Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek have won the men's and women's tournaments, respectively, at the 2024 French Open, better known as Roland Garros 2024. The Spaniard and the Polish player emerged victorious in the second Grand Slam of the year, which, as always, was packed with exciting matches. Alcaraz proved too strong for Alexander Zverev in the final, while Swiatek surprisingly faced Jasmine Paolini in the final. Tallon Griekspoor had made the furthest run of any Dutch player at Roland Garros, but he was eliminated in the third round.
Nadal's comeback ends quickly
When the Roland Garros schedule was first announced, many eyes were on Rafael Nadal. However, the Spaniard, who had fourteen victories on the clay courts of Paris, didn't make the draw, and his tournament ended after just three sets. Zverev proved too strong for Nadal, who had to miss last year due to injury. Roland Garros 2024 also didn't last long for Botic van de Zandschulp. The Dutchman had to make way for clay-court champion Fabio Fognini.
While Tallon Griekspoor and Arantxa Rus (against Mackenzie McDonald and Angelique Kerber, respectively) managed to win their first round matches, it was Jesper de Jong who pulled off the biggest upset for the Netherlands in the first round. De Jong had advanced to the main draw through qualifying and surprisingly defeated Jack Draper, who was ranked over a hundred places higher. In the second round, it was all over for both De Jong and Rus. Despite their tough draws, both Dutchmen put up a good fight against Alcaraz and Elena Rybakina, respectively, but ultimately lost.
Swiatek narrowly avoids early elimination
While the first round of the women's tournament saw virtually no surprises, the second round certainly did. Daria Kasatkina, Jelena Ostapenko, and Maria Sakkari, among others, all fell, while Naomi Osaka came close to pulling off the biggest upset of all. The Japanese former world number one had a match point in her duel with Šwiatek, but the Polish player turned the match around just in time and managed to advance to the third round of Roland Garros 2024.
Of the "Roland Garros Dutchmen," Griekspoor was the only one to reach the third round. His impressive straight-sets victory over Luciano Darderi in the second round earned him a place against Zverev. And how: our compatriot nearly brought Zverev to his knees, but after trailing by two breaks in the deciding set, the German turned the tide and eliminated Griekspoor. Novak Djokovic also had a good start at this stage of the tournament. Djokovic, who won Roland Garros last year, only just managed to finish the nearly five-hour marathon match against Lorenzo Musetti.
Djokovic's new final victory cancelled due to injury
The match that followed also went anything but smoothly for the Serbian. Francisco Cerundolo proved a tough customer in the round of 16, only being sidelined after five sets. A day later, news broke that this round of 16 was Djokovic's last match at this year's Roland Garros. A knee injury hampered him, allowing Norwegian Casper Ruud to advance to the semifinals via a walkover , while Jannik Sinner simultaneously became the new leader in the ATP Rankings . Ruud was joined in this phase of the tournament by Zverev, who defeated Alex de Minaur in three sets, and Alcaraz and Sinner. They had been too strong for Stefanos Tsitsipas and Grigor Dimitrov, respectively, in their quarterfinals at Roland Garros 2024 (both 3-0).
The women's tournament featured many familiar names in the quarterfinals. Swiatek, for example, easily defeated Marketa Vondrousova, and Coco Gauff continued her winning streak against Ons Jabeur. The other two matches resulted in two upsets: Paolini pulled off an upset against the fourth-seeded Rybakina, and Mirra Andreeva kept Aryna Sabalenka from reaching the semifinals. Interestingly, Andreeva only turned 17 in April (!). Incidentally, she failed to secure a spot in the subsequent Roland Garros semifinal, as Paolini was too strong in straight sets. Because Swiatek managed a relatively easy victory over Gauff, the final of the Roland Garros women's tournament was between Swiatek and Paolini.
Swiatek superior, fine comeback Alcaraz in Roland Garros final
In that final, Swiatek also proved supreme. The Polish player once again demonstrated why she is the rightful world number one , winning the Roland Garros final 6-2/6-1 against her Italian opponent. The men's final, however, did not feature an Italian player. After a brilliant battle with Alcaraz, Sinner had to bow to his Spanish opponent (3-2), who faced Zverev in the French Open final. The German did lose the first set to Casper Ruud, but was then unchallenged (3-1), meaning the final was between Zverev and Alcaraz.
The Roland Garros final remained close for a long time. While Alcaraz took the first set, Zverev swept the second and third sets, seemingly cruising to his first-ever Grand Slam title. Alcaraz, however, had other ideas. The still-only 21-year-old top talent repeated the same trick he had against Sinner, completely turning the match around by winning the fourth and fifth sets, and thus the match itself. He thus became the Roland Garros champion and, after the US Open (2022) and Wimbledon (2023), already notched his third Grand Slam title of his career.
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