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00:00Tennis' Roland Garros for the French Open begins this Sunday, men's and women's singles starting on the Paris Clay.
00:07But the star of today isn't even competing.
00:10The tournament paying tribute to retired Rafael Nadal, he won the Open a record 14 times.
00:17And so he dominates the event to such a degree that his victories almost became a foregone conclusion.
00:24A beloved star, Nadal left the sport last November, while his heir apparent fellow Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz will start his title defense of Roland Garros next week.
00:34Let's speak to our sports editor, Selena Sykes, standing by.
00:38Hello to you, Selena. Tell us a little bit more about what's going to happen today.
00:45Well, as you said, Rafael Nadal has become synonymous with Roland Garros.
00:50The Spaniard's statistics at this tournament are really quite staggering.
00:5514 of his 22 Grand Slams came on Clay here in Paris.
01:01And this will be, of course, the first Roland Garros since the so-called King of Clay has retired.
01:08He won 112 out of 116 of his matches here.
01:13He was really quite unstoppable thanks to that vicious forehand, his sheer athleticism,
01:19and that really neat footwork that he had here on the clay.
01:23He first burst onto the scene here in Paris as a 19-year-old all the way back in 2005.
01:28And he won his last title here in 2022.
01:32He had an injury that kept him out in 2023, though he made what turned out to be his final appearance,
01:38of course, here last summer when he was knocked out in the first round against Alexandra Zerev.
01:43The 38-year-old then was not keen, shall we say, to have a tribute or a final farewell in his honour.
01:51He didn't announce his retirement until a few months later at the Davis Cup.
01:56But this time around, the 38-year-old will be getting a ceremony.
02:00The organisers have been rather tight-lipped about the details of that one,
02:04but we can almost guarantee that it will be an emotional one.
02:07And some rumours, of course, that the likes of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic will be in attendance.
02:14Obviously, those big three whose rivalries kept tennis stars so enthralled in the game for so long.
02:21So that tribute will be taking place after today's opening game of play here at Roland Garros.
02:26Yeah, so tennis sort of honouring the past.
02:29What about the present?
02:30Who are the favourites in this year's French Open?
02:32Well, let's start with the men's draw, Will, because you obviously talked about the heir apparent, Carlos Alcarez.
02:39There's a lot of anticipation here that the Spaniard and obviously his biggest rival, Yannick Sinner,
02:44will meet in their first ever Grand Slam final.
02:47These two are kind of poised to fill the void of the big three I mentioned earlier,
02:51but they're yet to have played each other in a Grand Slam final.
02:54Everything is set up for them to do so.
02:56They are both on the other sides of the draw.
02:59They obviously most recently met at the final of the Italian Open when it was one number two, Carlos Alcarez,
03:05who dominated Yannick Sinner.
03:06Sinner, of course, having just come back from a pre-free month doping ban and having a bit less game time than Alcarez.
03:15For the women's draw, quickly, Iga Suyantec has won four of the last five Roland Garros's here,
03:20but she's lacking in form as of yet.
03:22She's not looking very comfortable on the court,
03:24so it could be an opportunity for Wild No. 1 Arena Sabalenka to get her first title on clay
03:30or perhaps a Jasmine Paolini or Coco Gauff.
03:34All right, Selena, thank you very much.
03:35Selena Sykes reporting.
03:36Thank you very much.