It’s guaranteed that we will have a new French Open men’s champion this year, as Carlos Alcaraz announced a few weeks back that he has withdrawn from the event. With No. 2 Alcaraz on the sidelines, that makes Jannik Sinner – the top seed in the tournament – the heavy favourite to win it all, per the updated French Open 2026 odds.
Sinner has reclaimed the top spot in the ATP rankings because he’s on an absolute tear. In the past few weeks, the 24-year-old Italian has won every major tournament he has been a part of since suffering an upset loss in the Qatar Open quarter-finals last March.
Alexander Zverev is the second-highest seed in the tournament, as he’s third in the ATP rankings. The German international is also vying for his maiden French Open after coming up short against Alcaraz in the final in 2024.
Sinner builds serious momentum ahead of Roland Garros
Jannik Sinner started the year losing to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals and to Jakub Mensik in the Qatar Open quarter-finals. But since then, he has never lost a single match in the men’s singles. Overall, he has won 36 of his 38 matches this season.
The world No. 1 beat Daniil Medvedev in the Indian Wells Masters final for his first major trophy of the campaign. Sinner followed it up with more trophies from the Miami Open, Monte-Carlo Masters, Madrid Open, and the Italian Open, depriving the likes of Medvedev, Jiri Lehecka, Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, and Casper Ruud of pieces of silverware.
After winning the Italian Open last week in front of his home crowd, Sinner completed the full set of nine ATP 1000 titles, known as the “career Golden Masters,” making him only the second man in history, besides Novak Djokovic, to achieve the feat.
At 14,700 points, Sinner has a 2,740-point cushion over Alcaraz, and he can tack on more points with another deep run in Roland Garros. More importantly, he could take another giant step to tennis immortality in the next few weeks. If Sinner wins the French Open, it will leave him only an Olympic Gold medal away from completing the full house of tennis’ biggest individual prizes.
Alcaraz is among the stars who announced their withdrawal
Jannik Sinner’s biggest rival today, Carlos Alcaraz, will not be able to defend his Roland Garros crown, as the Spaniard ruled himself out due to the right wrist injury that has kept him out since the Barcelona Open. Besides Alcaraz, Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune, and Jack Draper are among the high-profile ATP stars who will join him on the sidelines, with Daniel Merida, Stan Wawrinka, Benjamin Bonzi, and Matteo Almadi as their replacements.
Alcaraz is a two-time French Open champion, as he won it in 2024 and 2025. Last year’s final with Sinner was one of the most epic tussles in recent history, as Alcaraz needed to save three match points to secure the win. The marathon contest lasted five hours and 29 minutes, and left SBOTOP tennis fans wanting more.
After winning the French Open, Alcaraz wrestled the world No. 1 spot back from Sinner by also winning his second US Open. He then won his maiden Australian Open title earlier this year, beating Novak Djokovic in the final, making him the youngest to complete the career Grand Slam at 22 years and 258 days.
For now, Alcaraz will use this time to recover ahead of the grass-court swing. There’s a chance he could play in either the HSBC Championships or the Terra Wortmann Open in June as a build-up to Wimbledon if his progress goes according to plan.
Zverev pulls out of home tournament to prepare
In other French Open 2026 news, Alexander Zverev confirmed that he has withdrawn from the Hamburg Open after a surprising Round of 16 exit from the Italian Open a couple of days earlier. On Tuesday, the German international opened a 6-1, 5-3 lead against Luciano Darderi, and it looked like he was on his way to securing a routine straight-set win. However, he failed to serve out for the match and blew four match points en route to suffering a shock loss.
After the second set, the three-time Grand Slam finalist appeared to struggle with a back problem. Zverev shared that his doctors advised him to skip his home tournament to focus on recovering for Roland Garros. The 29-year-old has yet to win a major title this season, and he has Jannik Sinner to blame for beating him in the Madrid Open final two weeks ago.
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