Matteo Berrettini’s apology the latest hammer blow to disastrous French Open

Kevin Palmer 03 Jun 2026 11:36 PM

Matteo Berrettini waves to fans at Roland Garros

If you are a fan of upsets, this year’s French Open will go down as the best Grand Slam tennis tournament of them all, but the wider sporting world will have a different view.

As world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka crashed out in baffling fashion, as she lost ten games in succession to crash out with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 defeat against Diana Shnaider in the Roland Garros quarter-finals.

That was followed by an evening session cut short when Matteo Berrettini was forced to quit his match against fellow Italian Matteo Arnaldi when he was trailing 7-5, 5-2 and he issued a very public wave of apology to the fans who had paid to watch him with a ticket that only entitled them to see one match.

Maja Chwalinska is a shock semi-finalist after she beat Anna Kalinskaya in straight sets to reach the last four of a Grand Slam for the first time.

Then we had Flavio Cobolli’s four-set win against Felix Auger-Aliassime, as another highly ranked player crashed out of a top half of the draw that is now more wide open than any we have seen in recent Grand Slams.

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This year’s Roland Garros has been a tale of the unexpected and while the jeopardy in sport is an appealing quality, the second Grand Slam of the tennis year has taken that notion too far.

Even before a ball was struck, this tournament was dealt a huge blow as it’s defending champion and shining star, Carlos Alcaraz, was ruled out due to injury.

There was then a threat that his big rival, Jannik Sinner, would win with so much ease that it would be a less-than-inspiring tournament.

That was before Sinner’s shock exit in the third round was backed up by Novak Djokovic’s departure the following day, after he lost against Joao Fonseca.

Had the Brazilian teenager backed up that victory with a storming run to the final, the tournament may have retained some star power, but Fonseca fell at the quarter-final stage and now the sporting world is likely to have diverted attention elsewhere.

The tennis community may be fascinated to see who emerges from a men’s semi-final line-up that will see Alexander Zverev play Jakub Mensik and Arnaldi play his fellow Italian Flavio Cobolli.

Then in the women’s draw, Chwalinska will take on Shnaider, while Marta Kostyuk will face Mirra Andreeva in what may be the most exciting match left in the tournament.

TNT Sports have done a fine job as broadcasters for the UK and the USA once again this year and while their viewing figures for week one at Roland Garros were impressive, there has to be a danger they will collapse for the big finals weekend.

The sporting world was captivated a year ago as Coco Gauff beat Sabalenka in a dramatic women’s final, before Alcaraz beat Sinner in one of the best tennis matches of all-time in the men’s final.

This year, the finals will be seriously lacking star power and while it is nice to see new contenders emerging the scale of the decimation of the draw this year has damaged the interest in a tournament that will probably be remembered for poor performances from big stars rather than iconic moments.

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There will still be moments to savour for two newly crowned Grand Slam champions over the weekend, but this feels like a tournament that will be marked into the record books as a blip in the tennis landscape rather than a memory we will cherish for years to come.

The 2025 French Open may have been one of the best tournaments ever seen at Roland Garros for more reasons than we have time to mention here.

The sequel a year later, is a car crash of a tournament that cannot end soon enough.