Key events
Alcaraz has taken his rugby top off now, and once again is wearing his white-and-black striped shirt with strips of blue – a horizontal version of Newcastle’s home shirt for next season, you could say. But I digress. What’s more of note is that Alcaraz breaks an error-strewn Marozsan to 15 in the opening game, before holding and then breaking the Hungarian again with a near-perfect point in which he plays with the lines before coming forward to settle matters at the net. Alcaraz leads 3-0 and they’ve only been going 10 minutes.
Tomorrow’s order of play is out – and it’s another men’s night match, as Jack Draper takes on Gael Monfils. It makes sense in many ways – Monfils is the home favourite, Draper is right in form, it could be one of the matches of the day – but it does mean a fifth straight day without a women’s match headlining.
I missed this earlier. Proof that Musetti is a fine man as well as a fine player:
Paolini’s win means that the defending champ Carlos Alcaraz, sporting his Nike-issued rugby shirt and a mid-tournament footballer’s fade haircut, is stepping on to Chatrier, along with Fabian Marozsan. The Hungarian has actually beaten Alcaraz before, but that was at the Italian Open in 2023. Alcaraz has won four slams since. Expect something of a drop-shot-off; for both players it’s one of their favourite shots.
Ruud has a 5-2 lead in the opening set of that match, as the 7th seed seeks to go one better than in 2022 and 2023, when he lost in the final. The Norwegian spoke to our tennis correspondent, Tumaini Carayol, last week about how he sought help from a psychologist last month after feeling mentally burnt out – “I felt a bit like I was running in a hamster wheel that never got anywhere,” he said – you can read the rest here.
Alexei Popyrin is through with a 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo. Next up for the Australian is the winner of Casper Ruud v Nuno Borges.
Paolini – with a smile nearly as wide as the court, as always – talks about how she feels at home playing on Chatrier now after her run to the final last year and the Olympics. She says she was happy to avoid the showers and play under the roof. “I’m ready,” she declares when asked about the next round, where she’ll have a very winnable match against the lucky loser Yuliia Starodubtseva or Anastasia Potapova.
Paolini beats Tomljanovic 6-3, 6-3
Chatrier may still be barely half-full, but there’s a roof-raising cheer as Paolini fizzes away a forehand cross-court winner that helps her hold serve for 6-3, 5-3. Tremendous counterpunching, that. And some more high-energy hussle gets Paolini to 15-30 on Tomljanovic’s serve. Paolini then strides forward to bury the short ball. 15-40, two match points. And Paolini dismisses a weak second serve with another forehand strike! The Italian has continued her form from her home win in Rome this month and is into round three.
Looking at his draw, next it’ll be either Reilly Opelka or Mariano Navone, followed by most likely Holger Rune in the fourth round. Musetti was seeded to meet Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals, but Fritz’s first-round exit means the Italian is the player to beat in this quarter and he could well go all the way to a semi-final against Carlos Alcaraz.
“It’s been a tremendous clay season so far but the ambition is higher,” Musetti says when asked on court about reaching a career-high of No 7 in the world rankings. “Here I’ve never reached more than the fourth round, hopefully this will be the year.” About 1,000 fans then descend on him for an autograph as he walks off court. He’s so popular here – and everywhere else too.
Musetti beats Galan 6-4, 6-0, 6-4
Musetti and Galan are back out, and Musetti is serving for the match at 6-4, 6-0, 5-4. The Italian’s in superb from on clay, having reached the Monte Carlo Masters final, along with the semi-finals in Madrid and Rome, and he’s looking good for a deep run here as he brings up two match points in style. He seals it with an ace down the T.
An inopportune intervention from above, as rain stops play with Musetti one game from the win against Galan, but they’re still going on Philippe Chatrier, under the roof, where Paolini is moving closer to victory, leading Tomljanovic 6-3, 3-1.
Alexei Popyrin looks bound for the third round too: the Australian leads Alejandro Tabilo 7-5, 6-3, 3-2. Daniel Altmaier has been pulled back to one set all against Vit Kopriva, while Reilly Opelka, the tallest man in tennis at 6ft11in, isn’t standing so stall right now, as the American’s conceded the first set 6-1 against Argentina’s Mariano Navone.
After Paolini’s and Musetti’s breakout seasons last year – Paolini’s at the age of 28, Musetti’s at the more conventional age of 22 – both Italians are expected to deliver now, and today they’re doing so with relative ease. Paolini has a 6-3, 2-0 grip on her match with Tomljanovic, while Musetti is serving at 6-4, 6-0, 4-3, with the break.
Zheng beats Arango 6-2, 6-3
It’s a case of third time lucky for Zheng, as Arango’s resistance eventually ends when the Colombian hits long. The Olympic champion is through, but it wasn’t as easy as the scoreline suggests. The 8th seed showed flashes of form, but it was messy at times too. If she can find more consistency she can be a contender – her gold medal at Roland Garros last year shows that – but she could face Aryna Sabalenka in the quarter-finals.
Zheng is serving for the match at 6-2, 5-3. Paolini is about to serve for the first set at 5-3. Zheng looks like she’s going to get the job done first, putting away the volley when under pressure at 15-30, before an unreturned serve makes it match point. Zheng’s backhand lands just out – but from deuce another winning volley secures a second match point. Which she also fails to take – just as Paolini pings a backhand winner for a 6-3 lead against Tomljanovic.
Zheng is closing in on victory, leading Arango 6-2, 5-2. But the Olympic champion should be warned: Victoria Mboko is waiting in round three. On her grand slam debut, Mboko has beaten Germany’s Eva Lys 6-4, 6-4, for her 39th win this season. What a breakthrough year this is turning out to be for the 18-year-old qualifier from Canada.
Musetti’s purple patch continues. He leads 6-4, 6-0. And then somehow produces a ridiculous passing winner off a smash! He had no right to win that point. It gives him two break points in the first game of the third set. He tries to repeat the trick on the next point but nets. And Galan gets to deuce. After another couple of deuces the Colombian stops the rot with a hold.
Tomljanovic said before this match that she’d need to play the same way as she did in her all-Australian tussle with Maya Joint in the first round, attacking on the front foot, because she sees a lot of similarities between Joint and Paolini. But Paolini’s court coverage and guile gives the Italian an early break, as she comes to the net to bring up 30-40 and then hits into the open court to take the game after a well-constructed point. Paolini breaks for 2-1.
Musetti has put the afterburners on in the second set against Galan, leading 6-4, 5-0 and just about to serve for the set. Meanwhile on Philippe Chatrier, another fine Italian is under way, with Jasmine Paolini, last year’s runner-up to Iga Swiatek, level at one game all against Ajla Tomljanovic, the 32-year-old Australian.
After Sonay Kartal’s victory yesterday – along with wins for Jack Draper and Cameron Norrie – helped ensure that Britain had six first-round winners at Roland Garros for the first time since 1973, Kartal is in doubles action right now – having had to delay a tattoo appointment until later today in order to play. I’m sure the advice is to wait a few days before exercising after getting a tattoo, but she does already have 13 of them, so maybe I should pipe down. Kartal and Jodie Burrage are in a first-set tie-break against Japan’s Ena Shibahara and China’s Guo Hanyu.
Anisimova has punched her ticket into round three, with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Golubic; the American simply had too much power for the neutralised Swiss.
Note quite Fonseca Mania ….but packed Court 7 is again the site of an 18-year-old declining to act age appropriately…. Victoria Mboko (born in charlotte) is a future star… pic.twitter.com/IaVPPByAal
— Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim) May 28, 2025
Il pleut. Play is continuing on some courts; on others the players are waiting. There are a few other matches to mention: Daniel Altmaier, the Roland Garros giantkiller after his victory over Taylor Fritz on Monday and Jannik Sinner in 2023, has taken the first set 6-2 against the Czech Republic’s Vit Kopriva, the Australian 25th seed Alexei Popyrin leads Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo 7-5 and Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic is 6-3, 2-1 up on Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
Cheers on Simonne Mathieu, where Musetti has a set point after 25-shot rally. The Italian is serving at his advantage. He jumps into a forehand, flicks a beautiful one-handed backhand (there aren’t too many 23-year-olds with one of those these days) … but then he nets. And curses. Deuce. Musetti goes back behind Galan to bring up another set point. And this time he emphatically puts away the smash to secure the opener 6-4.
Mboko will likely face Zheng in the third round if she advances. Zheng has the first set in the bag, 6-2, against Arango.
Mboko nervelessly moves to 15-0, 30-0. But Lys then has the teenager scampering left and right and left and right and Mboko hits wide. Mboko is slumped over when she batters a backhand into the net. 30-all. But she regroups to bring up set point, and a netted return means she takes the opener 6-4!
Well worth a mention is the 18-year-old Victoria Mboko, whom the WTA website describes as the “teenager who won’t stop winning”. The Canadian, whose parents emigrated from the Democratic Republic of Congo before she was born, started the year ranked No 333, but after racking up a record of 38 wins and only five losses in 2025, she’s up to 120 in the world and came through qualifying in Paris. And here she is, serving for the first set at 5-4 against Germany’s Eva Lys.
Jasmine Paolini, who opens the day’s schedule on Chatrier in about half an hour’s time, has been practising on the court – and seeking some inspiration from Rafa.
Anisimova has a set point, leading 5-0 and 30-40 on Golubic’s serve. And an errant forehand from Golubic concedes the set. Victoria Azarenka served up an early double bagel yesterday; we could have another this morning.
As for Zheng Qinwen, the last woman to win at Roland Garros, having claimed the Olympic singles title last summer, she’s 2-1 up on serve against Emiliana Arango, the 24-year-old Colombian. And Lorenzo Musetti, the Italian 8th seed who’s in fine form on the clay, he’s got himself an early break and leads another Colombian, the lucky loser Daniel Elahi Galan, 3-2.
Amanda Anisimova isn’t messing around, leading Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic 4-0. The American 16th seed came within a few games of reaching the French Open final as a 17-year-old in 2019. She’s not been that deep in a grand slam since – and is wildly inconsistent – but on her day is capable of pulling off some results; her victories over Andreeva, Navarro, Ostapenko and Badosa this year are evidence of that.
Ons Jabeur, who lost in the first round yesterday, has called out organisers for not scheduling women’s matches in the night slot, saying: “I don’t think they have daughters.” Last year all 11 prime-time matches featured men, and that’s been the case too for the first four days of this year’s tournament – tonight 12th seed Holger Rune will face the American world No 137 Emilio Nava – so it’s hardly the contest of the day. Why couldn’t, say, Swiatek and Raducanu have played their match this evening? What’s more baffling about the French Open’s stance is that Amelie Mauresmo – who does have a daughter – is the tournament director. You’d think she’d be more keen to promote the women’s game.
The players are out on another overcast day in Paris, so expect heavy conditions again. Among the early starters: the Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen, the red-hot Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the Canadian teenage winning machine Victoria Mboko, the French Open giantkiller Daniel Altmaier, the American former semi-finalist Amanda Anisimova, the Australian 25th seed Alexei Popyrin and Argentina’s clay-court slugger Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
Meanwhile on TNT Sports, Chrissie Evert, Tim Henman, Laura Robson and Anne Keothavong have some important business to discuss: Nike’s 2025 French Open rugby vibe vs Adidas’s neon highlighter tops. Doesn’t sound as if they’re massively impressed with either tbh.
Play didn’t finish until past midnight as Gael Monfils treated his home crowd to a comeback from two sets to love down, with the 38-year-old eventually seeing off Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4), 6-1 – despite crashing into the advertising boards during the first set and needing a medical timeout for treatment to his hand, knee and back. The 2008 semi-finalist will face Jack Draper next. Ever the showman, there were so many highlights last night, but here’s one of them:
Before we get going, here’s what happened yesterday:
Today’s order of play on the main courts
Court Philippe Chatrier (12pm start/11am BST)
4-Jasmine Paolini (Italy) v Ajla Tomljanovic (Australia)
Fabian Marozsan (Hungary) v 2-Carlos Alcaraz (Spain)
Emma Raducanu (Britain) v 5-Iga Swiatek (Poland)
Emilio Nava (US) v 10-Holger Rune (Denmark)
Court Suzanne Lenglen (11am/10am BST)
Emiliana Arango (Colombia) v 8-Zheng Qinwen
7-Casper Ruud (Norway) v Nuno Borges (Portugal)
31-Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (France) v Damir Dzumhur (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
1-Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) v Jil Teichmann (Switzerland)
Court Simonne Mathieu (11am/10am BST)
8-Lorenzo Musetti (Italy) v Daniel Elahi Galan (Colombia)
Anna Bondar (Hungary) v 13-Elina Svitolina (Ukraine)
Matteo Gigante (Italy) v 20-Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece)
12-Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan) v Iva Jovic (US)
Preamble
Bonjour mesdames et messieurs! Pour votre plaisir aujourd’hui: defending champions Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek, who faces Emma Raducanu in the second round; the title favourite Aryna Sabalenka; former runners-up Jasmine Paolini, Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas; the in-form Lorenzo Musetti and Zheng Qinwen, who both deserve at least a mention in the title conversation; 2017 champ Jelena Ostapenko; honorary Frenchwoman Elina Svitolina; plus Elena Rybakina, Holger Rune and Daniel Altmaier, who took out Taylor Fritz in the first round, but there are still plenty of Americans in Paris today, including Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe, Amanda Anisimova and Danielle Collins.
D’accord? Tres bien! L’action commence: 11h à Paris/10am BST.