French Open winners: who has claimed the title over the last five years?

Roland Garros has thrown up some compelling storylines over the last five years, across both the men's and women's draws.

With the French Open 2026 betting markets already starting to take shape, looking back at recent champions offers a useful reminder of what this tournament tends to reward.

One player has dominated the women's singles to a degree rarely seen in the modern era, while the men's draw has been rather more unpredictable, producing three different champions since 2020.

In this article, we look back at the last five winners in each draw and what made their runs to the title stand out.

Novak Djokovic claimed his second French Open title and 19th Grand Slam overall by defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final, coming from two sets down to complete one of the more extraordinary reversals the tournament had seen for some time.

Few players in the history of the sport recover from that position in a Grand Slam final, and Djokovic made it look almost routine.

On the women's side, Barbora Krejcikova arrived at Roland Garros primarily known as a doubles player and left as a singles Grand Slam champion.

She defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final in a tournament that almost no one had anticipated her winning, becoming only the second player in the Open Era to win the singles and doubles titles at the same French Open.

Rafael Nadal's 14th French Open title remains one of the most extraordinary individual achievements the tournament has produced.

He beat Casper Ruud in the final, dropping only one set across the entire fortnight, and did so while managing chronic foot issues that had threatened to end his season before it had properly begun.

For a player who had spent much of the year in rehabilitation, winning the title with that level of authority was a result that surpassed most expectations heading into the fortnight.

Iga Swiatek's first defence of her 2020 title was equally commanding. She dropped just one set across the tournament and beat Coco Gauff in the final, beginning what would become a three-year reign at the venue that few opponents could do anything about.

With Nadal absent through injury, Djokovic took full advantage to claim his third Roland Garros title and a record-breaking 23rd Grand Slam, defeating Ruud in the final for the second year running.

It was a composed, controlled display from a player who had faced considerable scepticism heading into the clay season, and he answered it emphatically.

Swiatek made it back-to-back titles on the women's side, beating Karolina Muchova in three sets and recovering from dropping the second to close out the match with the authority that had come to define her performances at this venue. Those following the bet on tennis markets ahead of the tournament would have found very short odds on her retaining the title, and for good reason.

Carlos Alcaraz announced himself as the standout player on clay with his first French Open title, a campaign that included a five-set semi-final win over Djokovic and a straight-sets victory over Alexander Zverev in the final.

He became the youngest man to win Roland Garros in the Open Era, his movement and shot-making on the surface operating at a level no one else in the draw could match.

Swiatek delivered a fourth title, beating Jasmine Paolini in a final she controlled from the outset without dropping a set until the semifinals.

By this point, she had drawn comparisons with Chris Evert as the greatest women's clay-court player of the modern era, and her record at Roland Garros did little to challenge that argument.

If the 2024 title put Alcaraz at the top of the clay-court conversation, the 2025 final made the case with even more force. He came from two sets down to defeat world number one Jannik Sinner 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6 in the longest final in Roland Garros history, lasting five hours and 29 minutes. 

Alcaraz saved three consecutive championship points in the fourth set before completing the comeback, becoming only the third man in the Open Era to win a major after facing match point. At 23, his five Grand Slam titles already place him in elite company.

Coco Gauff became the first American women's champion at Roland Garros in a decade by defeating world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the final.

Swiatek had been stopped by Sabalenka in the semifinals, ending a three-year reign at the venue, but Gauff had answers the Belarusian could not find. She left Paris as a two-time major champion at 22.