Roland Garros withdrawals: Carlos Alcaraz unable to defend title in Paris, Lorenzo Musetti, Jack Draper, Holger Rune prevented from competing

The second Grand Slam of the year is right around the corner. Roland Garros will play host to the biggest names in the sport as they fight it out for Grand Slam glory. However, not all the top players will be there, with some very recognisable exclusions.

The tournament will take place from May 24-June 7. It is a huge opportunity for many big names to get themselves up the rankings with a whole load of points on offer while making a name for themselves. Storylines will be written with the whole tennis world diverting their gaze to Paris for the next couple of weeks.

While most of the recognisable players will be here or there abouts, a select handful will not be competing in either the ATP or WTA events, cruelly being forced to watch on the sidelines.

The most notable withdrawal has to be Carlos Alcaraz. A wrist injury picked up at the Barcelona Open has been detrimental to his clay swing. He has been forced to sit out of the rest of it due to the severity of the injury. The most significant factor is that he will be unable to defend his title after brilliantly coming back from two sets down and saving three match points against Jannik Sinner last year. This absence plays right into the hands of the Italian, who is the overwhelming favourite for glory.

Speaking of Italians, Lorenzo Musetti is also out of the fray. He will suffer another dip in the rankings with his semi-final showing from last year not set to be bettered. 2026 has been one of injuries and setbacks. He was looking to kick on from a fine 2025 but been prevented from mustering up any consistency on court. He struggled in his home event at the Rome Open, pulling out due to a rectus femoris (quadriceps) problem.

Jack Draper has also been someone dealing with numerous injury problems. After recovering from a left arm injury, he has now dealt some serious damage to his knee. Similar to Alcaraz, this also came at the Barcelona Open. While these are fresh injury concerns, Holger Rune has been out of action for some time recovering from a nasty achilles injury. He was set to make his tennis return a week before at the Hamburg Open, but pulled out of both tournaments seemingly not quite ready to return to action.

These are the big names not competing, but there are more further down the order. Former Rome Open finalist Nicolas Jarry has pulled out of qualifying. Luca Nardi has also opted to skip this tournament. Yoshihito Nishioka, Hugo Gaston, Titouan Droguet, Adam Walton, Arthur Gea, Clement Tabur, and Nishesh Basavareddy were all meant to partake in qualifying, but for differing reasons will not make the trip to Paris.

Thankfully, this list is much shorter. Marketa Vondrousova has not featured for some time after being provisionally suspended by the International Tennis Integrity Agency after missing three drug tests. She will not return to action for a little bit of time as she looks to get herself better from a mental health perspective and to clear her name.

Sonay Kartal also misses out, to the dismay of British tennis fans. The British number two has been out of action since picking up a back injury at Indian Wells enroute to the fourth round. She remains injury stricken and will not make a return to Roland Garros. Varvara Gracheva will also miss the tournament on home soil after suffering a devastating ACL injury while practicing.