Thoughts on Roland Garros 2025

A men’s final for the ages, Coco’s endurance, Boisson’s breakthrough and lots more in my recap of the tournament

By Stephen Higgins | 9th June 2025

A tennis landmark for Gen Z

For so long, we have recounted the mammoth six-hour epic between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic at the 2012 Australian Open. It set a new standard for endurance and laid down a marker to the rest of the field of what’s required to beat the very best at the majors.

As we saw, the field could not meet the mark for the majority of the time. Between the 2003 Australian Open and Roland Garros 2025, only nine of the 89 grand slam finals DID NOT feature a member of the Big Four. 33 of those finals solely featured rivals from the group.

Well now we’ve had our first major final with the Big Two and did they ever deliver on the promise.

Over five-and-a-half hours, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner threw everything at each other and I can’t remember a match with so many twists. There were two clear sections where you felt that Sinner, and then Alcaraz, were set to win before it shifted again.

While it’s a cliche to suggest that there shouldn’t really be a loser from such a contest, it seems entirely apt for this match. For a large part of the match, Sinner was awesome and nullified Alcaraz’s more expansive game with his outrageous power and solidity.

Then, towards the midpoint, the Spaniard’s game settled just as the Italian showed some vulnerability, and the match turned. But, as befits a world no.1 and great champion, Sinner battled back in the fifth set to force greatness from Alcaraz.

Finally, the showpiece was decided by a tie-break of astonishing skill and nerve as Carlitos ascended to the heavens and left Sinner in his wake.

For Alcaraz, it meant a fifth major title and his first victory from two sets down. As for the Italian, it’s his first loss in a major final and stopped a potential ‘Sinner Slam’ as he currently holds both US and Australian Opens.

But more important than those bare statistics, Alcaraz and Sinner have set a landmark for their own generation. This is the standard required by the field to beat the top two in a major. I don’t envy their task.

Allez Coco!

Look, I just think Coco is great.

There’s so much to admire about a 21-year-old who is incredibly gifted in certain departments, but still has to manage her (relative) flaws. Coco is not wildly dissimilar to Andy Murray in that she can always rely on supernatural movement and a rock solid backhand, but needs to manage her forehand and second serve.

But despite the technical issues, coverage, and the ridiculous desire from certain quarters for her to be the next Serena, she just keeps going. The final was a perfect case in point.

As the world no.1 oscillated between fierce groundstrokes and strange errors, not to mention the fluctuations in mood, Gauff was ultra focused. She managed her own game, and the high stakes setting, perfectly. She is a superb player and already half way towards a career grand slam too.

Allez Coco indeed.

Djokovic continues on his terms

With the manner of his farewell to the crowd after the semi-final, I think it’s more likely than not that Novak Djokovic will depart the tour after this season. However, recent weeks have shown that he can still compete at a very high level.

Before Geneva, the 24-time champion looked listless and it was sad to see an all-time great struggle to win matches. Since that 100th title however, the 38-year-old looks renewed and cruised through the event before Sinner overwhelmed him.

Depending on the draw, Djokovic will fancy a good crack at SW19 now.

Sabalenka lets it all out

Unfortunately for both competitors, it seems that Aryna Sabalenka’s searingly honest post-match comments have somewhat overshadowed Gauff’s victory.

That said, don’t we yearn for athletes to actually share their thoughts? I’ve worked in media for a while now, and one of the biggest frustrations for journalists is that high level athletes are unavailable, and guarded when they surface.

Aryna probably shouldn’t have used that phrasing, but let’s be honest - the world no.1 played very badly given the level that we know she can reach. I was surprised at how she struggled with all the success she has enjoyed in recent years. One can also reasonably argue that the American disrupted the Belarusian’s game, and took advantage of the blustery conditions.

Maybe all those points are true simultaneously, and maybe we can move on from the faux online outrage given the very real nightmares taking place across the globe.

Continued pain for the baguette generation

Charlie Eccleshare in The Athletic had a good piece during the tournament about the ‘sandwich generation’ in men’s tennis.

They are men such as Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tstisipas, Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev, who were always in the shadow of the Big Four and have now been outflanked by Alcaraz and Sinner. Of that group, only Zverev made the last eight in Paris before his seemingly inevitable loss to Djokovic.

They probably won’t feel better about things today after watching the world’s top two reach an interstellar level of tennis during yesterday’s epic. Not only that, but Jack Draper, Lorenzo Musetti and Holger Rune are fighting hard for the rung just below the top two. I also think we can expect great things from 18-year-old Joao Fonseca in time.

Daniil Medvevev won the US Open in 2021. Is he set to be the last men’s major champion born in the 1990s?

Iga needs new ideas

While there was definitely an improvement in Iga Swiatek’s game this fortnight, that semi-final loss to Sabalenka will sting mightily.

For most of the match, she was overwhelmed by the Belarusian’s power and was dismissed in the final set. It wasn’t the performance you would expect from the four-time champion on her adopted soil.

The Pole has now gone a full year without reaching a tour final, let alone winning a title. For this writer, it still looks as if her game has stagnated.

While Sabalenka has added some variety to her arsenal in recent years, Iga still looks the same as a couple of years ago but with much less confidence. I do think, given her exceptional forehand, a backhand slice that could disrupt big hitters and potentially offer short balls to exploit, is worth exploring.

A toast to Boisson

We are so used to the gargantuan sums atop the professional game that you can lose sight of the struggle most have to make a living in tennis. Remember that if you are outside the top 100, balancing the books will be a challenge.

Before Roland Garros, Lois Boisson was much further down, 361st in the world to be precise with career earnings of $148,000. The 22-year-old wildcard then took the tournament by storm, eventually dispatching three seeds in Elise Mertens, Jessie Pegula and Mirra Andreeva.

Beyond the results though, Boisson’s game is so wonderfully stylish. She has perfect weaponry for the clay with the shape on her forehand, solid backhand and exceptional movement. Let’s hope the Frenchwoman, now $789,000 richer, can push her career on now.

TNT was…fine

This was the first outing for Roland Garros on TNT and I found their coverage to be a mixed bag, with the arrow trending positive by the end.

Their broadcast was centred around Laura Robson in a full-time presenter role alongside Tim Henman as pundit. While I like both of them, it’s quite an Anglo-centric team for the most flamboyantly European tournament on the calendar.

Thankfully, as the tournament wore on, we saw more of Mats Wilander, Chris Evert, Jim Courier and Alex Corretja. It was great to see the peerless Mark Petchey analysing the men’s final. While the broadcast definitely improved over the fortnight, I still miss Eurosport’s coverage and much more reasonable subscription option.

A trend I’ve noticed in recent times is for tennis broadcasters to use the same presenters and pundits across the whole tour. I’m not sure this is wise. Apart from the issue of hearing the same points of view repeatedly, you also lose the exoticism of these very different events. I like hearing different voices on different surfaces. Roland Garros asks different questions of players and fans than Wimbledon. It’s ok for the broadcasting to reflect that.

Farewell Rafa, and thank you

While we rightly celebrate the generational landmark of Sunday, let’s not leave without heralding the previous one.

On the opening day, the tournament paid tribute to 14-time champion Rafael Nadal in an emotional and well rounded ceremony. I was wandering about the campus with my cousin as it was hard to decipher when it would start. Then, when it appeared on the screen affixed to Court Suzanne Lenglen, we stopped and paid tribute.

While the decision to place a permanent marker - featuring the Spaniard’s footprint - on Chatrier was full of class, I was surprisingly giddy at another reunion of the Big Four.

There is something so unique about the era we just witnessed. Three men took the sport to new heights over the course of two decades, and a fourth became an admirable foil for the trio and an all-time great in his own right.

At Roland Garros, they were all there to celebrate the achievements of one. Think of all the pain suffered by Djokovic, Federer and Murray at the hands of Nadal in Paris, and now they pay tribute to him like the rest of us.

The more time I spend thinking about the Big Four and their rivalries and battles, the luckier I feel to have witnessed their greatness.

As for Rafa, I don't believe I will see another player so dominant at a grand slam in my lifetime.

Gracias señor Roland Garros.