Carlos Alcaraz defeated Alexander Zverev in five fitful, fretful sets on Sunday to win the French Open for the first time, conquering the Parisian clay just as he conquered the manicured lawns of Wimbledon last summer and the concrete jungle of Flushing Meadows in 2022. 

The 21-year-old becomes the youngest man to win grand slam titles on all three surfaces, overtaking his compatriot Rafael Nadal, who was a year older than Alcaraz when he completed his own set of multi-surface slams at the 2009 Australian Open.

Yet it was joining the pantheon of great Spanish champions in Paris that afforded Alcaraz the greatest satisfaction. Heading that elite coterie, of course, is Nadal, the record 14-time champion, but the Spanish tradition also includes Alcaraz’s coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, as well as Carlos Moyà and Albert Costa, to name only the most recent winners. Following his semi-final win over Jannik Sinner, Alcaraz namechecked them all, recalling how he used to run home from school to watch Roland Garros on TV as a child. Now he too is part of Spanish tennis folklore.

“Winning your first in every grand slam is always super special,” said Alcaraz after his 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 victory. “But in Roland Garros, knowing all the Spanish players who have won this tournament and being able to put my name on that massive list is something unbelievable. I dreamed about being in this position since I started playing tennis, since I was five, six years old, so it’s a great feeling.”

With Alcaraz, “feeling” is always a loaded term, and the rhythms of this final were largely dictated by the Murcian’s ability – and, for long stretches, his inability – to express his virtuosity; to find good feel on his shots, and good feelings in his mind. 

The occasion weighed heavily on both men initially, the prevailing mood made manifest by an error-strewn exchange of breaks and a frustrated early gesture from Alcaraz, who appeared troubled by the lofty trajectory of the 6ft 6in Zverev’s serve. Tricky at the best of times, the German’s thunderous delivery was made even more so by a swirling wind that, for much of the afternoon, had the flagpoles above Court Philippe Chatrier rattling on overtime. On more than one occasion, both players shanked balls into the crowd. 

Yet even in that challenging opening phase, Alcaraz showed flashes of magic, feathering drop shots and angling away volleys, and in the fifth game he secured another breakthrough, one that owed more to his own range and intelligence than any anxiety on Zverev’s part. Slowing the tempo with one-handed slices, using looped, spinny groundstrokes to disturb the German’s timing, and ripping forehands when they were least expected, Alcaraz utilised changes of pace and height to claim a love break. It was a passage that established a useful tactical template for the third seed. 

For now, though, there was no further need for such measures; suddenly Alcaraz was on a tear. He claimed a third break with an acutely angled forehand winner to seal the set, which Zverev ended with a success rate of just 48% behind his first serve and 38% on the second. They were desperate numbers for the German, and when Alcaraz survived a testing opening service game at the start of the second set, fending off three break points after leading 40-0, you half wondered if Zverev had missed an opportunity that would not come again. For all his difficulties, the 27-year-old had actually been striking the ball sweetly up to that point. Yet becoming embroiled in a shot-making contest with Alcaraz is rarely a recipe for success. Zverev’s growing frustration was evident in the beseeching looks he cast up towards his support team.

But then came a sea change. 

With Alcaraz serving at 2-2, a sequence of errors culminated with a mighty mishit from the Spaniard and a break for Zverev. Two games later, a double fault cost him another. Now it was Zverev racing through the gears – incisive at the net, discovering fresh potency off the ground, his serve wide to the deuce court, struck with lethal accuracy throughout, all but unplayable. He would finish the set with just four unforced errors. 

With the match level and Alcaraz labouring to stay on serve in the early stages of the third, it seemed possible it might be Zverev’s day after all. It invariably has been of late. He arrived in his second grand slam final unbeaten in a month and riding a 12-match winning streak that began in Rome, where he won his first Masters title in almost three years. In Paris, he had met every challenge head on, defeating Nadal in the opening round, surviving back-to-back five-setters against Tallon Griekspoor and Holger Rune, and denying an (admittedly ailing) Casper Ruud a third consecutive title shot. At 19 hours and 27 minutes, Zverev’s path to the final was the longest since records began in 1991.

Nor was that all. 

On Friday morning at the Tiergarten district court in Berlin, Zverev reached an out-of-court settlement with his former girlfriend Brenda Patea, the mother of his child, over domestic abuse allegations that he has consistently and unequivocally denied. Under the terms of the settlement, he was obliged to pay €200,000 (£170,000), with €50,000 going to the state and the remainder to non-profit organisations. 

Crucially, the case was discontinued rather than determined, with no decision made about guilt or innocence. By Friday evening, however, Zverev was declaring that it was time to move on. He certainly appeared to have done. “I never, ever want to hear another question about the subject again,” he told the press corps. On and off the court, Zverev clearly felt he had his ducks in a row, whatever the wider public view.

Alcaraz, meanwhile, appeared to have no such clarity. His third-set performance flattered only to deceive. Having lost 14 straight points against serve, he unexpectedly broke to love and went on to establish a 5-2 lead, his game flowing freely once more. But then he stalled as abruptly as he had surged, losing five games in a row to fall two sets to one down. By the end of the third set, the Spaniard was in uncharacteristically testy mood, complaining vociferously about the state of the court. 

“Do you think that’s normal?” Alcaraz demanded of the chair umpire, Renaud Lichtenstein. “Playing in the final of a grand slam? On a clay court, and it seems like a hard court? It’s unbelievable. Unbelievable.”

Novak Djokovic voiced similar complaints in his last-16 win over Francisco Cerúndolo, where he fell and suffered a knee injury that required surgery, and from courtside a patch of limestone was clearly visible through the clay. Even so, such outbursts are vanishingly rare where Alcaraz is concerned. His disgruntlement offered a reflection of his inability to summon his muse more consistently. 

As his achievements suggest, however, the Spaniard is more than just a gifted shot-maker. Alcaraz understands his game, and he believes in its virtues. He arrived in Paris lightly cooked after struggling with a forearm injury that allowed him to play just one warm-up tournament on clay, and once again sported the protective sleeve on his arm that he has worn throughout the fortnight. Yet he always had confidence that his game would be there when he needed it. So it was. He would drop just three more games. 

“I consider myself a player who doesn’t need too many matches to get [up to] 100%,” said Alcaraz. “I had a really good week here in Paris, practising with good players. I felt really well, playing sets, moving, hitting my shots before the tournament began. Obviously, every match that I’ve played, I was getting better and better.

“I believed in myself in every round of every day, and to the last ball of today’s match.”

That perseverance was clear when Alcaraz took a medical timeout at 4-1 in the fourth set to receive treatment on his left leg. Briefly, the mind wandered back to last year’s semi-final against Novak Djokovic, when his challenge was fatally undermined by cramp. But Alcaraz is a different player now, firmer of both mind and body. He rose from his chair to break, and minutes later served out the set to force a decider.

There was to be one more twist. Having suffered an early break in the fifth set, Zverev was dismayed by an overrule from the umpire after Alcaraz, facing the second of four break points, had a second serve called out. A Hawk-Eye graphic shown on TV suggested the German may have had a point, but the technology is not currently used on clay. 

 “I heard that at 2-1 the second serve was out from the Hawk-Eye data,” said Zverev, who had won 10 of his previous 11 deciding sets at Roland Garros. “If I break back there, I have break chances in the next service game, a fifth set can go the other way. But it is what it is. He played fantastic, he played better than me in the fourth and fifth sets.”

That much was undeniable. As destiny beckoned, Alcaraz showed absolute conviction. It was a matter of instinct; of feel and of feelings; of qualities that are hard to coach. 

“Sometimes I do whatever [my team] tell me, and sometimes it depends on my feelings in the moment,” said Alcaraz, who has lost just once in 13 matches after being taken to a fifth set. “But I’m trying in that moment just to be aggressive, just to go for it, playing my style, go to the net, hitting drop shots, hitting big shots. Because if I lose it, if I miss it, my feelings are really good. 

“It doesn’t matter if I lose, it doesn’t matter if I miss it, because when I go for it, the feelings are much better than if I go defensive and lose it anyway.”

On Sunday night, Alcaraz’s feelings were the best. 

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Ten days after the French Open crown was almost ripped from her grasp by Naomi Osaka, Iga Swiatek demolished Jasmine Paolini of Italy in straight sets to claim her third straight title in Paris, and her fourth in five years. 

This time she even kept the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen in one piece, carefully ensuring the lid did not fly off the famous old trophy when she celebrated on the podium, as it did last year. Swiatek does not like to let anything slip at Roland Garros.

Paolini, 5ft 4in tall but flying at altitude in a season that has brought a first WTA 1000 title in Dubai and an impending career-high ranking of No 7, made a dream start to her first grand slam final. Matching Swiatek’s aggression off the ground and throwing in variations of pace, height and positioning, the 12th-seeded Italian showed her trademark tenacity to fight off a break point in her opening service game, then claimed the first break of the match as the defending champion lapsed into error. 

That was to be as good as it got for Paolini, however, Swiatek responding with a love break to spark a run of 10 consecutive games as she closed out a 6-2, 6-1 victory to claim her fifth grand slam title.   

With her 21st straight win on the Parisian clay, the Polish world No 1 becomes only the third woman in the open era to win three successive titles on Court Philippe Chatrier, following in the footsteps of Justine Henin and Monica Seles. This was her 19th win in a row on the red stuff, a run that has also brought titles in Madrid and Rome, and while she has rebuffed comparisons with her idol Rafael Nadal, who has won 14 times at Roland Garros, the fact remains that she is on a near-identical trajectory. Nadal was 24 when he won his fifth French Open; form and fitness permitting, Swiatek, who has just turned 23, will have a chance to equal that landmark – and move another step closer to Chris Evert’s all-time women’s record of seven titles – in 12 months’ time. 

Such thoughts might seem premature, but Swiatek’s clay-court dominance is of an order that almost demands conjecture. Already she is rubbing shoulders with the all-time greats. Only Evert, who together with Martina Navratilova presented the trophy, can match Swiatek’s return of four titles from her first six visits to Roland Garros. The Pole is also the first player to win Madrid, Rome and Paris in the same season since Serena Williams in 2013, a point of comparison that even her coach, the unexcitable Tomasz Wiktorowski, tacitly acknowledged afterwards.

“Incredible journey for us,” said Wiktorowski. “Three tournaments in seven weeks, plus Stuttgart. I was like, ‘Crazy plan,’ but we knew somebody did it before us, so we knew that’s possible.”

Swiatek’s sense of what is possible, already strong after her recovery from three championship points down against Aryna Sabalenka in the Madrid final, grew more pronounced still after she climbed off the canvas against Osaka, who came within a missed backhand of ending her French Open title defence in the second round.

“This tournament has been pretty surreal, with its beginning, with the second round,” said Swiatek. “I was able to get my game better and better every match, so I’m really proud of myself, because the expectations obviously have been pretty high from the outside, and pressure as well. So I’m happy that I just went for it and I was ready to deal with all of this and I could win.”

Given that Swiatek dropped just 20 games in six matches either side of her victory over Osaka – only three more than Osaka won against her – the obvious assumption would be that her second-round win was the catalyst for her title run. Wiktorowski, however, was not so sure.  

“I’m not sure if it helped, but it gave some perspective,” Wiktorowski told Eurosport’s Àlex Corretja. “It gave some perspective that it’s not going to be easy. She passed through this match, defended a match point, and she made it. It gives some confidence, but also it gives perspective to us that we probably need to do something a little bit more.”

Swiatek and her team delivered handsomely on that need. Like Coco Gauff in the previous round, Paolini was unable to summon the required blend of power and consistency to keep the Pole at bay, falling into error as she attempted to fight fire with fire in the face of Swiatek’s clinical and relentless attacking. As dominant behind her own serve as she was ruthless in dealing with her opponent’s delivery, Swiatek broke down the Italian time and again in the baseline exchanges, drawing her away from the middle of the court before delivering the coup de grâce.

“She was playing an unbelievable level all the match, no mistakes, hitting winners,” said Paolini. “I tried to play my best, but it’s not easy to play at that intensity. I never played a player that has this intensity before in my life.

“I think it was the most challenging match I played in my entire career.”

As Swiatek sank to her knees at the end, fists clenched and roaring with delight, it was hard to escape the feeling that facing her on clay might just be the most challenging match anyone could face in an entire career. Didn’t they used to say the same thing about a certain player from Spain?  

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This time, Alcaraz was ready to suffer, ready to grasp the opportunity that eluded him last summer. With his 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory, he did exactly that, becoming the youngest man in history to reach grand slam finals on each of the game’s three surfaces, after winning the US Open on the hard courts of Flushing Meadows in 2022 and prevailing on the grass of Wimbledon’s Centre Court last summer. 

It is an impressive achievement, but not one on which he intends to dwell. Not with a final to play on Sunday against Alexander Zverev, who later defeated an ailing Casper Ruud in four sets. 

Alcaraz recalled afterwards how he used to run home from school to watch Roland Garros. Now he wants to add his own name to the rich tradition of Spanish success in Paris; to stand alongside the likes of Rafael Nadal, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya.

“It’s something great, breaking new records for me is great,” said Alcaraz of his multi-surface milestone. “Before the final, it’s something that I really don’t want to think about, but obviously that means that I’m playing good tennis on every surface. That is something that I really wanted to do when I started on the tour, so it’s a great feeling. But right now I don’t want to think about it.”

The same focus was apparent against Sinner, who set a blistering early pace, suffocating Alcaraz with his depth and accuracy off the ground to reel off the first four games of the afternoon. Two days after Djokovic’s withdrawal from the tournament confirmed his ascent to world No 1 when the new ranking list is published next week, the 22-year-old Italian seemed intent on marking the occasion in style. With nine games played, Alcaraz had held serve just once.

Sinner’s level had to drop eventually and, as it did, Alcaraz gradually began to find his customary fluency and range. Forehands that had flown out or careered off his frame in the early stages began to find their mark. As his serve began to bite, so the winners started to flow: he produced 13 in the second set, to just three from Sinner. Yet there was greater margin and consistency, too, Alcaraz increasing his net clearance by applying heavier topspin to his groundstrokes before pulling the trigger when the right ball presented itself.   

The lopsided nature of the first two sets epitomised the pattern of the afternoon. For all the buzz surrounding the ninth meeting between the pair, it was not quite the classic many had anticipated. Nor was it tennis on fast forward, in the mould of their US Open quarter-final of two years ago – partly because clay promotes a more attritional style of play, but mainly because the two men rarely produced their best at the same time. 

It was a match of fits and starts, never more so than in the third set, where Sinner received treatment for cramp in his right arm and both legs, yet managed to come out on top regardless as Alcaraz curiously failed to go for the jugular. That bucked the wider trend of the contest, which was ultimately determined by Alcaraz’s ability to find inspiration at the key moments. 

“The key was that I took my chances,” said Alcaraz. “The break points that I had, I took.”

The final game of the fourth set, in which Alcaraz produced a magical lob and Sinner a horrendous miss, was a case in point. Having earned the first break point of the set with a rally of patient aggression, Alcaraz seized the opportunity, pulling Sinner wide before steering a backhand into the open court. 

A similar blend of belligerence and brilliance earned the Spaniard a decisive break in the second game of the decider. Having established a foothold in the game with some diligent rallying, Alcaraz produced an extraordinary running pass at deuce, prodding an acutely angled backhand for a winner, before a thumping forehand sealed the deal. In all, Alcaraz converted six of his 10 break points, while Sinner won just six from 14. 

“For sure, the sets he won, he played better on the important points,” said Sinner. “I think that was the key.” 

Zverev later defeated Casper Ruud, a finalist for the past two years, to reach the second major final of his career and his first at Roland Garros. Ruud, whose level dipped after an encouraging start, was hampered by a stomach problem as he fell to a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 defeat. 

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Iga Swiatek may have a way to go before matching the Spaniard’s dominance on the Parisian clay but, after defeating Coco Gauff in straight sets in Thursday’s semi-finals, she will have the opportunity to compete for a fourth French Open title in five years when she faces Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in two days’ time. Given that she has just turned 23 – like Nadal, she celebrates her birthday during the fortnight – another win would see Swiatek equal her childhood idol’s record at the same age. 

“I would never expect anybody to compare me to Rafa, because for me he’s above everybody and he’s a total legend,” said the Polish world No 1. “I’m proud of myself that I’m playing consistently here and that I’m even mentioned in the same sentence as Rafa.”

If she continues in her present vein, Swiatek is likely to find herself in many such sentences in years to come. The defending champion’s 6-2, 6-4 success against Gauff was her 20th in a row at Roland Garros, where she is bidding to become the first woman since Justine Henin to win three straight titles. Having won the WTA 1000 events in Madrid and Rome on the road to Paris, she is also riding an 18-match winning streak on clay. Not quite Nadal’s 81 consecutive victories on the surface, let alone Chris Evert’s 125, but she is certainly on the right track.

“This surface makes my game better,” said Swiatek. “My grip allows me to spin more. I can play more defence points because it’s a bit slower, but on the other hand I also get also more time to attack.”

She did plenty of both against Gauff, who set out to play on the front foot but was in trouble from the moment she sent a drive volley sailing over the baseline to drop her opening service game. Having lost all but one of her previous 11 meetings with Swiatek – including two on Court Philippe Chatrier, in the 2022 final and last year’s quarter-finals – the 20-year-old’s predicament was clear. To buck the trend, she had to try something different.

Naomi Osaka established a template for success with her near-miss against Swiatek in the second round but, for all the virtues of Gauff’s game, she does not possess Osaka’s ability to combine raw power with consistency off the ground. As her victory over Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s US Open final demonstrated, the Atlantan is at her best when absorbing pace and counter-punching. So while her enterprise was admirable, Gauff’s final tally of 39 unforced errors to 27 winners was symptomatic of a flawed game plan, particularly on a clay court, and especially against Swiatek. 

It was no coincidence that Gauff’s best phase of the match came when she began to play with greater patience. That came in the early stages of the second set, where she established a 3-1 lead despite a moment of controversy that left her in tears. 

When a Swiatek serve was incorrectly called long, the chair umpire, Aurélie Tourte, swiftly intervened to correct the mistake, but ruled that the line judge’s intervention had not affected Gauff’s missed return and should not be replayed. The American pleaded her case, arguing that the call had come in unison with her attempt to play the ball, but her objections fell on deaf ears. TV evidence suggested she had a point, and afterwards Gauff’s bemoaned the sport’s failure to employ technology in such circumstances.

“It’s almost ridiculous that we don’t have it,” said Gauff, who will rise to a career-high ranking of No 2 next week. “Every sport has it. There are so many decisions that are made, and it sucks as a player to go online and you see that you were completely right. 

“In situations, you can call for the supervisor, but there’s not much they can do from that standpoint. So I definitely think as a sport we have to evolve. We have the technology, they’re showing it on TV, so I don’t get why the player can’t see it.”

In the second semi-final, Paolini’s experience told against Mirra Andreeva, the 17-year-old Russian who defeated an off-colour Aryna Sabalenka on Wednesday. Paolini seized the initiative with an early break, and although Andreeva fashioned five opportunities to get the opening set back on serve, the 12th-seeded Italian averted the danger with trademark tenacity. The 28-year-old then reeled off six games in a row to complete a 6-3, 6-1 victory and become the first Italian woman to reach a final at Roland Garros since Sara Errani in 2012. Not bad for a player who had never advanced beyond the second round of a major before this year.

“It’s a great feeling to be in a grand slam final,” said Paolini. “It seems something impossible, you know, but it’s true, so I’m really happy to be in this position.”

Paolini’s breakout year began with a run to the last 16 of the Australian Open and a first WTA 1000 title in Dubai. Having started the season ranked 29th, she will be a top-10 player when the new ranking list is published next week. In two days’ time, however, she will face one of the toughest challenges in tennis: Swiatek, on Chatrier, in the French Open final. 

The locals have a verb, “Nadaliser”, that they have traditionally used to describe Nadal’s domination on the red clay where he has won 14 of his 22 grand slam titles. It will be of little comfort to Paolini that they are now repurposing that word to characterise Swiatek’s supremacy at Roland Garros. On Saturday, we shall see if the Italian can avoid being Nadalised.

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On an afternoon of major upsets at the French Open, Andreeva, 17, fought back from a set down to claim the biggest win of her career against Aryna Sabalenka, becoming the youngest women’s grand slam semi-finalist since Martina Hingis in 1997. Sabalenka, the second seed and reigning Australian Open champion, struggled physically from the outset and on several occasions looked close to throwing in the towel.

It was a desperate stroke of misfortune for the 26-year-old Belarusian, particularly after Elena Rybakina, the fourth seed, was earlier beaten by Paolini in straight sets. With Iga Swiatek, the world No 1 and defending champion, already through to face Coco Gauff in the top half of the draw, the expectation was that the top four seeds would reach the semi-finals in Paris for the first time since 1992. But a bold and brilliant performance from Paolini put a dent in the notion of a women’s big four which Andreeva, to her immense credit, hammered home.

“I tried to stay in the game, stay focused, not to wait for her mistakes, to try to finish everything by myself,” said Andreeva following her 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-4 win.

“If we look back, I wouldn’t expect myself playing [in the] semi-finals, because that was just kind of a dream for me in the beginning of the tournament.”

Andreeva’s dream was Sabalenka’s nightmare. A pair of early breaks could not disguise the Belarusian’s discomfort on serve and sluggish movement and, as she fell behind against an opponent she had dismissed comfortably in each of their previous two meetings, she gestured agitatedly to her support team. After seven games, a doctor arrived on the scene, pills were administered, and Sabalenka somehow summoned the strength to recover from 3-5 down and see out the set.  

But Andreeva held firm, maintaining her concentration despite the weight of the occasion and the distracting nature of Sabalenka’s predicament, and having levelled the contest she showed admirable composure to recover from a break down in the decider. Serving to stay in the tournament, Sabalenka fought off a first match point with a courageous forehand winner, but Andreeva would not be denied. The teenager ripped a backhand winner down the line to bring up a second opportunity, and this time she converted it with an inspired defensive lob. 

In Paolini, she will face another opponent enjoying her finest run at a major. The Italian, who started the year ranked 29th, had never been beyond the second round at this level before reaching the last 16 of the Australian Open in January. Two months later, she was scheduled to face Rybakina in the Dubai quarter-finals only for the former Wimbledon champion to withdraw with illness. Paolini went on to win the WTA 1000 event, defeating Anna Kalinskaya in the final, and her growing belief that she can compete at the highest level will be reinforced when she breaks into the top 10 for the first time next week. 

A near-flawless first set gave Paolini the platform for a 6-2, 4-6. 6-4 victory over Rybakina, the Italian dropping just one point on serve while threatening the world No 4’s delivery throughout. It has been a difficult few weeks for Rybakina, who was forced to abandon her title defence in Rome because of sickness, and has since struggled with sleeping problems and media controversy. She has been winning in Paris even without playing her best tennis, and put herself in a position to do so again after shrugging off an error-strewn start to force a decider, but a poor service game at 4-4 handed Paolini the initiative, and the Italian served out for a famous win.

“I think I started to play better, with more consistency, last year,” said Paolini. “Match by match, I felt more convinced that I can play at a higher level. But it was a process, it’s not like I switched something [on], it was a process. 

“Now, I step on court and I say to myself that I have a chance to win the match. Before, sometimes when I was playing against the top players, I was like ‘OK, I need a miracle to win this match,’ so I was already losing the match before even playing.”

Now the shoe will be on the other foot: seeded 12th and by far the more experienced player, Paolini will go into Thursday’s semi-final as the favourite. Then again, as she and Andreeva proved, that doesn’t always count for much.

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The injury, which means Djokovic will relinquish the world No 1 ranking to Jannik Sinner, was confirmed in a statement by tournament organisers after the 37-year-old underwent an MRI scan on Tuesday. The Serbian, who must now be regarded as touch and go for both Wimbledon and the Paris Olympics, later took to social media to express his disappointment.

“I am really sad to announce that I have to withdraw from Roland Garros,” wrote Djokovic, who had been scheduled to play Casper Ruud in the quarter-finals. 

“I played with my heart and gave my all in yesterday’s match and unfortunately, due to a medial meniscus tear in my right knee, my team and I had to make a tough decision after careful consideration and consultation.

“I wish the best of luck to the players competing this week and sincerely thank the incredible fans for all of the love and continued support.”

The injury marks the culmination of a difficult few days for Djokovic, who completed his third-round win over Lorenzo Musetti at 3.07am on Sunday, the latest finish in the tournament’s history, and returned to battle through another epic five-setter against Cerundolo the following day. 

Having experienced discomfort in his knee before facing the Argentinian, Djokovic sustained further damage after slipping early in the second set, and following medical treatment he became involved in an animated exchange with Wayne McKewen, the tournament supervisor, over the condition of the playing surface, which he felt was lacking the usual amount of clay.

A request for the court to be swept more frequently fell on deaf ears, however, and although he went on to win after taking pain killers, Djokovic reacted furiously when he slipped again in the decider. He later expressed uncertainty about whether he would be able to continue his title defence.

With his worst fears confirmed, Djokovic now faces an anxious wait to see if he will be fit to continue his quest for a record 25th grand slam title at the All England Club and challenge for an Olympic gold medal, the only significant honour to have eluded him, when the tennis world reconvenes at Roland Garros in July.

His withdrawal means that Ruud, the Norwegian seventh seed, who was beaten by the Serb in last year’s final and lost at the same stage to Rafael Nadal two years ago, advances to the last four, where he will face either Alexander Zverev or Alex De Minaur.

Sinner, meanwhile, will become the first Italian world No 1 since the ATP rankings were introduced in 1973 when the new list is published next week. The 22-year-old, who defeated Djokovic en route to winning his maiden grand slam title at the Australian Open in January, learned of his elevated status after defeating Grigor Dimitrov 62, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) to reach the semi-finals in Paris for the first time.

“What can I say?” said Sinner. “First of all, it’s every player’s dream to become No 1 in the world. In another way, seeing Novak retire here is disappointing for everyone. I wish him a speedy recovery.

“I tried not think so much about this because this is a tournament where I used to struggle a lot, especially in the last two years. 

“It’s a special moment for me.”

With 14-time winner Rafael Nadal beaten in the opening round by Zverev and Roger Federer in retirement, Djokovic’s withdrawal means that someone from outside the big three will be crowned French Open champion for the first time since 2004. 

On Friday, Sinner will attempt to reach a second straight grand slam final against either Carlos Alcaraz, who was overwhelmed by nerves against Djokovic in last year’s semi-finals, or Stefanos Tsitsipas, who lost to the Serb in the 2021 final after leading by two sets to love. All will hope to make the most of Djokovic’s absence.

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Almost two hours earlier, he had led Lorenzo Musetti by a set and a break, his title defence apparently firmly on track. Now here he was, with the time fast approaching 2am, relieved merely to have held serve at the start of the fourth set after losing all but four of the previous 17 games.

Ordinarily Djokovic would have been, if not in his element, then certainly within his comfort zone. Three years ago he trailed Musetti, a flamboyant 22-year-old Italian with a poetic one-handed backhand, by two sets to love on Court Philippe Chatrier. By the end, Musetti was a broken man, his cramping body racked with pain as he retired two games from defeat. 

With his back to the wall once more, on the same court, against the same opponent, and with a grand slam title on the line – not to mention the No 1 ranking, which he will relinquish to Jannik Sinner if he fails to make the final, and may relinquish even then – you would have expected to find Djokovic at his most defiant. Particularly given that Musetti beat him for the first time on the red clay courts of Monte Carlo last year. 

But the 24-time grand slam champion has been far from his all-conquering self this year, and so it was again. The usual fist pumps and roars of belligerence, the trademark willingness to take on the world, were nowhere to be seen. Instead, Djokovic grinned up to his wife, Jelena, who was urging him on with both fists clenched. Then he engaged in a gentle self-parody. “Idemo,” he mouthed silently – Serbian for “Let’s go” – before following up with a noiseless “Yeahhhh.” It might have been the most low-key self-exhortation of Djokovic’s career; an imitation of passion, rather than the thing itself. 

With a smile still lingering on his lips, Djokovic turned to resume battle. Meanwhile, Jelena struggled to suppress a giggle. Were they even taking this seriously? It would have been easy enough not to, given the tournament organisers’ decision to squeeze in an extra match beforehand. Then again, the backlog of matches caused by the atrocious weather in Paris over the past week has made for desperate times; here was an accordingly desperate measure. Djokovic and Musetti eventually took to the court more than two hours after the scheduled start time of 8.15pm, which was surely asking for trouble, given that their last meeting on Chatrier spanned almost three and a half hours.

But as it turned out, Djokovic wasn’t kidding. 

A quarter of an hour later, a Musetti service game that began with the Serb bent double on the baseline after a sinew-sapping 21-shot exchange, ended with Djokovic crushing a forehand to bring up a second break point, then converting it with a bold foray to the net. As the Italian’s forehand pass drifted wide, Djokovic looked up to Jelena again. This time, there was steel in his eyes, a look full of conviction and intent and belief. Djokovic waved his arms to stoke up what remained of the crowd. They barely needed the encouragement; they had been chanting his name with gusto since the beginning of the set. Now they did so again. 

“The crowd definitely got me going,” said Djokovic, still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, after the cheers had faded. “I really needed that push, I really needed that energy. At 2-2 in the fourth, they started chanting my name, and I just felt a great new wave of willpower and energy. I think I was a different player from that moment onwards.”

So he was. Musetti salvaged just one more game, Djokovic eventually closing out a 7-5, 6-7 (6-8), 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory at 3.07am, a tournament record. It was another entry in the record books for the Serb – a dubious honour on this occasion, perhaps, but one he was happy to accept. If there was a debate to be had about the sport’s latest scheduling farce, it was a subject for another day.

“I don’t want to get into it,” said Djokovic. “I have my opinions, but I think there are great things to talk about as we are talking about this this match today.

“I don’t want to be talking about the schedule. I think some things could have been handled in a different way but, you know, there’s beauty as well, I guess, winning the match at 3.30am if it’s the last one of the tournament. But it’s not, so I’m going to have to switch [on] all of my young genes and try to recover as quick as possible.”

After an indifferent few months by his standards, many have wondered if Djokovic still has the motivation to win a 25th major. This victory was a most eloquent riposte.

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Few will have forgotten the 24-year-old Kazakhstani’s impassive response to winning Wimbledon two summers ago, when she ambled to the net to shake hands with nary a smile, although plenty seem to have forgotten how she dissolved into tears at her press conference afterwards.

A woman of contrasts and contradictions, Rybakina hits big, but speaks softly. She commands attention with her percussive power, yet retreats into her shell once the final ball has been struck. Shyness, however, should not be confused with weakness.

Like the similarly introverted Iga Swiatek, Rybakina is not afraid to speak out when occasion demands. At last year’s Canadian Open, she accused the WTA of “weak leadership” over scheduling issues that meant she had to battle until 3am to complete a quarter-final win over Daria Kasatkina. Rybakina was one of the first players to call out the shambolic organisation of last year’s WTA Finals in Cancún, and has been similarly strident in her criticism of the extended WTA 1000 format. She may be reserved, but she is no pushover.

On the court, Rybakina’s tennis has spoken volumes at this year’s French Open, much as it has done throughout a year that has brought three titles and 33 victories, a record bettered only by Swiatek. Rybakina has yet to drop a set in Paris, and on Saturday she continued her serene progress by calmly despatching Elise Mertens, twice reeling in the 27th-ranked Belgian from a break down in the first set before moving through the gears to win 6-4, 6-2.

Off court, however, Rybakina’s Roland Garros has been anything but serene. Facing the media has never been her favourite part of the day job, but time and experience have made her more forthcoming, and she is typically an engaging and unassuming interviewee. In Paris, though, Rybakina’s press briefings have been far from typical. Following her opening-round win over Greet Minnen, she gave short shrift to an innocuous question about her health and the effect of the court conditions, before adding: “I don’t know guys, the questions are quite the same, so I don’t know what to say any more.” 

A brief but awkward silence followed, before the search for a more palatable line of inquiry began. Playing under the closed roof on Chatrier? “The same as previous years. Guys.” The key to winning the title? “It’s quite basic, you need to work hard, do all the things usually you don’t want to do. Simple questions, simple answers.” How about a few words on that distinctive beige kit; a custom number, perhaps? “These colours, I didn’t choose, it was the brand who chose for me,” Rybakina shot back as, somewhere in Tokyo, a Yonex sponsorship executive curled up into a ball and wept. And so it continued.

It should be said that Rybakina, while mildly exasperated, smiled as she addressed her interrogators. With the possible exception of a slight shake of the head after replying to one question, her tone was one of detached bemusement rather than rudeness. Nonetheless, the relationship between press and players is symbiotic. Journalists on deadline need quotes. Athletes need coverage to improve their profile and marketability. Without mutual goodwill, press conferences are a waste of everyone’s time. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Rybakina was not requested for interview by the media following her second-round win over Arantxa Rus. That in turn sparked a predictable social media storm, with opinion split fairly evenly between fans of rival players only too ready to condemn Rybakina for her part in the standoff, and those who believe that all journalists ask stupid questions, all of the time. It fell to Ellen Perez, the Australian doubles specialist, to offer a more nuanced take. 

“Do I think her answers were great? No,” Perez wrote on social media. “Do I think some of the questions were mundane? Sure. Do I think some of the questions were fine? Sure. Do I think the journos are being petty? Absolutely. Do I think she’s happy now? Yep.”

All of which would be fine, if Rybakina were indeed happy. But as she returned to the press room after her win over Mertens, the Kazakhstani was hardly a picture of joy. For a couple of minutes, it all went swimmingly. Then she punctuated an answer with the rider, “Always, the question is being healthy” – at which point, things started to go downhill.

Rybakina’s health issues, the latest of which came when she withdrew from last month’s WTA 100 event in Rome with illness, are well documented. She struggles with allergies at this time of year, and last season was forced to pull out of the French Open before her third-round match after struggling to sleep and suffering from fever, headache and breathing issues. Most athletes are guarded when discussing injury or illness, and Rybakina is no different. No player wants to give their next opponent the skinny on their physical state. All the same, she could be forgiven for feeling that she has offered enough context on the situation in the past to render further questions redundant.

That said, Rybakina was the one who raised the issue of her health. The enquiries that followed can hardly have come as a shock. First up was the obvious question: exactly how healthy was she, following her withdrawal from Rome? “Struggling a bit with sleep,” came the answer, but otherwise “feeling pretty well and focused.” Had she undertaken any tests to explore the deeper reasons for her problems? “No,” she said with a wan smile. So what was the issue with sleep? “Everybody when they work a lot, it’s not easy to sleep and then the recovery is not the greatest,” Rybakina replied evasively, her discomfort evident as she glanced at the moderator. 

At that point, it would probably have been smart for everyone simply to cut their losses. Instead, two further questions about Rybakina’s sleeping problems followed, both of which drew terse replies, before we arrived back at square one. 

“Well guys, I think everybody faces some issues, it can be anything,” said Rybakina. “So I don’t know what to answer on that.”

Given that her first-round press conference also got off on the wrong foot following a question about her health, it should not be beyond the wit of man or woman to make an educated guess at what is bothering Rybakina. If she doesn’t wish to discuss her health every time she faces the media, there is little to be gained by pressing her on the issue, particularly with the facts already on public record. Three years after Naomi Osaka boycotted the French Open media before withdrawing from the tournament on mental health grounds, the need for empathy should be uppermost in the minds of all. 

Equally, Rybakina must be as wary of unforced errors in the press room as she is between the white lines. A question may feel intrusive, or repetitive, but ultimately the media are there to promote a deeper understanding of the players. It is up to Rybakina to choose what face she wishes to present to the world.

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But after her unscripted appeal to the Paris public to refrain from crying out during rallies, which followed a nail-biting victory from match point down against Naomi Osaka two days ago, Swiatek could have been forgiven for wondering how she would be received as she stepped on to Court Philippe Chatrier to face Marie Bouzkova.

In a week when crowd behaviour at Roland Garros has come under intense scrutiny, the top seed’s words seemed as bold as her tennis, but any fears she may have harboured over the consequences of speaking out were immediately allayed. Swiatek was greeted by a roar of approval and enjoyed warm support throughout as she marked her 23rd birthday with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Bouzkova, before the stadium treated her to a chorus of Happy Birthday. 

Evidently there are no hard feelings.

“I enjoyed playing today,” Swiatek, who notably enjoyed respectful silence as she went about her business, told Fabrice Santoro in her on-court interview. 

“Marie is a difficult player, because she’s really good at defence, every ball will come back. I really wanted to be patient and solid, and not rush it. I’m happy at the end that I did that.”

It was a predictably challenging afternoon for Bouzkova, who recognised the futility of trying to contain Swiatek’s aggression in the baseline exchanges and tailored her tactics accordingly. There were signs of promise for the 25-year-old when she ventured to the net in the early stages, while her intelligent variations of height and spin contributed to an unexpected dip from Swiatek late in the first set. 

Ultimately, though, Bouzkova lacked the brute force to trouble the defending champion as Osaka had done, Swiatek’s depth and weight of shot pinning her to the baseline, where she spent much of the afternoon scurrying fruitlessly from corner to corner. With Swiatek stepping into her returns, the Czech won less than a third of her second serve points, while the Pole’s superior firepower yielded 34 winners – exactly double Bouzkova’s total. After the heightened emotions of her previous match, following which TV cameras captured Swiatek wiping away tears as she lay on a gym mat, it was no doubt the kind of relatively straightforward afternoon she needed.

“Maybe I was crying because there are cameras in the gym,” quipped Swiatek, who took advantage of the inclement weather in Paris to enjoy a rest day. 

“[I was] just overwhelmed with emotions, I honestly thought that I’m going to be out of the tournament, and even though I felt something on the court, it kind of hit me after. 

“I was happy that I won, but I still felt like I was really on the edge, so I just cried.”

There was much mirth on court afterwards when Swiatek, who will face Anastasia Potapova in the last 16, was unable to recall the name of the park she visited on her day off, sparking an off-mic conversation with Santoro and some helpful suggestions from the crowd. No fan of uncertainty, Swiatek later took to social media to offer clarification: “National Estate of Saint-Cloud,” she confirmed on X, shortly after tournament organisers had presented her with a large cake.

Elsewhere, Ons Jabeur celebrated with uncharacteristic gusto after defeating Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) to reach the second week in Paris for a fourth time in five years. Jabeur, seeded eighth, will now meet Clara Tauson for the first time after the 21-year-old Dane beat former finalist Sofia Kenin 6-2, 7-5. 

“Just reminding everyone that I’m still here,” said Jabeur, who saved a set point in the second set. “It’s also nice to prove for myself, because I’ve been in a bad place for months, trying to gain back my confidence.”

Coco Gauff, the third seed, remains on course for a projected semi-final meeting with Swiatek, easing past Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 6-4. The US Open champion will now face Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, a 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 winner over Liudmila Samsonova, the 17th seed.

“I love the courts here,” said the 51st-ranked Cocciaretto. “It reminds me a lot of the courts where I was born. I have very good memories of when I was a kid, watching on TV all the Italian players that were playing Roland Garros. Italians, we were born on clay.”

The most emotional scenes of the day came on Court Simmone-Mathieu, where Olga Danilovic, a 23-year-old qualifier from Serbia, showed extraordinary resilience to defeat Donna Vekic 0-6, 7-5, 7-6 (10-8). Danilovic, who has already claimed notable wins over Martina Trevisan and Danielle Collins, recovered from 6-2 down in the decisive tiebreak after Vekic had twice served for the match.

“I don’t know how I won this match, I was down so many times,” said Danilovic, overwhelmed by emotion, after reaching the second week of a major for the first time. 

“Yesterday I finished so late, 6.30[pm], and I got the time for today ,and it was 11am. I knew that I had to put myself together to sleep as much as I can, just to try to play. 

“But I practise for these kinds of moments. When they come, I really want to take the best out of them, just enjoy being here and enjoy suffering as well. In tennis, at the end, sometimes you really need to suffer, like I did today.”

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He had just steered a sliding, one-handed backhand around the net post and on to the line, an audacious winner that left his opponent, Roberto Carballés Baena, grinning ruefully. 

It is a tennis truism that no shot, however good, is worth more than one point, and yet it felt like a significant moment. After a turbulent season in which he has failed to reach a final and upended his support team, the Serbian world No 1 arrived in Paris admitting that he felt “a bit embarrassed” to articulate his ambitions. Now, here he was, gesturing to the crowd, demanding their acclaim, once more the strutting alpha male of the men’s locker’s room. 

It is too soon to say normal service has been resumed, but the 24-time grand slam champion can certainly draw encouragement from the commanding nature of his 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 win over Carballés Baena, even if the 31-year-old’s Spaniard’s solid baseline game offered a more straightforward challenge than he faced against the net-rushing Pierre-Hugues Herbert on Tuesday night. As he locked down his game from the baseline, served with trademark authority and conjured some sumptuous drop shots, Djokovic gave the impression of a man sharpening his tools for bigger battles to come. 

“There’s always that conviction and belief inside of me that I can win a slam,” said Djokovic, the defending champion, who at the age of 37 is chasing a fourth French Open crown. 

“That’s the reason why I’m still competing at this level, that’s why I’m here at this age. I wouldn’t be really competing at the slams and continuing to play professional tennis if I didn’t believe that I possess quality to go all the way to the title match. 

“I still sense that I have the game and I have the goods to go far. But as I said in the press conference prior to the start of the tournament, I don’t want to get too much ahead of the present day, because I haven’t had great form [in the] lead-up to Roland Garros, so I have to keep my expectations a bit lower. 

“Of course, hopes and beliefs and convictions are always there, always high, and I always aim for the highest stars, so to say. But I’m being very conscious of the present moment and what needs to be done on a daily basis to build my form as the tournament progresses, hopefully, and then peak at the right time, when it matters the most.”

Carballés Baena, the world No 63, enjoyed his best moments in the opening set, where the quality of his backhand, and in particular his ability to redirect the ball down the line, caught Djokovic cold on more than one occasion. But having recovered an early break with a combination of good returning and a pair of stellar drop shots, the Serb began to establish a metronomic rhythm from the baseline. 

It undoubtedly helped that he was facing a prototypical Spanish clay-courter who was rarely able to rush or discomfit him as the big-serving Herbert had done. Yet the manner in which Djokovic elevated his level as Carballés Baena served to stay in the opening set was no less impressive for that, the Serb drilling an unanswerable backhand winner, working the angles to win a 16-shot rally, and remaining rock solid in between. 

Having created the platform for a convincing win, the only blight on Djokovic’s afternoon was a run-in with a front-row spectator who distracted him as he chased down a drop shot late in the first set. The offender was warned by Nico Helwerth, the German chair umpire, and received a withering look from Djokovic as he went on to break. 

The incident followed Iga Swiatek’s impassioned appeal to the crowd not to call out during points following her epic second-round win over Naomi Osaka on Wednesday night, and David Goffin’s complaint that an unruly spectator spat chewing gum at him during his victory over Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France. Djokovic expressed support for the Belgian’s decision to speak out over about the behaviour of the partisan crowd, whom he accused of “total disrespect”.

“I saw a little bit of the highlights [from] Goffin’s match,” said Djokovic. They can be even more loud and inappropriate at times. It’s part of what we do, it’s part of sports.

“When [a] line is passed and it starts becoming disrespectful towards the player, in those instances I understand that a player like Goffin the other day reacted, because I’ve experienced quite a few times those particular situations. I support a player standing up against people who are disrespecting and heckling him. It’s not always possible to tolerate.”

Earlier in the day, the tournament director, Amélie Mauresmo, responded to the concerns raised by players by announcing a ban on alcohol in the stands. “Alcohol was allowed until now in the stands,” said Mauresmo. “Not in all the stands. That’s over.”

Elsewhere, Alexander Zverev followed up his opening-round win over Rafael Nadal with a 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, 6-2 win over Goffin. The German fourth seed will face Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands next. Daniil Medvedev, seeded fifth, advanced to the third round after Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia retired due to illness while trailing 6-1, 5-0. 

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