Five players who have unfinished business at Roland Garros this year

The stars of the tennis world are about to descend on Paris, where almost all of them will be trying to win Roland Garros for the first time. But for some of those hopefuls, it may not feel like a brand new quest—it might feel more like unfinished business.

Here are five players who've come oh so close to winning Roland Garros before and will try to exorcise those demons this year:

Jannik Sinner

Probably the player with the most unfinished business at Roland Garros of anyone, not only was the Italian up two sets to love and a break in the third set on Carlos Alcaraz in last year's final, but after dropping that third set, he even held triple match point in the fourth set with Alcaraz serving at 3-5, 0-40. He served for the match in the next game, too. He ended up falling in five.

As if that weren't enough, he also led Alcaraz by two sets to one in the semifinals the year before, also falling in five.

Having been unbeaten since February and with Alcaraz unable to defend his title this year due to a right wrist injury, could the stars be aligned any more for Sinner in Paris this year?

Aryna Sabalenka

Sinner isn't the only world No. 1 who came close last year.

Sabalenka snapped Iga Swiatek's ridiculous 26-match Roland Garros winning streak in the semis before losing a thriller against Coco Gauff in the final, 6-4 in the third. And who knows how that final would've turned out if Sabalenka had cut out even just a few of the 70 unforced errors she made in the match.

A four-time Grand Slam champion on hard courts, she was so close to finally winning one on a natural surface last year in Paris, a near miss that—should she make the final again this year—could motivate her to take that final step this time.

Alexander Zverev

Statistically, the German might be the most accomplished men's tennis player ever to not win a Grand Slam title, but he's come close several times—including on the terre battue.

The closest he got to the Coupe des Mousquetaires was two years ago, when he not only reached the final, but led Alcaraz by two sets to one before the Spaniard bounced back to win in five sets. He's been to another three semifinals AND another three quarterfinals in Paris, too, just constantly within striking distance.

As this year's No. 2 seed, Zverev has a good chance to reach another Roland Garros final, and wouldn't have to play Sinner until then—but if the Italian is there waiting for him, he'll have to snap a nine-match losing streak against him…

Casper Ruud

Like Zverev, Ruud is a three-time Grand Slam finalist still seeking his first Grand Slam title—but unlike the German, two of the Norwegian's three major finals came at Roland Garros.

He lost both of them in straight sets, to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and to Novak Djokovic in 2023, but the one against Djokovic featured two sets that could have gone either way, with the Serb sneaking out tight first and third sets to prevail, 7-6 (1), 6-3, 7-5.

A champion in Madrid last year and a finalist at both Monte Carlo and Rome in his career, too, Ruud seems destined to avenge those final losses in Paris at some point...

Stefanos Tsitsipas

The Greek has done just about everything there is to do in tennis except win a major—he's won the ATP Finals and three Masters 1000 titles, and he's a two-time Grand Slam finalist.

The first of those two major finals was a heartbreaker at Roland Garros in 2021, when he outplayed Djokovic to build a two-sets-to-one lead before ultimately falling 6-4 in the fifth set.

The former No. 3 has had a dip in results as of late, falling first or second round at the last seven majors and currently ranked No. 82, but Paris has been one of his most consistent major venues, and you never know when he'll find his mojo again.

Honorable Mentions

Two of the Top 10 women’s seeds this year definitely have unfinished business at Roland Garros, most notably Karolina Muchova, who just returned to the Top 10 this week at No. 10. In 2023, the Czech stunned Sabalenka from match point down in the semifinals and was actually up a break at 4-3 in the third set against Swiatek in the final before losing the last three games and her best shot yet at a first career Grand Slam title.

And while No. 6-ranked Amanda Anisimova might be better known for reaching her first two Grand Slam finals last year at Wimbledon and the US Open, her first major breakthrough came in Paris in 2019, as a 17-year-old, when she reached her first Grand Slam semifinal and led Ashleigh Barty by a set and 3-0 before falling in three sets. Barty went on to beat Marketa Vondrousova in the final, 6-1, 6-3, which makes you wonder what could have been had Anisimova closed that semifinal out…