“How many times do I have to say I play De Jong?”: at Roland-Garros, the elephant in the room is the open draw
The Roland-Garros men’s draw is wide open following the exits of Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner, setting the stage for a new Grand Slam champion. Players like Alexander Zverev downplay this unique opportunity, but Casper Ruud offers a more candid perspective on the situation. We asked the five biggest names left.
Alexander Zverev, Roland-Garros 2026 | © Action Plus / PsNewz
Alexander Zverev had been finishing late the other day, beating Quentin Halys in four. It was hours after João Fonseca had eliminated Novak Djokovic and left the men’s singles draw with no previous Grand Slam winner in it. Zverev came out and switched the press conference to a quick mixed-zone chat. When he realised he had to answer questions about Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic for ten minutes, he ran out of patience
“I don’t know how many more times I have to say this,” the German second seed said. “I’m playing Frankie de Jong. The rest doesn’t interest me.”
The chat kept circling the same point: the world No. 1 (Sinner) was out, the 24-time Grand Slam champion (Djokovic) was out, the No. 4 seed (Auger-Aliassime) was the only top-ten player left in the entire top half. Did Zverev, who has never won a Grand Slam title and has never hidden that winning one is his goal, see himself as a contender? “I have to concentrate on the things I can influence,” he said. “And those are my matches.”
Was a draw turned upside down a once-in-a-career opportunity? “It can only come into play in a week. Until then, I have to do my job well.” When the same question came back yet again at the end, he stopped pretending. “I’m playing Frankie de Jong next. He’s playing unbelievably good tennis here. That’s my focus.”
There will be a new Grand Slam champion in a week. Who he is, none of the players still in the draw will say.
Everyone thought Sinner would win this year’s Roland-Garros
Flavio Cobolli, the 10th seed and the second-highest seed left in the top half, gave the cheekiest version of the same refusal, with a smile. Asked if he was a contender, the Italian gestured at the journalist who had asked. “Ask him.” The room laughed. “I’m joking. Of course I want to think match by match.” He had just beaten Learner Tien 6-2 6-2 6-3 to reach his first Roland-Garros fourth round. Pressed a second time on whether the open draw made it harder to keep that focus, he came closer to honesty than any of the others.
“It’s not easy. You see the draw. You see all the matches. So we have a lot of time to see the other matches, and it’s not easy to stay match by match, but I try to do it.” The only thing he knew, he said, was that he had won three matches and had to play a fourth.
Félix Auger-Aliassime, the fourth seed and the highest-ranked man left in the top half, acknowledged the arithmetic. “Everyone thought he’d win this year’s Roland-Garros,” he said of Sinner. “It’s not going to be him. I guess that’s the beauty of sport.”
My mentality is always match by match. I could have lost today perfectly.
He was specific about the dishonest version of the answer he was refusing to give. “If you were in my place, you’d know it doesn’t change anything for me. I was looking at my third round, my fourth round, my quarter-final. I wasn’t going to play him before the semi-final. So first I have to get to the semi-final.”
Pressed further, he gave the most candid version any of them gave. “On paper, sure, it’s better. I’m not going to hide it. It’s better to play, I don’t know who, anyone else than Sinner. But I still have a lot of work to do before getting to the semi-final.” It starts on Saturday night against Brandon Nakashima.
The youngest of the men still standing in the top half offered something stranger. João Fonseca, having beaten Djokovic from two sets down on Friday night for the biggest win of his career, was asked the same question and did the same thing – until the last clause. “With Jannik and Djokovic out,” the 19-year-old said, “there’s more chances for the guys with more time on tour, like Sascha (Zverev), Caspe (Ruud), whoever.” Not him, not yet. Ruud is his fourth-round opponent.
Rafael Jódar, 19 and through to his own first Slam fourth round after a four-and-a-half-hour comeback against Alex Michelsen, was asked variations on the same question. He gave the same answer. “My mentality is always match by match. I could have lost today perfectly,” he said of his Michelsen match. He had been asked, separately, whether reaching the fourth round at his second Grand Slam was a particular pace – Alcaraz had taken four, Nadal five
“I try to follow my own path,” he said. “Doing it in the fourth round doesn’t mean I’ll do what they’ve done.”
That leaves Casper Ruud.
Ruud had just survived Tommy Paul 4-6 6-7 6-4 7-6 7-5 – won three of three break points, while Paul won two of fourteen – and walked into the press room after midnight having played the longest match of any of these men this week. The question came: now without Djokovic in his part of the draw, did he see himself as a tighter contender? Ruud, almost alone among them, did not flinch.
It is kind of refreshing, I guess, for everyone.
“It’s such an open tournament,” he said, “which is kind of refreshing, I guess, for everyone, and to see that there will be a new slam champion in about a week or so. I think every player is aware of it.” He named the favourites by name. “Obviously Novak and Jannik was one of the two highest favourites, and Jannik definitely the favourite. It will be interesting to see where we are in a week’s time.”
He named the experience he intended to draw on. “I’m going to try to use the experiences I’ve had of reaching far in slams to my advantage and see where that takes me.”
It was the line none of the other four had been willing to speak. The Norwegian, the only one of these men with two Roland-Garros finals on his record (2022, 2023), said straightforwardly that he intended to use what he knew. He still finished with the courtesies – Fonseca, his fourth-round opponent, was “a young special talent” who “knows what it takes” – but he had said the thing.
Of the five players left at the top of this draw, one of them named the elephant. Asked who he was playing next, Zverev had given the answer that says everything about why the other four could not. “I’m playing Frankie de Jong. The rest doesn’t interest me.” But it interests many people around.
