Draw Me Like One of Your French Opens, 2026
5/23/20261 hr 2 min
Ben and Tumaini keep everyone's favorite annual episode title going strong with a look at the draws for the 2026 French Open, where Jannik Sinner is a prohibitive favorite against an uninspiring men's field and the women's side seems far more up for grabs.
Can anyone stop Sinner? If so, whom? And who could even make it out of the bottom half?
On the women's side, we discuss Sabalenka, Swiatek, and a recent video involving Leylah Fernandez and her coach.
We also discuss the media "protest" that players staged during media days, with varying degrees of successful stagecraft.
Then to wrap up, we chat about our dear departed friend Howard Fendrich, the longtime AP tennis reporter who passed away this week. (You can read Ben's tribute to Howard here.)
Thank you for listening! Our Patreon is back up and running to ensure NCR keeps going and stays ad-free, and we hope you can join in supporting NCR! And we especially thank our GOAT backers: Pam Shriver and J. O'D.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsTumaini Carayol· Host0:00
Miss Ostapenko has no challenges remaining Welcome to Draw Me Like One of Your French Opens 2026.
Ben Rothenberg· Host0:07
I'm Ben Rothenberg. This is No Challenges Remaining, joined as ever by NCR Spain and Sub-Saharan Africa correspondent, also tennis correspondent for The Guardian, Tumani Carial. Tumani, hello again from our Paris home. How are you doing?
Tumaini Carayol· Host0:20
Bonjour. I'm, I'm good, thank you. Um, I'm doing better than Ar- Arthur Fils, unfortunately.
Ben Rothenberg· Host0:24
Ah, yeah.
Tumaini Carayol· Host0:25
Pss.
Ben Rothenberg· Host0:26
Do you, in his press conference, what was, what was that like?
Tumaini Carayol· Host0:28
Yeah.
Ben Rothenberg· Host0:28
So after some speculation, he withdrew from the tournament.
Tumaini Carayol· Host0:30
Yeah, I mean, the whole week has just been a bit messy, just, just in terms of the fact that, I mean, it's Saturday, and today was the first time he, um, trained. He trained on, on, uh, Chatrier against Lehecka. Actually looked, you know, if, if you didn't know anything was wrong, you'd say he looked fine. He, he won the set 6-3.
Ben Rothenberg· Host0:46
Hmm.
Tumaini Carayol· Host0:47
But that was, you know, that it's very unusual for a player who, who's in the city to not play, um, to not actually train on site at, at Grand Slam, you know, until the day before the tournament begins. So alarm bells were already ringing and then, you know, he, he was supposed to train later in the day with Monfils. Instead, you know, um, his time for, his press conference time, um, was like, was, uh, you know, his, his press conference started at the time he was supposed to be on court. So again, more alarm bells ringing and then, it, it... It's funny actually. I was just thinking, you know, it's, so he, he withdrew obviously. He announced it in his press conference and I, I was thinking it's funny how you quickly you become, um, like, in, you understand the rhythms of a withdrawal