After Roland Garros drama, Serena Williams’ former coach issues call to rip up the rulebook

Roland Garros has moved into its second week, and a number of big names are already out of the tournament.

Jannik Sinner was knocked out by Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the second round, while Novak Djokovic fell to Joao Fonseca in the third. Meanwhile, over on the women’s side, Coco Gauff and Amanda Anisimova were both eliminated in the third round, leaving things wide open on that front as well.

The story of this year’s French Open hasn’t just been about upsets. The intense heat has become a major talking point too. Sinner is one of several players who struggled with the extreme conditions.

Sinner showed his fitness when he reached the semifinals at Roland Garros last year and went on to win Wimbledon soon after. But he had a tougher time with injuries during 2024 so far, picking up issues at Indian Wells and Monte Carlo before pulling out of Madrid.

Despite sitting out those tournaments, he returned to reach the Rome Masters quarterfinals before being upset early at Roland Garros this time around. Mouratoglou pointed out that early rounds can be especially taxing because players aren’t yet fully adjusted to Grand Slam intensity or conditions.

Macci wants all Slams to move to a best-of-three format

With several marathon matches, Macci wrote: “Ask most players and the Slams should be best-of-three. As you can see, 4, 5, 6-hour matches might be exciting to the fans but the physical and mental toll as the tournament unfolds in 2026 is way too much. The sport is very different from a physicality standpoint.”

“More players will get injured and not be at 100% for the next match or next. Time to flip the script and do what is just common sense for the players because the players are the sport.”

It’s an interesting point from Macci, but one that many fans would likely push back against given how much tension builds in five-set contests.

Players break Open era Grand Slam record at Roland Garros

The debate over Grand Slam formats isn’t new, and there’s little reason to believe a change is coming soon. At the moment, men play best-of-five sets at all four majors, while women stick to best-of-three.

It’s also worth noting that most fans don’t support extending women’s matches to five sets at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon or the US Open.

This year’s focus is firmly on Roland Garros, where format discussions have picked up again. Nine of the 16 third-round matches went the distance, setting a new Open Era record by surpassing the previous mark of seven.

Perhaps the most notable result was Fonseca’s comeback win over Djokovic. The young Brazilian recovered from two sets down to claim a 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 victory.

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