French Open: 5 unseeded stars to watch out for in men’s singles draw
The French Open is just around the corner, with the second Grand Slam of the 2025 season promising to be an intriguing event.
Among the favourites are defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and world No 1 Jannik Sinner, who both recently contested the Italian Open men’s singles final.
However, many unseeded players have been quietly producing impressive results and, here, we take a look at five of such players who the favourites may be hoping to avoid.
Joao Fonseca
Fonseca exploded onto the scene in 2024, claiming the title at the Next Gen ATP Finals with a four-set victory over Learner Tien.
Just a few weeks later, the young Brazilian scored a 7-6(1), 6-3, 7-6(5) win against Andrey Rublev in the first round of the Australian Open – the first top-10 victory of his career.
However, Fonseca is far from a hard-court specialist, lifting the ATP 250 trophy at the Argentina Open to become the seventh youngest ATP winner since 1990.
Currently standing as the world No 65 in the live rankings, no seed will want to see the Brazllian’s forehand on the other side of the net at the French Open.
Matteo Arnaldi
Arnaldi has had a mixed 2025 season, reaching the semi-finals of the ATP 500 event in Dallas before gaining the biggest win of his career against Novak Djokovic at the Madrid Masters, but falling in his first match in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Rome.
Nevertheless, the Italian has plenty of clay-court prowess. In 2024, he went the furthest at the French Open out of all of the Grand Slams – narrowly losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round.
As the world No 38 in the live rankings, he should not be underestimated by any of the seeds in Paris.
Lorenzo Sonego
Sonego began 2025 in spectacular fashion, making the last eight at the Australian Open (losing to Ben Shelton) – his deepest Grand Slam run.
Since then, he has only managed to win three of his next 12 matches, with just one of these arriving during the clay season.
Whilst the Italian will have, undoubtedly, been disappointed with the results, he had similarly disappointing results before his fourth-round run at the French Open in 2023 (also making the last 16 in 2020).
The world No 44 in the live rankings won’t be an easy task for any of the seeded competitors.
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Jiri Lehecka
Lehecka started the season by lifting the second title of his singles career, in Brisbane. He backed up the performance with a run to the fourth round at the Australian Open, where he lost to the 10-time champion Novak Djokovic.
Just a month later, the Czech reached the semi-finals of the ATP 500 event in Doha by beating Carlos Alcaraz along the way – losing to Brit Jack Draper in a nail-biting match.
On the clay, Lehecka has been short of wins in 2025, but did produce a standout match against eventual finalist Lorenzo Musetti at the Monte-Carlo Masters in the second round, despite not claiming the win.
Overall, his clay-court record is very shallow, playing one such event in 2024, where he reached the Madrid Masters semi-finals, defeating Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev en route.
Likewise, Lehecka has participated in Paris just twice, losing in the first round in 2022 and the second round in 2023 – skipping the event in 2024, due to injury.
If the Czech is healthy, the serve factor is always a factor, no matter the surface.
Tallon Griekspoor
Griekspoor was involved in one of the French Open’s most dramatic fifth sets in 2025, losing in an epic 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(10-3) against Alexander Zverev in the third round.
In 2025, the Dutchman has collected impressive victories over the likes of Daniil Medvedev, Ugo Humbert, and, indeed, Zverev.
On the other hand, all three of these wins occurred at hard-court events, with Griekspoor failing to win consecutive matches on the clay this season.
However, given his efforts at last year’s edition and his overall experience, the former world No 21 will be a force to be reckoned with at the French Open.
