Sinner opens French Open against wild card as he chases a career Grand Slam

PARIS (AP) — Jannik Sinner won’t have the crowd on his side when he starts his quest for a career Grand Slam at the French Open this weekend.

Sinner was on Thursday drawn a French opponent in the first round — Clement Tabur, ranked a career-high 165th. Tabur received the wild card vacated by former champion Stan Wawrinka, who gained a late automatic entry.

With two-time reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz out injured, Sinner is the overwhelming men’s favorite on the red clay of Roland Garros.

The Italian is unbeaten in three months. He’s won 29 straight matches and dropped just three sets. The French Open is the only major Sinner hasn’t won. Sinner had three match points in last year’s final but Alcaraz prevailed in an epic match.

In the women’s draw, Coco Gauff is trying to become just the third woman to defend the Roland Garros title this century after Justine Henin and Iga Swiątek. Gauff will start her campaign against fellow American Taylor Townsend, a doubles specialist.

Five Canadians will play in the Grand Slam’s singles competition.

In the women’s draw, ninth seed Victoria Mboko of Burlington, Ont., will face Czechia’s Nikola Bartunkova on Sunday, and 24th seed Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., takes on Alycia Parks of the United States on Monday. Mboko defeated Fernandez 6-4, 6-4 Thursday in the quarterfinals of the Strasbourg International.

Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, the men’s fourth seed, will play Germany’s Daniel Altmaier on Monday. Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo was scheduled to play Australia’s James Duckworth on Sunday. Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., will face a qualifier or lucky loser.

Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., came close to adding a sixth Canadian to the main draws before falling a 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 to 19-year-old Italian Federico Cina in third round of qualifying Thursday.

In the absence of Alcaraz, who will also miss Wimbledon, Sinner has claimed all three clay Masters 1000s in Monte Carlo, Madrid, and Rome. The 24-year-old has the fifth longest winning run in the ATP Tour era (since 1990). Novak Djokovic has the record of 43 straight wins in 2010-11.

With his historic Rome title — first Italian men’s champion in 50 years — Sinner became the second man after Djokovic to win all nine Masters, the biggest tournaments outside the Grand Slams.

Djokovic continues to chase an unprecedented 25th major title. But the Roland Garros champion from 2016, 2021, and 2023 is in Paris with only one match on clay this season and only three tournaments all year because of a shoulder injury. The 38-year-old will take on Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round. Djokovic couldn’t meet Sinner until the final.

No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev, still looking for his first major crown after making it to the 2024 final in Paris, will be up against another local player, Benjamin Bonzi.

Home favorite Arthur Fils, the highest-ranked French player at No. 19, opens against Wawrinka in a mouthwatering contest.

Gauff aiming for back to back

Gauff’s first Roland Garros title came with a victory over top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in the final a year ago.

Just like last year, Gauff was the runner-up at the Italian Open, losing in the final to Elina Svitolina. She is No. 4 and seeded to meet No. 1 Sabalenka in the semifinals.

While Sabalenka remains unbeatable at times on hard courts, she is still perfecting her game on clay. She was upset by American Hailey Baptiste in the Madrid Open quarterfinals and lost in the third round at the Italian Open to 36-year-old Sorana Cirstea.

Sabalenka appeared visibly bothered by lower back pain in Rome. Her first-round opponent is Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, a Spaniard ranked 51st.

Elena Rybakina, ranked No. 2 and this year’s Australian Open champion, is in the same half of the draw as No. 3 Swiątek.

Rybakina has mixed results on clay. She has reached the French quarterfinals twice. She starts against Veronika Erjavec of Slovenia.

Swiątek, the four-time French Open champion, lost to Svitolina in the Rome semifinals and is still reshaping her game under new coach Francisco Roig, who used to work with Rafael Nadal. Swiątek’s 26-match winning streak at Roland Garros ended in the semifinals last year with a loss to Sabalenka. She opens against Emerson Jones of Australia, a wild card.

Svitolina, who is from Ukraine, claimed the Rome title for her first WTA 1000 trophy in eight years — and is back in the top 10 after a maternity leave. But she’s never been past the semifinals of a Grand Slam, and never past the quarterfinals at the French Open. Svitolina takes on Anna Bondar in the first round.

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— With files from The Canadian Press

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Samuel Petrequin, The Associated Press