After a breakthrough 2025 clay season, Lorenzo Musetti faces a setback that will keep him off the Roland Garros entry list. The Italian, who reached his first ATP Masters 1000 final in Monte Carlo and followed that with semifinal runs in Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros last year, announced he will be sidelined for several weeks with a rectus femoris injury.

Musetti looked compromised during his fourth-round match against Casper Ruud at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, taking a medical timeout after dropping the first set. He had arrived on court with his left quad area wrapped for a third straight match and finished the contest with Ruud in an eventual 6-3, 6-1 defeat.

“After yesterday’s match, I underwent medical examinations which revealed a rectus femoris injury, requiring several weeks of rest and recovery. Unfortunately, this means I won’t be able to compete in Hamburg and Roland Garros — news that is incredibly hard to take,” he wrote in an update published Wednesday.

He also acknowledged the support he received in Rome. “A huge thank you to the Rome crowd for your incredible support: that’s exactly why, despite not being 100%, I chose to step on court and give everything I had in my home tournament. I’ll keep you updated,” he added.

The injury follows a separate issue earlier this season. In the Australian Open quarterfinals, Musetti retired with a two-set lead against Novak Djokovic after his right adductor flared up. With his withdrawal from Paris, half of last year’s Roland Garros semifinalists will be absent from the draw; reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz had already ruled himself out to manage a right wrist injury.

Musetti is currently listed at world No. 11. The Italian’s decision to play in Rome despite physical limitations underscored both his commitment to his home event and the toll that recurring physical problems have taken on his 2026 campaign. The team will aim for a conservative recovery timeline over the coming weeks.

Three long-serving ATP figures arrive at Roland Garros under the pallor of endings rather than beginnings. David Goffin, Gaël Monfils and Stan Wawrinka each head into what may be their final French Open appearances, and the tournament will mark the close of distinct careers that have shaped the last decade and more.

David Goffin, 35, remains prized for a crafty, silken style that earned him the nickname “the magician.” A former world No. 7, a three-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist and a six-time tour titlist, Goffin built a reputation as a Davis Cup standout with a 29-6 record and singles wins over Marin Cilic, Nick Kyrgios and Jo Wilfried Tsonga. His breakout Paris run came as a 21-year-old lucky loser in 2012, when he took a set from Roger Federer and advanced to the fourth round after slipping into the draw when Gael Monfils withdrew. Now ranked No. 236, Goffin is on an undeclared retirement tour, seeking entry via qualifying or a wild card. “I would have liked to continue for a few more years, but it’s complicated… I realized it was the moment (to retire) for me. I didn’t feel good anymore, and once you realize that, making the decision is easy.” He added, “There is something inside that it’s released, and I like what I feel.”

Gaël Monfils, 39, will arrive as the showman and a national icon. A two-time Grand Slam semifinalist, Monfils has collected 13 Tour-level titles and reached a career-high No. 6 in November 2016. His Roland Garros highlights include a 2008 semifinal and a five-set 2014 quarterfinal against Andy Murray that finished late in darkness. Ranked No. 200 on May 1, Monfils is expected to receive a wild card. After falling out of the top 50 at the end of 2024, he stunned by winning Auckland in 2025, becoming the oldest ATP player to claim a tour-level title since Ken Rosewall 46 years earlier. His wife, Elina Svitolina, posted a photo of Monfils eating borsh with the caption, “Powered by Borsch.”

Stan Wawrinka, 41, leaves as one of the game’s great romantics and a three-time Grand Slam champion, including Roland Garros in 2015. He has said, “The Big Four, I’m really far from them. Just look at the tournament they won, how many years they’ve been there. . . How many Masters 1000 (does) Murray have? They have been there since ten years. They have not only been winning, but being in the semifinal, final every time. That’s why I’m not there. I don’t want to be there. For me, there is no question about that. But I’m trying the best I can with my career.” After Monte Carlo he told reporters, “This was not my first warm-up, not my first practice, the repetition, sometimes the traveling… Of course I could talk a lot about all these aspects, but at the end of the day, being a tennis player, it’s a chance. It’s something amazing… I always dreamed about that. I’m 41 and I’m still doing it because I enjoy that. It’s not easy to keep pushing myself, but at the end of the day, I love it. So I’m okay with everything.”

Their departures will be observed keenly in Paris, where each has left an unmistakable imprint on the clay.

With Carlos Alcaraz out of Roland Garros because of a right wrist injury, a contest in Rome had been shaping up to decide who would sit behind world No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the Paris draw. With Jannik Sinner as the No. 1 seed, of course.

That fight is effectively settled. Alexander Zverev is now guaranteed to remain world No. 3, according to the ATP’s official live rankings, regardless of the remainder of the Italian Open. Because Roland Garros seedings are determined from the post-Rome rankings, that guarantee projects Zverev to be the No. 2 seed in Paris this year.

Novak Djokovic had been the only player able to overtake Zverev in Rome, but he required the title to do so. Djokovic lost his opening match at the Masters 1000 event to Dino Prizmic on Friday, removing that possibility.

Being the No. 2 seed carries a clear competitive advantage: that player cannot meet the No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner until the final. Given Sinner’s recent run of form — he has won the last five Masters 1000 events in a row, including clay titles in Monte Carlo and Madrid — occupying the opposite side of the draw is significant.

Djokovic remains projected as either the No. 3 or No. 4 seed in Paris, depending on how Rome finishes. Ben Shelton and Felix Auger-Aliassime, currently Nos. 5 and 6, can each move past Djokovic for the No. 4 ranking only by winning the Rome title. Because they are placed in the same half of that draw, both cannot reach the final, so only one could achieve the jump.

That scenario means Djokovic will be among the top four seeds in Paris and will avoid Sinner and Zverev until at least the semifinals. The No. 3 and No. 4 seeds are then randomly placed in either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed’s half at tour-level events.

For Zverev, this would be his third time seeded No. 2 at a Grand Slam, after Roland Garros in 2018 and the Australian Open in 2025. In Paris in 2018 he reached the quarterfinals before losing to No. 7 seed and eventual runner-up Dominic Thiem, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1. In Melbourne last year he advanced to the final before falling to No. 1 seed Sinner, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3.