Paris – SANA

With the absence of its most prominent symbols and the record holder for the number of titles. Roland Garros kicks off the most prestigious clay-court tennis tournament, so will Alcaraz, Medvedev, Djokovic, Tsitsipas and the rest of the audience make up for the absence of Rafael Nadal and be on the same date of enthusiasm, rivalry and strong competition until the end?

The Roland Garros tennis tournament, the second of the four Grand Slam tournaments of the season, which will be held on clay courts, kicks off next Monday in the French capital, Paris.

The tournament includes men's professional singles and doubles, women's professional singles and doubles, and mixed doubles, as well as competitions for juniors and singles and doubles and will continue until June 11.

This edition of the tournament will see the absence of defending champion Rafael Nadal for the first time since 2005.

"El Matador" as his fans like to call him and the record holder of winning the tournament 14 times had announced his withdrawal from it this season due to the incomplete recovery from the injury sustained in his left hip during the Australian Open this year, which was considered by many fans of the game a painful blow to what represents the king of clay courts Nadal of great symbolism in this particular tournament, which has become in the last 18 years the scene of his creations, magic touches and major titles.

Read more: Nadal closes the history book at Roland Garros with its 14th title

A brief history of the tournament

Roland Garros began in 1891, 132 years ago, with 126 editions.

The reason for the name of the tournament is due to the French pilot Roland Garros, who was the first to cross the Mediterranean by air, flying from the French city of Frigos to Bizerte, Tunisia.

The tournament began with men's singles only, women's singles began in 1897, in 1902 the men's doubles competition was added, while the women's doubles were added in 1907.

Foreign tennis players were only allowed to participate in the tournament in 1925, and Roland Garros was cancelled from 1940 to 1945 due to World War II.

The winner of the tournament from the men's and women's singles matches receives 2000,<> points in the overall standings.

The most successful men's winner in history is Spain's Rafael Nadal 14 times, while American player Chris Everett holds the women's record for winning French Open titles with 7 times.

Who are the most prominent attendees and absentees of Roland Garros this season?

As mentioned earlier... The absence of Spanish star Rafael Nadal from the tournament is the highlight of the season, due to an injury sustained at the start of the season.

Among the most prominent absentees from this edition is the British Andy Murray, the former world number one, who announced his withdrawal from the tournament a few days ago due to lack of physical readiness, and Australian star Nick Kyrgios will miss the Roland Garros tournament this season, due to his injury following a robbery months ago.

The most prominent participants in this season is the world number one, the 20-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who was crowned with four Masters titles 1000 points, namely Miami and Madrid last year, Indian Wells and Madrid this year, and was crowned last season with his first titles in the Grand Slam tournaments after he achieved the US Open tennis title by defeating the American Casper Rudd in the final to top the world rankings at the expense of Serbian Novak Djokovic, ranked third in the world at the present time, who In turn, he will seek to single out the record by winning Grand Slam tournaments, as he shares the number of times winning with Nadal with 22 titles, but it will not be easy this season, especially after the declining performance of the Serbian recently after the strong start this season, which began by winning the titles of the Adelaide tournament and then the Australian Open, then the results of Djokovic declined, to end his career at the semi-finals of the Dubai Championship at the hands of Russian Daniil Medvedev, and then the price of the final of the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 points at the hands of Italian Lorenzo Muzzetti, then knocked out of the quarter-finals of the Banja Luka tournament Bosnian at the hands of his compatriot Dušan Lajovic, and finally deposited the Rome tournament from the quarter-finals at the hands of Denmark's Holger Ronh and failed to retain his title in it.

During his career, Djokovic has 93 titles, including 22 Grand Slam tournaments, 38 Masters titles 1000 points and 6 tournaments in the finals of the World Tour of the Association of Tennis Professionals.

Read more: Djokovic wins tenth Australian Open title

The draw for the tournament resulted in a possible clash between Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals.

Muhammad Natifa

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