STARNBERG, March 15, 2022 (Guest Post)

All the major tennis tournaments capture the hearts and minds of tennis fans, in part because they’re all so different. After all, there’s a world of difference between The Australian Open and Wimbledon. And there’s arguably an even bigger chasm between The French Open and all the other majors. After all, this is the only one of four major tournaments that use a clay surface. Anyone who plays tennis will know just how much that affects play.

There have now been 125 editions of the French Open, but its popularity shows no signs of waning. And with excitement surrounding the 126th edition beginning to ramp up, we thought we’d take this opportunity to cast our minds forward and run through everything you need to know about the second major tournament of the year.

The Key Details

First things first: when will the 2022 French Open take place? As always, the action will commence in late May. The tournament will get underway on Sunday, May 22, and wrap up two weeks later, on Sunday, June 5. It’ll take place in the Stade Roland-Garros, a huge tennis complex in Paris that’s home to some twenty courts and three large-capacity stadiums. And if you’re wondering where you’ve seen the name Roland Garros before: that’s the official name of the French Open. People just tend to call it The French Open because it’s easier.

What Happened Last Time?

History tends to repeat itself at The French Open, so let’s take a look at what happened in the 2021 edition. The most notable victory (aside from the finals) was the defeat of Rafael Nadal by Novak Djokovic. The epic semi-final saw the Serbian beat the Spanish in four sets.

And if you beat Nadal at the French Open, you’ll surely go on to win the tournament. And that’s just what happened, though it very nearly didn’t. Đjokovic’s opponent, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, took the first two sets before Djokovic rallied to win three in a row and claim his second career Grand Slam.

The women’s winner, Barbora Krejčíková, also faced her own uphill battle on the way to victory. She became only the third woman to lift the French Open after saving a match point, which she did in her semi-final match against Maria Sakkari. In the final, Krejčíková defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in three sets. It was her first major victory in the singles competition, though she had previously won seven others in doubles competition.

Potential Winners

So who’s looking good for the men’s title? It’s hard to look past Rafael Nadal, who has won this competition a staggering thirteen times. That’s a record that is highly unlikely ever to be broken. However, that doesn’t mean Nadal will have everything his own way. There’ll be plenty of people making Unibet tennis bets to back Novak Djokovic to lift the trophy. He has experience, after all, having won it twice already (including last year) and will have extra motivation to win after Nadal pulled one ahead in the list of most Grand Slam victories.

And in the women’s competition? The field is a little more open than the men’s. You can be reasonably sure that either Nadal or Djokovic will be in the men’s final, but in the women’s, it could be two of a group of six players or so. Reigning champion Barbora Krejčíková is in with a chance, but it’s more likely that Iga Swiatek, Ashleigh Barty, or Simona Halep will lift the trophy. Barty, in particular, is looking good, having won the Australian Open. Aged only 25, she’ll be determined to increase the number of majors in her cabinet, and the openness of this year’s competition means she’s got a great chance.

And there we have it! After the French Open, we’ll have Wimbledon and The US Open at the beginning and end of summer, respectively. All in all, we can be sure that there’s plenty of great tennis to come this ye