Since Rafael Nadal won the first of his record 14 French Open men’s titles in 2005, all but one of the Musketeers’ cups have gone home with a tennis superstar.
Top-ranked players Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz broke through during and after Rafa’s reign, which ended with his French Open finale in 2024.
The outlier? Stan Wawrinka defeated Djokovic for the 2015 crown. Oh, and now 2026.
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The 2026 French Open men’s draw has turned into the rare major where nobody can confidently circle a single favorite in ink.
Alcaraz withdrew with a wrist injury after becoming the youngest man ever to complete the career Grand Slam at the Australian Open. Meanwhile, two of the top three seeds, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and Djokovic, dropped out early at Roland Garros. The men’s side looks as open as anything tennis has seen in years, with second-seeded Alexander Zverev and No. 10-seeded Flavio Cabolli the top men standing in the semifinals.
This is not new territory for the sport. Every generation gets a few Grand Slams where the draw cracks open, the usual pecking order disappears, and a handful of players can realistically talk themselves into lifting the trophy. Here are four of the most wide-open men’s majors we have seen.
2002 Australian Open: First-round chaos
Thomas Johansson of Sweden lifts the trophy after winning the 2002 Australian Open.
Seeded 16th, he beat (9)Marat Safin in 4 sets in the final for his only major title.
📸: Nick Laham/Getty Images pic.twitter.com/JNc8ksaues
— Tennis Historian (@HistorianTennis) January 30, 2023
The 2002 Australian Open is a template for how quickly a men’s Slam can lose its center of gravity. Top seeds Lleyton Hewitt and Gustavo Kuerten lost in the first round. Andre Agassi, who had already won three titles in Melbourne, never made it to the starting line, nursing a wrist injury of his own.
What followed was a draw where names like Thomas Johansson, Jonas Bjorkman and Nicolas Escudé suddenly found themselves in the second week with a real path to the title. Johansson, the 16th seed, wound up beating ninth-seeded Marat Safin to claim his only Grand Slam trophy.
The sense around the grounds that year was simple:. Whoever stayed upright the longest might win it. That feeling, more than any individual upset, is what defines a wide-open Slam.
2009 US Open: Federer streak ends; Del Potro emerges
Juan Martin del Potro is the only non-European tennis player to win a Major in the last 22 years. In 2009, the Argentine won the US Open, defeating Federer. pic.twitter.com/qZdhSoVdQ7
— osiris (@DOUZIE25) February 4, 2026
On paper, a Slam that ends with Federer in the final does not sound wide open. In practice, the 2009 US Open had the feel of a draw begging for a new name on the trophy.
Nadal came in battling abdominal issues and was not at peak hard-court form. Djokovic was still figuring out his New York formula. Andy Murray, the No. 2 seed, went out in the fourth round. That left a vacuum behind Federer that a 20-year-old Juan Martín del Potro happily filled. He blasted through Nadal in the semifinals and then overpowered Federer in five sets in the final. Federer was coming off his only French Open title and one of his eight Wimbledon crowns.
Del Potro’s run was not a fluke, but it did require a particular set of conditions: one dominant player still standing, several others compromised and a young contender hot enough to punch through for his only Slam crown.
2014 US Open: Nishikori, Cilic and a new-blood final
By 2014, the Big Four era had conditioned everyone to expect some combination of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray on the final weekend. The 2014 US Open broke that script.
Nadal missed the event with a wrist injury. Federer lost to Marin Cilic in a straight-sets semifinal that was more rout than breakthrough. Djokovic went out to Kei Nishikori, who reached his first major final. That left Nishikori and Cilic playing for a first Slam title, with history guaranteed for whoever handled the moment best.
The tournament felt open from the start because of Nadal’s absence, but it was the human side of it that stuck. Players who had spent years running into the same roadblocks suddenly had space to imagine a path through the draw. The result was a final many fans did not see coming, and a champion in Cilic who took full advantage of a rare gap in the hierarchy. It turned out to be Cilic’s lone Slam win.
2020 US Open: First major of the pandemic era
📅 On This Day in 2020 — Dominic Thiem won the US Open 🏆🇦🇹
✨He defeated Alexander Zverev to capture his first Grand Slam title.
🔥 He became the first player born in the 1990s to win a men’s Slam.
A career-defining moment for the Austrian star 🌟#DominicThiem #ATP #USOpen pic.twitter.com/jrwCVmTDxJ
— Sportskeeda Tennis (@SK__Tennis) September 13, 2025
The 2020 US Open, staged inside a bubble with no fans, was a unique case. On the men’s side, it was also wide open in a way the sport had not seen in years.
Federer missed the tournament as he recovered from knee surgery. Nadal chose not to travel. Djokovic, the overwhelming favorite, was defaulted in the fourth round after hitting a ball that struck a line judge. That opened the door for a group that had been stuck in the second tier.
Dominic Thiem came back from two sets down in the final to win his only Grand Slam event over Zverev. Players like Pablo Carreño Busta and Daniil Medvedev filled out the later rounds. If 2014 was about a break in the routine, 2020 was about chaos. The sport’s most reliable closer exited the tournament on a rules violation, and the vacuum at the top turned the last week into a mental test as much as a physical one.