Roland-Garros 2023 Overview: Tournament Schedule, Dates and Predictions

The French Open is the season's biggest and most watched clay-court event, with the largest purse in its class.

So when does Roland-Garros 2023 start? The main draw of the 2023 French Open will take place on the Roland-Garros courts from May 28 to June 11, 2023. There will be five events: Men's Singles, Women's Singles, Men's Doubles, Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles.

Roland-Garros 2023 is the 122nd tournament in history. It was first held in 1891 as a one-day championship in France and remained in that form until 1925, when it became international and began to attract tennis players from other countries outside of France. After the open era of tennis in 1968, Roland-Garros became one of the most popular tennis tournaments on the planet, and it still is. The prize fund of Roland-Garros 2023 is €49.6 million - €24.8 million from the ATP and WTA.

The qualifying rounds for the French Open will take place from May 22 to 27. The main draw at Roland-Garros 2023 will begin on May 28 and end with the men's singles final on June 11. This will be the 122nd tournament in the history of the tournament and will be played on the courts of the Stade Roland-Garros, as in previous years.

Roland-Garros will use the Olympic format in all categories, i.e. the loser is eliminated. The singles competition will start with 1/64 finals, meaning 128 players will compete. Men's and women's doubles start with 1/32 finals and mixed doubles with 1/16 finals.

Check out the Roland-Garros 2023 schedule:

Seeding for the tournament is based on the ATP and WTA rankings in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. The first and second seeds (pairs) of the tournament will be "separated" and will not meet until the final. The third and fourth seeds are also "separated" and do not meet until the final, but may meet the first or second seed in the semifinals, and so on. Overall, there are 32 seeds in singles tournaments, and they definitely do not meet until the third round, where everything depends on the results. There are 16 seeds in women's and men's doubles and 8 seeds in mixed doubles.

Rafael Nadal won the men's Roland-Garros tournament in 2022, defeating Casper Ruud in three sets 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 in the final to claim his record 14th title. The Spaniard is registered for the 2023 tournament, but he is not on the list of favorites. This is not surprising as he missed the whole clay court season and before that he did not look his best on hard court.

Polish player Iga Świątek won the women's draw at the French Open 2022, easily defeating American Gauff 6-1, 6-3 in the final. Unlike Nadal, Świątek is in good shape to defend her title and is the odds-on favorite to win. Arevalo (Salvador)/Rojer (Netherlands) won the men's doubles, the French Mladenovic/Garcia triumphed in the women's doubles, Japan's Shibahara and the Netherlands' Koolhof won the mixed doubles.

Bookmakers believe the main favorite of the Roland-Garros 2023 in the men's singles is Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz. The Spaniard has won four tournaments in 2023, three of them on clay courts of Buenos Aires, Barcelona and Madrid. Besides these competitions, Carlos also triumphed on the hard courts of Indian Wells Masters. His loss at the Rome Masters, where Alcaraz lost to little-known Hungarian Marozsán, can be considered a surprising setback. The Spaniard already has experience of winning an Open, having won the US Open last season. Bet365 has odds of 2.60 on Alcaraz's triumph.

Novak Djokovic is second on the list of favorites. The Serb has twice triumphed at Roland-Garros, in 2016 and 2021, but this season the Balkan is struggling to win matches on clay. Novak has not won a clay-court tournament in 2023, but there are failures in Monte Carlo and Banja Luka. The world No. 3 reached the quarterfinals at the Rome Masters, where he lost to Denmark's Rune in three sets. It is clear that even with Nadal's problems, Djokovic will find it extremely difficult to take the title in Paris. Alcaraz and Holger Rune have improved a lot this year. Medvedev suddenly made a strong impression at the Rome Masters, and there are also Tsitsipas, Sinner, Ruud, Zverev, Rublev... Djokovic's win in France is rated at 3.40 by Bet365.

Daniil Medvedev is fourth in the bookmakers' lists. Before the Masters in Rome, the Russian was not rated that high. However, Daniil has already won five tournaments in 2023 - in Rome, Rotterdam, Doha, Dubai and the Masters in Miami. Medvedev returned to the second place in the ATP rankings with these results, and in case of a triumph at Roland-Garros it is quite possible that he will get back to the first place, but it will depend on how Carlos Alcaraz, the current number one, will perform at the tournament. It is also noteworthy that Medvedev defeated very strong players on the clay court in Rome: Zverev, Tsitsipas and Rune, and all three in two sets. So it's quite possible that Daniil will be the one to lift the Roland-Garros trophy in 2023. Bet365 gives odds of 8.50 for Medvedev to win.

The men will have a real battle in Paris and now, before the start of RG-2023, it is very difficult to say who will win the competition. As for the women, everything looks simpler. There is Iga Świątek, the current winner of the French Open and the world number one. According to bookmakers, she has the best chances of all. However, Iga failed to take the trophies in Madrid, where she lost to Sabalenka in the final, and in Rome, where she was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Rybakina. So we would not make the Pole such a clear favorite. In Melbourne, bookmakers were also confident of Świątek's victory, but she failed to win the Australian Open. Bet365 gives odds of 1.83 for Świątek to win in Paris.

Aryna Sabalenka, the winner of the recent tournament in Madrid, is in second place with 5.50. Aryna is second in the WTA rankings and has won three tournaments in 2023. In addition to Madrid, Aryna triumphed in Adelaide and Melbourne at the Australian Open. In Rome Sabalenka was held back after losing her first match to Kenin in two games. Aryna had the whole two weeks to recover after Madrid and get ready for Paris.

The third place in the Bet365 chart is Elena Rybakina, a 2022 sensation. After her triumph in Rome, Elena moved up to fourth place in the WTA rankings, and if you count the Wimbledon 2022 points, Elena would definitely be at the third line. Few people had expected her to triumph in Rome, especially because the Kazakhstan representative was to play against Świątek in the quarterfinals. But despite the grid, Rybakina won the Italian 1000 and is now in third place of RG favorites with odds of 6.50.

The Roland-Garros 2023 has a record prize pool of €49.6 million, which is 5.5 million more than the previous tournament. Recall that at the Opens the prize money for men and women is the same. Here's how the prize money looks like in the rounds:

In this piece we give two long-term predictions, one for men's and women's.

Our first prediction is that Iga Świątek will be knocked out in the semifinals according to Bet365's line (5.50). Świątek is noticeably overvalued by bookmakers in the current season after last season's triumphant performance. If in 2022 the Pole sometimes seemed unbeatable, now that feeling has evaporated, and Iga has two very strong competitors on the clay court: Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, who beat Świątek this season at tournaments in Madrid and Rome, respectively. Besides, there are regular sensations at the women's Majors after the end of the Serena Williams era. We think Świątek is a bit overrated.

As for the men's draw, we'll make a very risky bet on Daniil Medvedev's triumph. Daniil is in great form as we saw at the Rome Masters, where he defeated Zverev, Tsitsipas and Rune - two of the top five favorites. All three in two sets. Djokovic has not been very impressive on the clay court this season, only Alcaraz is really dangerous, but Carlos and Daniel will not meet until the final, and the Spaniard needs to reach the final first. Bet365 gives odds of 8.50 for Medvedev.