway favorite in Paris, at least in the post-Nadal era, it was Jannik Sinner. The top-ranked Italian came into the Roland Garros fortnight riding a 29-match win streak, a spotless stretch that included a seismic sweep of five straight ATP Masters 1000 titles in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo, Madrid and Rome. A year after letting a two-sets-to-love advantage slip away against rival Carlos Alcaraz in the title tilt, he appeared poised to take the next step and complete the career Grand Slam, having already prevailed in Melbourne (2024, 2025), London (2025) and New York (2025). With an injured Alcaraz (wrist) on the sidelines, Sinner hoisting La Coupe des Mousquetaires seemed all but a forgone conclusion. However, only a game away from closing out unheralded Argentine Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the second round, up 5-1 in the third set, the 24-year-old Italian simply wilted in the heat, no longer able to employ his No. 1 form. The 56th-ranked Cerundolo would go on to pull off a 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 stunner — into the third round of a major for the first time. “I struggled, starting to feel very dizzy. Very low of energy. Tried to serve it out, but didn’t have a lot of energy,” said Sinner. “In the beginning I was hitting very clean, very good, and then I just kind of hit the wall.” It’s not the first time Sinner has battled his body in tough conditions. Earlier this year, he narrowly overcame cramps to avoid an upset bid by 85th-ranked Eliot Spizzirri at the Australian Open, and last year was unable to complete his Cincinnati Open final matchup with Alcaraz due to illness. The defending champion at the All England Club, he’ll now have a chance to redeem himself on the grass. 

5 | MARTA’S MOMENTUM 

She said she contemplated putting her racquets down for good last year. In her own words, she says she hit “rock bottom”, unable to process the expectations that have followed her since she rocketed to No. 2 in the ITF world rankings a junior. That seems a lifetime away now for 23-year-old Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, who even with her homeland under siege has come into her own of late. Kostyuk has won 16 of her last 17 matches, a stretch that includes back-to-back titles in Rouen and Madrid (her first at the WTA 1000 level) and a semifinal run at Roland Garros. Now she sits at a career-high No. 12 in the PIF WTA Rankings. And she plans on sticking around. “I think in tennis, it’s one thing to get somewhere; the other thing is to stay there,” she said. “My goal is to be a consistent player, just keep growing, keep becoming better player, better person. If my ranking is going to be better, it means I deserve it. I made it there. But it’s one thing to make it to somewhere; the other thing is to really stay there for a long time.” 

6 | CHWALINSKA LATEST TO SHOWCASE TOUR DEPTH 

One day it’s Valentin Vacherot making history in Shanghai as the lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 champ ever; the next it’s 136th-ranked French qualifier Terence Atmane taking out Flavio Cobolli, Joao Fonseca, Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune en route to the Cincinnati Open semis; or Yuliia Starodubtseva coming out of the blue to book the WTA 500 Charleston final in April. Now it’s Maja Chwalinska’s turn to symbolize the kind of depth that exists in the pro game today. The Pole reeled off nine straight matches in Paris, the first qualifier ever to reach the Roland Garros final, and only the second to do so at a Grand Slam in the Open Era. Previously ranked outside the Top 100, she didn’t even have a shoe/apparel sponsor, or sufficient hotel funds, for that matter. After upending the likes of 2024 Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen, Anna Kalinskaya and Diana Shnaider, the 24-year-old with the crafty, well-rounded game finds herself inside the Top 25. “I didn’t expect it to happen that way, but I’m not complaining,” she said with a smile. 

7 | NEXT GEN? NOW GEN. 

Joao Fonseca and Rafael Jodar have been on the radar for a while now, pegged by the tennis cognoscenti as the Next Big Things. Though they’re still shy of 20, we’re suddenly jumping tenses from future to present. Fonseca broke through in a big way in the 16th arrondissement, flashing that jarring forehand en route to his first-ever major quarterfinal. Along the way, he took down all-time Slam king Novak Djokovic in a four-hour, 53-minute epic that saw him rally from a two-set deficit to triumph, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 7-5. “He was destroying me,” Fonseca attested. “If I hit it hard, the ball was coming back harder. I just stayed focused point by point, not that I had three more sets to win. I was just thinking, ‘Let’s stay, let’s stay.’ I started believing a little bit.” Jodar, meanwhile, extended a hot streak that has seen him capture his first title in Marrakech, and reach consecutive ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinals in Madrid and Rome. On the terra battue of Roland Garros, the 19-year-old former UVA star rode back-to-back five-setters into his first major quarterfinal. “I think it shows that we have a great group of young players that are playing fantastic tennis,” said eventual titlist Alexander Zverev, who finally stopped Jodar in the elite eight, 7-6(3), 6-1, 6-3. 

8 | LA MONF IS ONE OF A KIND 

Tennis fans are cherishing their last glimpses of Gael Monfils, who’s been making the impossible possible on the tennis court for more than two decades. Set to retire at the end of the year, La Monf bid farewell to his home Slam after a 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-0 defeat at the hands of countryman Hugo Gaston. “Even in my craziest dreams, I could never have imagined that it would be like this,” said Monfils of the manner in which fans embraced him in Paris. “We imagine it without really imagining it, but what’s been going on is really engraved in my memory. It’s a tremendous opportunity. I was very lucky. It’s something that will forever be engraved in my heart.” Monfils reached a career-high No. 6 in 2016 and is closing on the 600-win mark. The Frenchman’s best showing at the Cincinnati Open came in 2011, which he reached the quarterfinals. He famously stunned then-world-No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz in the second round at the Lindner Family Tennis Center two years ago. 

9 | CLAY CAN BE HUMBLING 
 

There was plenty to write home about for Americans in Paris. Californian Zachary Svajda reached the Round of 16, taking out 25th seed Francisco Cerundolo along the way — an emotional five-set win that coincided with his late father’s birthday. A fashion-forward Naomi Osaka began to resemble her former Grand Slam self, also reaching the Round of 16. But defending champ Coco Gauff (l. to Anastasia Potapova, 4-6, 7-6(1), 6-4 in R3), Jessica Pegula (l. to Kimberly Birrell, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 in R1), Amanda Anisimova (l. to Diane Parry, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(3) in R3), Taylor Fritz (l. to Nishesh Basavareddy (l. to 7-6(5), 7-6(5), 6-7(9), 6-1 in R1), Ben Shelton (l. to Raphael Collignon, 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 in R2) and Tommy Paul (l. to Casper Ruud, 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(4), 7-5 in R3) were all gone too soon. Pegula (Charleston), Shelton (Munich) and Paul (Houston) had each won clay titles in the run-up to Roland Garros. 

10 | KEEP YOUR EYE ON… 

17-year-old Frenchman Moise Kouame, who became the youngest man to reach the third round of a major since Rafael Nadal in 2003… Strasbourg champion Emma Navarro, who after months of health setbacks is once again playing at an elite level… 20-year-old Learner Tien, now the third-ranked American man behind only Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz… Shock Roland Garros semifinalist Matteo Arnaldi, who joins the already-deep Italian Renaissance of Sinner, Cobolli, Musetti, Darderi, Berrettini, Sonego, etc… 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko, who’s already appeared in three tour-level finals in 2026… 19-year-old American Akasha Urhobo, who made her main-draw Grand Slam debut in Paris after winning the Roland Garros Wildcard Challenge.