Arthur Fils has withdrawn from Roland Garros and will not play his scheduled first-round match against Stan Wawrinka. The French Tennis Federation listed “an injury” as the reason for the withdrawal, removing a seeded player from the men’s draw.

Fils had earlier retired four games into his Rome opener against Andrea Pellegrino because of a hip issue. He had offered an optimistic update on social media shortly afterward: “Felt something during the match in Rome,” he wrote on X. “I ran all the tests with the team and everything is clear. Already back to work for Paris. Thanks for the messages.”

This is the second consecutive year that an injury has disrupted Fils’s campaign at his home major. A year ago he pushed through a second-round clash with Jaume Munar but sustained a stress fracture in his back that ultimately sidelined him for eight months.

The 21-year-old had staged a notable comeback this season after missing the Australian Open, advancing to the final in Doha and the semifinals in Miami. He also won in Barcelona and compiled nine consecutive clay wins, a run that included a deep showing in Madrid, where he reached the final four.

Organizers and fans will now adjust to the change in the draw following the seed’s late withdrawal. The development truncates a much-anticipated meeting with a former major champion and removes one of the young French players expected to feature on the clay at Roland Garros.

© 2026 Tim Clayton

Speaking in Paris on his 39th birthday, Novak Djokovic acknowledged a difficult spell with his body over recent months but said recent preparation has been encouraging as he arrives at Roland Garros chasing a record 25th Grand Slam.

He admitted he had endured “challenging times with [his] body through the last six to eight months.” The 24-time major champion reached the Australian Open final in January — upsetting Jannik Sinner in the semifinals before falling to Carlos Alcaraz — despite entering that tournament without match play.

Djokovic said the clay season offered little competition because of his physical issues. He had “played just one match during the clay-court season, and losing it,” and explained: “I wanted to play more, but my body was not allowing me,” adding, “I\] really wanted to go to Rome \[[where he was visibly ill in a loss to Dino Prizmic ] to give it a shot and try and see how I feel.”

He described needing that lone match as a way to feel match nerves before deciding whether he could play in Paris. “I was far from being ready to compete, but still, I needed at least that one match just to have the score called by chair umpire and have experience of the nerves before I eventually come to Roland Garros, which at that point I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play or not.

“Thankfully, the response of the body and the preparation has been positive in the last 10 days, so here I am, and we’ll see what happens.”

Placed in the bottom half of the draw for his 22nd Roland Garros appearance, Djokovic noted the absence of Carlos Alcaraz was unfortunate for the event but said it did not materially alter his approach: “Of course, you know, it’s a big blow for the tournament not to have him,” and “Whether that changes my approach to this tournament, I don’t think it does significantly change.”

On his priorities, he reiterated the focus on major events: “[I spent] lots of hours spent on the court and trying to perfect the game and the body and enable myself physically and game-wise to be ready for best-of-five,” he added. “Let’s see. I don’t know whether that’s going to be the case, you know, for the entire tournament, however long that tournament will be for me.

“Grand Slams have been, I mean, I have said this many times, always the priority list, particularly last couple of years. So I always try to aim to be at the peak of my own abilities to perform well in Grand Slams. So can’t wait to get on a court and start competing.”

Ben Shelton found himself in a blunt exchange with a visiting reporter during a Roland Garros press conference, after being asked about the upcoming World Cup. The U.S. is co-hosting the men’s World Cup with Canada and Mexico, the event returning to the United States for the first time since 1994. The American national side sits 16th in FIFA’s latest rankings.

A reporter opened with: “How invested will you be in that World Cup? The U.S. team looks really bad, so what do you think?” Shelton responded directly: ”Where are you from?” The journalist replied, “I’m from Austria. We look good. We look good, I can tell you that.” Shelton answered, “I don’t know anything about the Austrian football team.”

The back-and-forth continued: Journalist: “You should.” Shelton said, “I was thinking that at first you were French, and I would have given you that, because they’re very, very good. Now I’m, like, really, dude?

“I’ll probably be more invested in Wimbledon than the World Cup, but I’ll be watching, for sure.”

For context, Austria are 24th in the rankings and were drawn in the same World Cup group as defending champion Argentina, which is ranked third.

Shelton is also fielding questions about his tennis season. He is the top-ranked American in this year’s Roland Garros draw at No. 6, two spots ahead of Taylor Fritz. Last month he captured a 500-level title in Munich by defeating Flavio Cobolli. That success was followed by early exits at two Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Rome, and a loss to Daniel Altmaier in the second round at Hamburg.

On his form he said, “It’s been super up and down for me. Honestly I’ve been kind of disappointed in my season, and I’m sixth in the race,” he said. “But I think that that inconsistency has been a big piece for me that I’ve been trying to iron out and improve.

“I’m still not the player that I want to be, and I have a lot of work to do, but winning titles and going deep at slams is my biggest goals, for sure.”