Salut et bienvenue à Roland-Garros 2025 – premier jour!

In such moments it’s easy to look forward, wondering who’ll win what and how, but though we’ll chat plenty about it, at this point it barely matters. Grand Slam tennis isn’t a fact, rather an experience, immersing us in the full gamut of human emotions and stories communicated through some of the greatest sport the planet has to offer.

And what a start awaits us over the next many hours. Aryna Sabalenka begins her campaign with a match that could test her, against Kamilla Rakhimova, while Elina Svitolina and Jasmine Paolini, last year’s beaten finalist, also gets going. Add to that Leylah Fernandez, Amanda Anisimova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Qinweng Zheng, Donna Vekic v Anna Blinkova and Petra Kvitova v Viktorija Golubic and that’s a pretty serious situation for us to navigate – and it’s just the women’s competition.

As for the men, we’ve got Lorenzo Musetti, now ranked eight in the world, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard v Zizou Bergs, Francis Tiafoe v Roman Safiullin, Brandon Nakashima, Tommy Paul, Tomas Machac v Quentin Halys and my sleeper match of the day, Alex Michelsen v Juan Manuel Cerúndolo

C’est la période la plus merveilleuse de l’année!

Play: 11am local, 10am BST