{"id":679081,"date":"2026-06-02T03:36:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T03:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/679081\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T03:36:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T03:36:31","slug":"french-open-tests-the-popularity-limits-of-mens-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/679081\/","title":{"rendered":"French Open Tests the Popularity Limits of Men\u2019s Tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIf you\u2019re a casual men\u2019s tennis fan, there\u2019s a decent chance you can\u2019t name any of the players still in contention as the French Open<\/a> hits its second week.<\/p>\n

\n\tSome of the sport\u2019s biggest stars\u2014including Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic<\/a>, Daniil Medvedev and Ben Shelton\u2014wilted in the searing heat<\/a> during the first few rounds. Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> missed the tournament entirely. This is the first Grand Slam since 1959 (!) that doesn\u2019t have a prior major winner playing in the men\u2019s fourth round.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s left is a hodgepodge of youngsters that could soon be stars and older players who have yet to win titles on the sport\u2019s biggest stages. It has presented Roland Garros and men\u2019s tennis\u2014plus the sport\u2019s biggest broadcasters, sponsors and partners\u2014with an unprecedented opportunity to gauge the popularity and health of the sport overall, when it\u2019s not carried by its most enduring spokesmen.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo be clear, this is not an opportunity that French Open organizers want to have. All sports rely on their stars, but among individual sports, men\u2019s tennis has always had an advantage over its peers. While it\u2019s not uncommon for golf majors to reach Sunday with a leaderboard devoid of top-tier stars, that\u2019s historically been unheard of in modern men\u2019s tennis. It\u2019s been more than 20 years since fans had a fourth round at a men\u2019s Grand Slam that didn\u2019t feature Sinner, Alcaraz, Djokovic, Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer. In fact, in that 87-Slam span, there have only been two Slams that didn\u2019t feature one or more of them in the semifinals. The five players ultimately won 77 of those tournaments.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tBut if it\u2019s not ideal, the business takeaways might be fascinating. There\u2019s no number of focus groups or polling that could replicate what Roland Garros is about to find out\u2014what if we just held the event without any stars? \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are already signs that organizers are concerned. On Monday night the primetime match at the French Open\u2019s main court will be a showdown between two multi-time women\u2019s Grand Slam champions, Naomi Osaka and Aryna Sabalenka. That is\u2014shockingly\u2014the first time in more than three years that Roland Garros put a women\u2019s match in the night session. Lingering in the background of the men\u2019s draw is another potential turnoff for some: the current favorite, world No. 3 Alexander Zverev, is disliked by many fans due to prior allegations of domestic abuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThat said, for those willing to pay attention to lesser-known players, this tournament has had a few great storylines and some epic matches. American Francis Tiafoe, a fan favorite, has repeatedly overcome early deficits to reach the fourth round. Zachary Svajda, the only other American man left, is 11-26 in his career ATP singles matches. Spanish teenager Rafael Jodar is considered by many to be a future megastar, and Jakub Men\u0161\u00edk may soon draw similar hype. On Saturday, five different men\u2019s matches went the full five sets, including three that ended in deciding tiebreakers.<\/p>\n

\n\tIs that enough to keep fans tuning in? The tournament\u2019s early signs were encouraging. In the U.S., TNT\u2019s coverage of the first two days at Roland Garros saw a 36% audience lift<\/a> versus last year. (The most watched men\u2019s matches, however, were early wins by Djokovic and Shelton.) A WBD exec told Sportico last week that ads for the two-week event were effectively sold out.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat tracks with a broader commercial growth in top tier pro tennis. This French Open drew 138,000 fans<\/a> for its Opening Week, the highest in the event\u2019s history. The U.S. Open<\/a> has also made its pre-event week its own commercial juggernaut<\/a>. Most Grand Slams are experiencing a flood of fans<\/a> and record revenue<\/a> overall, much of that helped by the emerging dominance of Sinner and Alcaraz, who could build their budding rivalry for another decade or more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s unclear if this star-less Grand Slam is an aberration or a sign of a more egalitarian era emerging in men\u2019s tennis. The companies that pay hundreds of millions to broadcast the sport are certainly hoping for the former.\u00a0While the French Open\u2019s finances aren\u2019t readily available online, its peers\u2019 numbers are. Wimbledon made about $270 million<\/a> (about \u00a3200 million) from media rights in 2024; the U.S. Open brought in about $145 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the Sporticast podcast, we frequently debate what makes college football and college basketball so popular\u2014whether it\u2019s the school brands, or the players themselves. If Alabama\u2019s roster could play Georgia\u2019s roster in anonymous uniforms in a neutral stadium at the same time as anonymous players faced off in Crimson Tide and Bulldogs uniforms at Bryant-Denny Stadium, which would fans turn on?<\/p>\n

\n\tThat experiment, of course, is impossible. The one underway right now at Roland Garros? Turns out that was just highly improbable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re a casual men\u2019s tennis fan, there\u2019s a decent chance you can\u2019t name any of the players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[2073,4039,433,99,428,24400,74370],"class_list":["post-679081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-french-open","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-u-s-open","tag-usta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}