Roland Garros Draw Special

Plus: Tips for acing the Served Bracket Challenge

May 22, 2026

Context-free soundbite: “No, I did not take off my pants at Roland Garros.”

Allez! The Roland Garros draws are here, Andy and JW have made their picks and the Served Bracket Challenge is open for business! Watch the new episode to see how it all shook out at Served HQ.

Starting Sunday, we will drop daily Quick Served episodes and newsletters throughout Roland Garros and host daily live chats on Substack. Come geek out on the matches with the Served team and other Chuckers.

You have until the start of play on Sunday, May 24, to finalize your selections in the Served Bracket Challenge. We compiled tips from previous winners.

How to Win a Served Bracket Challenge

Served with Andy Roddick and Megan Fernandez

1:04 AM

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Play the Served Bracket Challenge

🍿 Early Popcorn Matches

ATP First Round

Arthur Fils [12] vs. Stan Wawrinka
Learner Tien [16] vs. Christian Garin
Matteo Berrettini vs. Marton Fucsovics

WTA First Round

Coco Gauff [4] vs. Taylor Townsend
Iva Jovic [17] vs. Alex Eala
Leylah Fernandez [24] vs. Alycia Parks

The Boycott TL;DR

Barring an upset of Jannik Sinner, the week-one story is going to be the player media boycott. As part of their fight for more prize money from the four Slams, the stars announced this week that they will do limited media during Roland Garros. Many of the Top 20 ATP and WTA players are on board, including both world No. 1s, Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner. Ben Rothenberg at Bounces has the full list.

Here’s the plan:

Restrict pre-tournament interviews on Friday’s Media Day to 15 minutes.
Limit post-match press to the rightholders’ on-court interview and the press conference.
End press conferences after 15 minutes (though press conferences rarely last longer than 15 minutes anyway).
Decline other interviews to major rightholders, including TNT, Eurosport and the tournament’s media team.

The 15-minute window is symbolic of the percentage of revenue the Slams currently award in prize mony. The players want at least 22%, which the 1000-level events pay out.

According to Eurosport, the French tennis federation will meet with player representatives on Friday. It issued the following statement:

“We regret this decision by the players, which penalizes all stakeholders in the tournament: the media, broadcasters, the federation teams, and the entire tennis family who enthusiastically follow each edition of Roland-Garros. The FFT maintains an ongoing dialogue with the players and has launched new initiatives to engage directly with them in recent weeks. The FFT is ready for a direct and constructive dialogue on governance issues, in order to give players a greater role in decision-making, contribute to their social protection, and improve the distribution of value."

Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said that prize money will not change this year, according to the Associated Press.

Looking ahead to Wimbledon, Tim Henman, who is on the All England Club board, has been meeting with players to try to avoid a similar demonstration there. The Guardian has the details.

Quick Hits

Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki (Getty Images)

Novak Djokovic has added fellow Serbian and retired player Viktor Troicki to his coaching team. They go way back. (Tennis.com)
ICYMI: Andy caught up with Rafa Nadal to talk about his Netflix documentary (dropping next week) and what he knows about Carlos Alcaraz’s injury. Vamos!
You can rewatch Gael & Friends, the tournament’s star-studded send-off for Gael Monfils, on the French Open YouTube channel. Here are the highlights.
You can make like Carlos Alcaraz and wear Roland Garros’s clay. Lacoste used the actual terre battue in the dye for its latest collection. That’s extra.
Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris, a luxury hotel, led the glamorous activations and parties this week with plenty of tennis stars on hand. Everyone talked about the tennis-court swimming pool, but we love the mini chocolate Lenglen purses the most.
Craig Shapiro’s love letter to the French Open nearly made us book a ticket to Paris tout suite. Tac tac tac.
We are suckers for each Slam’s official web store. Roland Garros’s poster art collection is in the cart.
The best thing Brad Gilbert ever did on clay. ⬇️