Full order of play for Sunday, what time it starts and how to watch in UK
ROLAND GARROS — Aryna Sabalenka and Sloane Stephens will play the first women’s match in the night session on Sunday after six straight men’s matches.
French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo attracted criticism in 2022, the first year back at full fan capacity, when she chose nine men’s matches for the showpiece slot (which starts at 7.15pm UK time) and just one women’s match.
“In this era that we are in right now, and as a woman, former women’s player, I don’t feel bad or unfair saying that right now you have more… …appeal [in the men’s game],” Mauresmo said last year.
It was expected that she would take heed of her critics for this year’s Roland Garros, but the first six night sessions, which are shown live on Amazon Prime Video in France, all featured a men’s match.
However, Australian Open champion Sabalenka against former French Open finalist and 2017 US Open champion Stephens was too good a match-up to resist, it seems.
It will be the first time that Sabalenka has taken to the court since French Open organisers caused a minor media storm on Friday when they held a secretive closed press conference with the Belarusian, who said she did not want to do an open one after not feeling “safe” because of questions about Ukraine.
One to watch
(All times BST)
Carlos Alcaraz is yet to come across a real challenge in the draw as yet. Even when he dropped a set to Taro Daniel in the second round, it was more a case of a strong wind making fluency difficult for both players.
However, Lorenzo Musetti is the No 17 seed and has made even more serene progress through the draw, not dropping a set and failing to even lose more than five games in a set.
The Italian extinguished Britain’s singles challenge by beating Cameron Norrie with ease in the third round, and has made it this far before – only to give up a two-set lead against Novak Djokovic back in 2021. Expected on court around 1.45pm, this could be the first time Alcaraz is pushed somewhere close to his limit. Musetti has previous too. He beat the Spaniard in the final in Hamburg last year.
Over on Lenglen at around the same time, Elina Svitolina is taking on talented Russian and No 9 seed Daria Kasatkina, who nailed a near-perfect tweener in the previous round. Both players’ top level is extremely high and if both perform, there will be fireworks.
How to watch
- TV: Eurosport 1/2 (Sky 410/411, Virgin 521/522, BT 412/413)
- Live stream: Eurosport app/discovery+ (£6.99 a month)
Upset-watch
When the single tournament gets down to two courts, there isn’t much thing as an upset, because everyone has won three matches. (That does not mean that Musetti beating Alcaraz wouldn’t be a shock, and it’s not impossible – but still.)
If I have to pick an upset on Sunday, I would probably go for Lorenzo Sonego to beat Karen Khachanov, starting at 10am on Suzanne Lenglen. Sonego has already beaten one Russian – Andrey Rublev – and came down from two sets down (including a bagel) to do so. He has never made it past the fourth round before at any slam, but he has beaten Khachanov on clay before.
Sunday’s schedule
(All courts start at 10am)
Court Philippe Chatrier
- Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs Elise Mertens (28)
- (Not before 11.30am) Novak Djokovic (3) vs Juan Pablo Varillas
- Carlos Alcaraz (1) vs Lorenzo Musetti (17)
- (Not before 7.15pm) Sloane Stephens vs Aryna Sabalenka
Court Suzanne Lenglen
- Karen Khachanov (11) vs Lorenzo Sonego
- Karolina Muchova vs Elina Avanesyan
- Elina Svitolina vs Daria Kasatkina (9)
- (Not before 4.30pm) Sebastian Ofner vs Stefanos Tsitsipas (5)
