Even by Grand Slam standards, the 2026 French Open has thrown up more than its fair share of surprises.
From the early rounds through to the final stages, top seeds have fallen across both draws, leaving the tournaments wide open.
Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic exited in rounds two and three, respectively, while Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina didn’t make it past round four on the women’s side.
Those early exits paved the way for new faces to lift Grand Slam trophies in both singles competitions.
But according to former American players Sam Querrey and John Isner, the latter stages of the tournament haven’t quite lived up to expectations in terms of quality.
Sam Querrey and John Isner give their thoughts on the 2026 French Open
Speaking on the ‘Nothing Major’ podcast, Querrey remarked: “I want to talk bigger picture about Roland Garros.
“As exciting as week one was with the Sinner match, the Djokovic vs Fonseca match. People always love the upsets until what comes the other side of an upset. The last two days sucked.
“These matches were not that exciting. Not that we did not have exciting players, but the tournament has just not been that fun the last three days.”
Isner responded: “The weather has not made for good tennis. It has just been kind of ugly and choppy out there and the matches have kind of sucked.
“As far as Grand Slam and late in Grand Slam matches can go, these guys and women are incredible, but it’s not what we are accustomed to seeing in the last 10 Grand Slams or something! The matches were not drama-filled.”
Men’s Roland Garros final to break new ground
Since 2005, men’s singles Grand Slams have been dominated by the ‘big three’ of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic, as well as the ‘new two’ of Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
From the 2005 French Open through to today, only six others have managed to win a major: Juan Martin del Potro, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Marin Cilic, Dominic Thiem and Daniil Medvedev.
The seventh player will soon be confirmed with either Alexander Zverev or Flavio Cobolli set to join that list. Zverev has come up short in each of his three previous appearances in major finals, the most recent of which came at the 2025 Australian Open.
Cobolli is making his first appearance in a Grand Slam final. His best result before this was reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon last year.
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