Sinner returns to the scene of his Roland-Garros heartbreak with a clean first-round dismantling of Tabur
Jannik Sinner returned to Court Philippe-Chatrier — the court where he lost the 2025 final to Alcaraz from three championship points up — and beat Clément Tabur 6-1, 6-3, 6-4. 30 in a row. 18-0 on clay in 2026. Six Masters 1000 titles in a row. No break points faced. The world No. 1 chasing the career Grand Slam, against a draw that has just lost Alcaraz to injury.
Jannik Sinner, Roland-Garros 2026 | © JB Autissier / PsNewz
Jannik Sinner, returning to Court Philippe-Chatrier eleven months after letting three championship points slip against Carlos Alcaraz in the longest French Open final of the Open Era, opened his 2026 campaign with the kind of performance that explained why he is the overwhelming favourite to lift the only trophy missing from his collection. The world No. 1 beat French wild card Clément Tabur 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday evening, his 30th consecutive win on tour and his 18th in a row on clay this season.
The 24-year-old Italian did not face a single break point in three sets. He won every one of his 13 service games, hit 40 winners to Tabur’s 20, and broke five times in 13 chances of his own. Tabur, a 26-year-old French wild card at a career-high ranking of No. 165, was as competitive as a player ranked 170 places below the world No. 1 can reasonably be on a hot Paris evening. He won 62 per cent of his own service games and made Sinner work for the third set. None of it changed the trajectory.
The match was the latest stop on a stretch of tennis that has begun to feel historically loaded. Sinner has won 30 matches in a row, dropping only three sets across that span. He arrived in Paris off a sixth consecutive ATP Masters 1000 title, a record no man has ever held, and the youngest player in history to complete the Career Golden Masters, having now won all nine Masters 1000 events at least once. He is 18-0 on clay in 2026 and 52-2 across the last 12 months.
What is missing is the only major he has not won. Sinner holds four Grand Slam titles — the 2024 US Open, the 2024 and 2025 Australian Opens, Wimbledon 2025. Roland-Garros is the trophy his career résumé does not yet carry, and the absence has weight. With two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz absent through a right wrist injury, the path he could not navigate a year ago is suddenly clear of his most difficult opponent.
He will face Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the second round.
