<p>The <a href="https://www.sportsbet.com.au/events/french-open">French Open</a> is the second Grand Slam of the tennis calendar and the only one played on red clay.</p><p>That single fact shapes almost everything about betting the tournament, because <strong>clay rewards a completely different style of tennis</strong> than the hardcourts that dominate the rest of the year.</p><p>Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff lifted the trophies in 2025, with Alcaraz beating Jannik Sinner in a five-hour-29-minute final that went the full five sets.</p><p>This guide walks through the markets Sportsbet offers on Roland Garros, the factors that actually move the dial on clay, how to watch from Australia, and the mistakes punters tend to make when the French Open rolls around.</p><h2>&nbsp;</h2><h2>When and where the 2026 French Open is played</h2><p>Roland Garros 2026 starts with qualifying on 18 May and runs through to the men’s final on Sunday 7 June.</p><p>The main draw kicks off on Sunday 24 May, with the women’s final on Saturday 6 June and the men’s final the following afternoon.</p><p>Paris time is eight hours behind AEST during the tournament, so most afternoon and evening matches in Paris become late-night or early-morning viewing in Australia.</p><p>The tournament is played at <em>Stade Roland-Garros</em> in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, named after the French aviator who became a national hero during the First World War. The three main courts are Philippe-Chatrier (the main stadium with a retractable roof), Suzanne-Lenglen, and Simonne-Mathieu.</p><p>Clay is the slowest Grand Slam surface. The ball bounces higher, rallies run longer, and matches routinely stretch past three hours. If you are new to this, we have an entire guide that explains <a href="https://www.sportsbet.com.au/huddle/tennis/tennis-news/tennis-surfaces-clay--vs-grass--vs-hard-court-differences">the differences between clay, grass, and hard courts</a> and shows how important they are when it comes to <a href="https://www.sportsbet.com.au/huddle/punter-iq/guide/how-to-bet-on-tennis">placing a bet on tennis</a>.</p><p>That’s before you factor in the five-set format for the men, which has produced some genuinely extreme matches over the years. The Alcaraz-Sinner final in 2025 wasn’t even the longest on record.</p><h2>&nbsp;</h2><h2>How to watch the French Open in Australia</h2><p><strong>Nine</strong> has held the Australian broadcast rights to Roland Garros since 2021 and carries the tournament across both free-to-air and subscription platforms.</p><p>Free-to-air coverage runs on the 9Network’s main channels (9, 9Go, 9Gem) with the same vision available to stream on <em>9Now</em>.</p><p>That gets you the headline matches on the show courts and most of the marquee night sessions on Philippe-Chatrier. No subscription needed.</p><p><strong>Stan Sport</strong> is the deeper option, as they offer Every match on every court, live and on demand, with no ad breaks during play and 4K streaming on the main courts. It runs at $15 per month on top of the standard Stan subscription.</p><p>For Aussie punters who want to follow matches on the outside courts, Stan Sport is the only realistic option - and that’s worth knowing, since some of the best early-round tennis happens on Courts 7, 14 and Simonne-Mathieu, and those matches rarely make the free-to-air schedule.</p><p>Night sessions on Chatrier typically start around 4am to 5am AEST, which is the trade-off for live viewing from this part of the world.</p><h2>&nbsp;</h2><h2>French Open betting markets explained</h2><p>Sportsbet runs a full suite of markets on every main-draw Roland Garros match from the first round through to the finals, plus tournament-long futures that open well before the main draw starts. Here are the ones Aussie punters use most.</p><h3>Tournament outright winner</h3><p>Pick who lifts the trophy. Men’s and women’s draws are priced separately. Markets open months out and stay live until there’s a champion, with prices shifting after each round as seeds fall and form emerges.</p><p>The men’s market at Roland Garros has been dominated by a small handful of players over the past two decades, first Rafael Nadal (14 titles on the Paris clay), then Novak Djokovic, and more recently Carlos Alcaraz.</p><p>The women’s market is traditionally more open. Iga Swiatek has been the player to beat in recent years, though Gauff’s 2025 win over Sabalenka showed how quickly the pecking order can shift.</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.sportsbet.com.au/betting/tennis/mens-french-open/men-s-french-open-winner-2026-9306348">Men’s French Open Winner Odds</a></li><li><a href="https://www.sportsbet.com.au/betting/tennis/ladies-french-open">Ladies’ French Open Winner Odds</a></li></ul><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Match winner (head-to-head)</h3><p>The simplest market in tennis. Pick who wins the match. This is the bread and butter of Grand Slam betting and what most punters live in from round one onwards.</p><p>Head-to-head prices on clay can look nothing like their hardcourt equivalents.</p><p>A player ranked outside the top 20 can be short-priced favourite over a top-10 opponent if the matchup is a clay specialist against a hardcourt-focused player who’s never been comfortable on the dirt. Reading these spots well is a big part of doing okay at the French Open.</p><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Set betting</h3><p>Pick the exact scoreline in sets. For men’s matches the options run 3-0, 3-1, 3-2 either way. For women’s matches it’s 2-0 or 2-1.</p><p>The payouts are bigger than straight match betting because you need to nail the margin as well as the winner.</p><p>Straight-sets markets are where clay produces a lot of its interesting spots. A heavy favourite on hardcourt who struggles on the surface might still be favoured to win, but the odds of them doing it in straight sets can look very different.</p><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Total games / over-under</h3><p>Rather than picking a winner, you’re betting on how many games the match will last. Sportsbet sets a line, usually somewhere between 20 and 40 games depending on the matchup, and you punt over or under.</p><p>Clay-court tennis tends to push totals higher than the same players would produce on hardcourts.</p><p>Longer rallies, more service breaks, and the five-set format for men all stretch matches out. It’s a market worth understanding if you like watching tennis but aren’t confident picking winners.</p><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Handicap markets</h3><p>Game handicaps work the same as point spreads in other sports. Sportsbet lines the favourite at, say, -4.5 games, meaning they need to win the match by more than 4.5 total games for the bet to cash.</p><p>Set handicaps also come into play for lopsided matchups, typically framed as -1.5 sets or +1.5 sets.</p><p>Handicaps are useful when you think a favourite is going to win comfortably but don’t want to take a short price on the head-to-head.</p><p>They’re also useful in the opposite direction, taking a big underdog on a set handicap in the hope they can grab a set even if they lose the match.</p><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Futures markets</h3><p>Beyond the outright, Sportsbet offers a range of tournament-long markets that price up specific outcomes.</p><p>Examples include reaching the semi-finals, reaching the final, the finalist from each half of the draw, and head-to-head group markets pitting multiple players against each other for “best performance at the tournament.”</p><p>Once the draw is released, these markets sharpen up considerably. The bracket a player lands in matters enormously at Roland Garros. Getting stuck on the same side as Alcaraz is very different from a clear run.</p><h2>&nbsp;</h2><h2>Why clay court form matters more than you think</h2><p>Here’s the thing most casual tennis punters underestimate: clay is different enough from hardcourt that career rankings tell you surprisingly little about who’s going to do well at Roland Garros.</p><p>The surface slows the ball down and pushes it up, which means the big-serving, flat-hitting baseliners who dominate on hardcourt lose a chunk of their weapon.</p><p>Players who hit with heavy topspin, move well on a sliding surface, and can construct long points suddenly have the advantage.</p><p>Some of the best hardcourt players of the past 20 years have had genuinely ordinary records at Roland Garros. It’s not a coincidence.</p><p>The clay-court lead-in matters. The <strong>Monte Carlo Masters</strong>, <strong>Madrid Open</strong>, and Italian Open in Rome all take place in April and May, on the same surface, against most of the same fields.</p><p>A player who’s cruised through those events is sending a much stronger signal than their world ranking might suggest.</p><p>A top-10 player who’s lost early in every clay warm-up is often worth fading at Roland Garros regardless of their reputation.</p><p>Form from January through March on hardcourt in Melbourne, Indian Wells and Miami is almost worthless as a Roland Garros indicator.</p><p>The court conditions, ball, and point construction are entirely different. If you’re betting the French Open using <a href="https://www.sportsbet.com.au/betting/tennis/mens-australian-open">Australian Open</a> form, you’re likely going to have a bad fortnight.</p><h2>&nbsp;</h2><h2>Players to watch in 2026</h2><p>Here’s a quick rundown of the names we expect punters will see splashed across the Sportsbet markets, with context rather than predictions.</p><p><strong>Carlos Alcaraz</strong> is the defending men’s champion and has won Roland Garros twice. His game travels to clay better than almost anyone else on tour. Movement, topspin forehand, and willingness to play long points are all elite.</p><p><strong>Jannik Sinner</strong> is the world number one and has been the most consistent player on tour across surfaces, but clay has historically been his weakest. The 2025 final was his best Roland Garros showing to date.</p><p><strong>Novak Djokovic</strong> still pitches up at Roland Garros and, at his best, is a threat to anyone. His decline has been obvious on clay specifically, where the longer points punish any drop in physicality, but he’s won three French Open titles and shouldn’t be written off cheaply.</p><p><strong>Alexander Zverev</strong> has made four Roland Garros semi-finals and a final. Big server, solid mover for his size, comfortable in long rallies. Perennial threat even when he isn’t generating the same hype as the younger names.</p><p><strong>Aryna Sabalenka</strong> made the 2025 final and has been the most aggressive hitter on the women’s tour. Her game isn’t a natural clay fit in the traditional sense, but power plays everywhere.</p><p><strong>Coco Gauff</strong> is the defending women’s champion. Her movement and second-serve return are exceptional on clay, and she’s now won a major on the surface.</p><p><strong>Iga Swiatek</strong> has four French Open titles. When she’s on, she’s the most dominant clay-court player in the women’s game. When she’s off, as she was for stretches of 2025, she can lose to anyone.</p><p><strong>Alex de Minaur</strong> carries Australian hopes. His 2024 quarter-final was the first Roland Garros QF by an Aussie man since Lleyton Hewitt in 2004, which tells you something about how rare deep runs are for us on this surface. De Minaur is a genuine top-10 player, but clay is historically his weakest slam surface. Be honest about that when you’re sizing bets.</p><h2>&nbsp;</h2><h2>What’s different about Roland Garros</h2><p>Lastly, let’s look at a few things that set the French Open apart from the other Grand Slams and they matter for punters.</p><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Human line judges, not electronic calls</h3><p>Roland Garros is the only Grand Slam still using human line judges in 2026, since the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open all rolled out electronic line calling by 2025.</p><p>The French Tennis Federation confirmed in September 2025 that it would keep line judges for at least another year, arguing that ball marks on clay give the human system enough to work with.</p><p>In practice it means more ball-mark inspections, more on-court debates, and occasional moments where a bad call genuinely affects the result.</p><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Five sets with no tiebreak in the final set (men)</h3><p>The men play a 10-point tiebreak if the fifth set reaches 6-6, introduced across all Slams in 2022. Before that, fifth sets at Roland Garros could go on indefinitely.</p><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Night sessions on Chatrier</h3><p>One featured match per night under the retractable roof.</p><p>These start around 4am to 5am AEST and often produce the best atmosphere of the tournament.</p><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Clay is genuinely unique in the calendar</h3><p>Once again, this is the only Grand Slam on the surface, and the European clay swing that feeds into it runs for barely seven weeks.</p><p>That means less data, more form volatility, and a tighter window for players to dial in their best tennis. All of which matters when you’re reading markets.</p><h2>&nbsp;</h2><h2>Frequently Asked Questions about the 2026 French Open</h2><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>When does the 2026 French Open start?</h3><p>Qualifying begins on Sunday 18 May 2026 and the main draw starts on Sunday 24 May. The men’s final is on Sunday 7 June. Full dates run from 18 May to 7 June.</p><h3>Where can I watch the French Open in Australia?</h3><p>Free-to-air on Nine (Channel 9, 9Go, 9Gem) and 9Now streaming. Every match live with no ads on Stan Sport, which costs $15 per month on top of a standard Stan subscription.</p><h3>What time are French Open matches in Australia?</h3><p>Paris is eight hours behind AEST during the tournament. Day sessions typically run from around 7pm to 2am AEST, with night sessions on Chatrier starting around 4am to 5am AEST.</p><h3>Who won the 2025 French Open?</h3><p>Carlos Alcaraz won the men’s singles, beating Jannik Sinner in a five-set final that lasted five hours and 29 minutes. Coco Gauff won the women’s singles, defeating Aryna Sabalenka.</p><h3>What surface is the French Open played on?</h3><p>Red clay, known locally as terre battue. It’s the slowest of the three main tennis surfaces, producing higher bounces and longer rallies than hardcourt or grass.</p><h3>Why is it called both the French Open and Roland Garros?</h3><p>Roland Garros is the name of the stadium, given in honour of a French First World War aviator. The French Open is the English name for the tournament itself. Most Australian coverage uses French Open; European coverage typically uses Roland Garros but, in the end, they both refer to the same event.</p><h3>How long are French Open matches?</h3><p>Men’s matches average around three hours and can easily run beyond four. Women’s matches typically run between 90 minutes and two and a half hours. Clay stretches both.</p>