Thursday’s official Roland Garros men’s draw placed Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic in opposite halves of the 128-player field, keeping alive the possibility of a final between the season’s most in-form players.

Djokovic landed in the same half as second-seeded Alexander Zverev. The fourth seed, Felix Auger-Aliassime, shares Sinner’s side, while fifth seed Ben Shelton is projected as Sinner’s quarterfinal opponent. The top three seeds all open against French hopefuls.

Sinner enters Paris on the back of an exceptional clay run, having swept the three ATP Masters 1000 titles in Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome after completing the Sunshine Double. The 24-year-old is on a career-best 29-match winning streak and opens his campaign against wild card Clement Tabur.

As he pursues a Career Grand Slam this year following Carlos Alcaraz, who denied him three championship points in last year’s epic final but is currently sidelined with a wrist injury, Sinner remains the tournament favorite on form. Djokovic, a three-time champion here, is chasing an all-time record 25th major and was one of only two men to beat Sinner this season with his Australian Open semifinal victory. The three-time champion fell to Sinner in the semifinal here a year ago.

Djokovic’s section begins with Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. Joao Fonseca is the first seeded opponent the soon-to-be 39-year-old could face, while Dino Prizmic looms as a third-round possibility. Two-time runner-up Casper Ruud is also present in that side of the draw.

Zverev’s quarter is loaded with home hopefuls; he starts with Benjamin Bonzi and faces a 75 percent chance of meeting a Frenchman in the third round if he advances. One of the draw’s most striking matches pairs No. 17 seed Arthur Fils against 2015 title holder Stan Wawrinka, who is making his final appearance.

Also marking a farewell is Gael Monfils, who meets wild card Hugo Gaston in his 19th main draw. He will first host a special “Gael & Friends” event Thursday evening on Court Philippe Chatrier. Djokovic and Sinner are among the expected participants.

Felix Auger-Aliassime is celebrating his 100th career week inside the ATP Top 10 as the clay-court major approaches. The Canadian has reached the milestone in four separate stints: November 15th to 21st, 2001 (one week), January 10th to September 11th, 2022 (35 weeks), October 17th, 2022 to June 11th, 2023 (34 weeks) and October 27th, 2025 to present (30 weeks and counting).

Auger-Aliassime is currently at his career-high ranking of No. 5 and joins a small group of players born in the 2000s to accumulate triple-digit weeks in the elite. The draft notes he reached the mark “after exactly who you’re thinking.”

The milestone places him among the longest-serving Canadians to reach the Top 10. He becomes the second Canadian to log that many weeks at the top of the rankings, following Milos Raonic, who spent 151 weeks in the Top 10 across the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons. Denis Shapovalov is the only other Canadian to have reached the ATP Top 10, spending 10 weeks there across 2020 and 2021.

The pattern of Auger-Aliassime’s tenure in the Top 10—multiple returns to the group rather than a single continuous stretch—highlights his resilience and consistency at the highest level. As Roland Garros nears, the 100-week marker is a reminder of his standing on the ATP Tour and of the depth of Canadian men’s tennis in this period.

One-Slam Wonder is a label that can both honor an unlikely peak and suggest it will remain unique. Roland Garros 2026 will feature 10 one-time major champions in the draw — two men and eight women — and each arrives with a realistic route to chase a second Grand Slam.

On the men’s side Daniil Medvedev and Marin Cilic present contrasting cases. Medvedev’s consistency is underlined by 43 tour finals, yet clay has been a clear obstacle: he failed to win a match at Roland Garros in his first four attempts (2017-2020) and advanced as far as the quarterfinals only once, where he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas. Last year Medvedev changed his strings during his first-round clash with Cameron Norrie, hoping to find better feel. “This one (tournament) is so different from Rome and Madrid,” he told reporters after the match. “The clay, the balls, like, everything. I had one week here (in Paris). I didn’t find anything that worked well. So during the match, I had to change something when I was losing. It actually worked. Unfortunately I didn’t win.” After mounting a furious comeback he lost a long fifth set.

Cilic offers the deeper Paris résumé. He beat Medvedev in the 2022 fourth round in straight sets and posted his best Roland Garros showing with a semifinal loss to Casper Ruud. Serious knee problems soon forced him off the tour. At 6-foot-6 his forehand is massive; his serve carried him to four Wimbledon quarterfinals and a 2016 championship match, a loss to Roger Federer. Cilic joined then-coach Goran Ivanisevic as the second Croatian man to win a major singles title.

The women’s one-time champions in Paris are Caroline Wozniacki, Madison Keys, Marketa Vondrousova, Emma Raducanu, Sofia Kenin, Bianca Andreescu, Sloane Stephens and Jelena Ostapenko. Wozniacki, the 2018 Australian Open champion, has three children, has worked as a broadcast analyst and retains a “protected ranking” (No. 71, based on her position when she stopped competing in 2024); direct entry is unlikely. Keys finally won a major in 2025 after a career that began with an Australian Open semifinal at 19 and includes 11 quarterfinals or better, five semifinals and a 2015 US Open final. Vondrousova won her first main tour title at Biel-Bienne at 17 and, as Mats Wilander has said, she has “the best hands in the women’s game.” Injuries, surgeries and other interruptions leave several participations uncertain, but Paris gives every one-time champion a clear chance to enlarge a solitary major into a broader legacy.