Clay courts can be unpredictable. From 1995 to 2004, before Rafael Nadal claimed Roland Garros as his own personal domain, the French Open gave five men — Thomas Muster, Carlos Moya, Albert Costa, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Gaston Gaudio — their first and only Slam titles. It also gave Gustavo Kuerten all three of his.
On the women’s side, it’s given first-and-only titles to Ana Ivanovic (2008), Francesca Schiavone (2010), Jelena Ostapenko (2017) and Barbora Krejcikova (2021), plus two of Iga Swiatek‘s three, four of Justine Henin‘s seven and one of two for Svetlana Kuznetsova, Li Na, Garbine Muguruza and Simona Halep.
With Nadal out and Novak Djokovic battling iffy form, we might be more vulnerable to a French Open surprise on the men’s side than we have been in quite a while. And while Swiatek looks about as good as ever on clay, the women’s draw is never too far from chaos.
Even with the rarity of grass-court play on the ATP and WTA tours, you could say that the French Open produces the most unique results of any Slam, at least when Nadal isn’t involved. So if we’re giving you the names of players you need to track as the 2023 French Open prepares…
