NBC Sports, Tennis Channel Roll Into Roland-Garros En Route To Paris Olympics
Saturday, May 25, 2024 at 03:02PM By Barry Janoff
May 25, 2024: NBC Sports and Tennis Channel are ready to present live coverage of 2024 Roland-Garros Grand Slam matches, but with an eye on a return to Paris for the Summer Games.
NBC Sports will present coverage on eight days of the French Open tournament with Peacock exclusively presenting three night sessions.
Tennis Channel will offer approximately 2,500 hours of live matches, encores, news, reviews and other programming on its main network, second channel T2 and subscription-service Tennis Channel+ from May 26-June 9.
Tennis Channel alone will offer some 140 hours of live competition and some 200 hours of encores to air after live play concludes each day.
Defending singles champions are Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek.
Roland-Garros will also be the site of matches during the Olympics, and many of the athletes participating in the French Open Grand Slam have either qualified or are seeking spots with their respective national teams to compete for medals in the Paris Games.
The French Open is the final tournament in Olympic tennis qualifying. The Olympics tennis matches to be staged in Roland-Garros will include a total of 172 players across five medal events: Men's and Women's singles and doubles and mixed doubles.
Following Roland Garros, the ATP Tour and Hologic WTA Tour rankings will determine much of the 64-player men’s and women’s singles fields for the Paris Games.
Those players return to Roland-Garros for Olympic competition July 27-Aug. 4.
NBC Sports and Racquet have launched a digital series, The French Connection, focusing on the 2024 tennis crossover in Paris between Roland-Garros and the Paris Olympics.
NBC is the exclusive U.S. home for the Paris Olympics and Paralympics.
Tennis Channel’s coverage will include news, reviews and special programming.
This is NBC’s 42nd consecutive year televising Roland-Garros, Tennis Channel is in its 18th year.
Roland-Garros partners include lead sponsor BNP Paribas, Accor, Emirates, Haier, Infosys, Lacoste, LavAzza. MasterCard, Moet Hennessy, Perrier, Renault, Rolex and Stella Artois.
NBC Sports and Peacock will present live coverage of Roland-Garros matches beginning with the First Round May 26 (Noon ET, Peacock).
On Memorial Day, May 27, Round 1 coverage begins on NBC (11 AM ET) and continues with the Night Session on Peacock (3 PM).
Live coverage culminates with the Women’s Singles Final June 8 (9 AM ET) and the Men’s Singles Final June 9 (9 AM ET), both on NBC and Peacock.
Rafael Nadal, a record 14-time French Open men’ singles champion, has missed most of the last year and a half due to injuries and is unseeded at a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2005 Australian Open.
He has indicated that 2024 would be his last season on the ATP Tour, but did not quite close the door on playing in 2025.
“It’s a big, big chance that (this is) going to be my last Roland Garros, but if I have to tell you it’s 100% my last Roland Garros, sorry, but I will not, because I cannot predict what’s going on,” he said during a media conference.
“I am grateful that I am able to be in Roland Garros and give myself a chance to play at least one more time here. Maybe the last one, maybe not.”
Nadal is scheduled to play No. 4 seeded Alexander Zverev in the First Round May 27.
Djokovic is scheduled to begin defending his Roland-Garros title May 27 against French wild card Pierre-Hugues Herbert, seeking to win a fourth French Open title and 25th career Grand Slam.
Total prize money for the 2024 French Open is a tournament record $58.1 million — an increase of nearly 7.8% from last year. The two singles champions will each win just over $2.6 million.
In comparison, Australian Open 2024 singles champions Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka each won $2.08 million.
Wimbledon 2023 singles champions Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova each won $2.95 million.
U.S. Open 2023 singles champions Djokovic and Coco Gauff won $3 million each.
Noah Eagle will make his debut as NBC Sports’ Roland-Garros play-by-play announcer alongside analysts Mary Carillo and John McEnroe.
Tennis Channel alone will offer approximately 140 hours of live competition and some 200 hours of encores that will air after live play concludes each day,
Tennis Channel’s 2024 Roland-Garros on-air crew includes Martina Navratilova, Jim Courier, Lindsay Davenport, Paul Annacone, Chanda Rubin, Prakash Amritraj and Jimmy Arias.
Regarding the Olympics, according to NBC Sports, up to four American men and four American women can qualify for the Olympics in singles in total, so some spots are still to be determined going into the French Open.
Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula (who has withdrawn from the French Open to recover from neck and back injuries), Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton have already mathematically clinched spots in the Paris Games singles fields.
After Shelton, top-ranked U.S. men on the ATP Tour currently include Frances Tiafoe, Sebastian Korda and Chris Eubanks.
After Pegula, top-ranked U.S. women on the Hologic WTA Tour are Danielle Collins, Madison Keys, Emma Navarro and Sloane Stephens.
Nadal can use a protected ranking available to players who miss at least six months of competition.
Naomi Osaka is also eligible to use a protected ranking for the Olympics after returning this past January after giving birth to her first child in July 2023.
Roland-Garros Men’s Draw
Roland-Garros Women’s Draw
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