1. 2017 Roland Garros: This is the 50th tournament in the Open Era (since 1968) and 87^th at Roland Garros since 1925 (tournament was not held from 1940-45 during World War II).

In 1925, the draw was opened to players outside of France. The French Championships started in 1891 and this is the 116th overall staging of the tournament. There are three former champions in the field – reigning champ Novak Djokovic, 2015 titleholder Stan Wawrinka and nine-time winner Rafael Nadal (2005-08, 2010-14).

2. Big Four Dominate: Since Roland Garros in 2005, when Nadal won his first Grand Slam title, the Big Four have accounted for 43 of the past 48 Grand Slam titles. During the current stretch, Nadal has won 14 titles, Federer 14, Djokovic 12 and Murray 3.

The three other players to win a Grand Slam title during the span are: Wawrinka, a three-time champion (2014 Australian Open, 2015 Roland Garros, 2016 US Open), Marin Cilic (2014 US Open) and Juan Martin del Potro (2009 US Open). In addition, the Big Four have won 59 of the past 65 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles, dating back to 2010 Monte-Carlo, where Nadal won.

Since 2015, Cilic (2016 Cincinnati) and Alexander Zverev (2017 Rome) are the only non-Big Four champs. Zverev is the first player born in the 1990s to win a Masters 1000 title. The only player born in the 1990s to reach a Grand Slam final is Milos Raonic, who was runner-up at Wimbledon last year.

3. Rafa Seeks 10th Title: Nine-time champion Rafael Nadal eyes a historic 10th title at Roland Garros. The Spaniard is already owner of the most titles at a single Grand Slam event.

Nadal is 72-2 lifetime at Roland Garros and has only been pushed to five sets twice at the tournament, beating John Isner and Novak Djokovic in five-setters en route to titles in 2011 and 2013, respectively.

4. Nadal on Fire: Nadal, who turns 31 on 3 June, is 17-1 on clay this season after winning his 10th Monte-Carlo, 10th Barcelona and fifth Madrid title. He owns an 870-point lead over Federer in the Emirates ATP Race To London and is on pace to end a year as World No. 1 for the fourth time.

See Who’s Pushing Nadal and Federer In The Race

5. Djokovic and Agassi Debut: Djokovic, reigning champion, will be coached by another man who completed the career Grand Slam in Paris, Andre Agassi, who accomplished the feat in 1999 on his 11^th attempt.

Last year in his 12^th attempt in Paris, Djokovic lifted his first champion’s trophy. Both won the title at age 29. The World No. 2 is one of two players to beat Nadal at Roland Garros (2015 quarter-finals) along with Robin Soderling (2009 4R).

6. No. 1 Seed Murray: World No. 1 Andy Murray is the first British man as top seed at Roland Garros since Bunny Austin in 1937. Last year Murray reached his first Roland Garros final. This is his 10^th appearance (34-9 record).

Murray is 4-4 on clay this season and last year he was a career-best 18-3. As was the case in 2016, he enters Paris with one title on the year. Murray ended 2016 with an ATP-best nine titles. On 29 May, it will be the 30^th consecutive week Murray is No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings (since 7 November 2016).

7. A Look at No. 1 & 2: Murray and Djokovic have occupied the Top 2 spots in the Emirates ATP Rankings every week since 16 May 2016. Djokovic has been ranked in the Top 2 every week since 21 March 2011.

Last year Murray came into Roland Garros with a 22-5 record (1-2 in finals). This year he is 16-7 overall (1-1 in finals). Last year Djokovic entered Paris with a 37-3 record (5-1 in finals). This season he is 20-6 (1-1 in finals). This is the first time since 2010 he comes into Paris with one ATP World Tour title.

8. Winning Wawrinka: Former champion Wawrinka comes into Paris after defending his Geneva crown (d. M. Zverev), his first title since last year’s US Open. Prior to Geneva he was 2-3 on clay during the season.

He enters with a 20-8 record overall. Wawrinka defeated the World No. 1 in all three of his Grand Slam finals (2014 Australian Open, 2015 Roland Garros, 2016 US Open). He is 0-20 against the World No. 1 in all other rounds/events.

9. Thiem Dominating: World No. 7 Dominic Thiem is the only player to beat Nadal on clay this year, avenging losses in the Barcelona and Madrid finals by defeating the Spaniard in the Rome quarter-finals. He is 17-4 on clay this season.

Thiem and David Goffin are tied for the second-most wins in 2017 with 29 (Nadal: 36). Last year Thiem advanced to his first Grand Slam semi-final at Roland Garros (l. to Djokovic).

10. Sascha Breaks Through: #NextGenATP star Alexander Zverev, who was born in 1997, defeated Djokovic at Rome on 21 May to become the first Masters 1000, Nitto ATP Finals or Grand Slam champion born in the 1990s.

The 20-year-old German broke into the Top 10 after Rome from No. 17 to No. 10, and he’s the youngest player in the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings since Juan Martin del Potro (20) on 20 October 2008.

11. Seeded Brothers: No. 9 Alexander and No. 32 Mischa Zverev are the first brothers to be seeded in a Grand Slam tournament since 1982 Wimbledon with No. 4 Sandy and No. 6 Gene Mayer. Mischa comes in after reaching the final in Geneva as a qualifier.

12. #NextGenATP Watch: The Top 7 players in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan will be in action, including Borna Coric of Croatia. Coric is No. 2 in the #NextGenATP race after saving five championship points for his first title at Marrakech in April and beating Murray at Madrid on 11 May.

See Who’s Pushing Coric In The Emirates ATP Race To Milan

13. delPo Returns: No. 29 seed Juan Martin del Potro returns to Roland Garros for the first time since 2012 when he reached the quarter-finals (l. to Federer). His best clay result this season is the QFs in Rome (l. to Djokovic).

14. Flying the French Flag: A tournament-high 19 French players are in the main draw. Leading the way are former semi-finalists Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils.

Tsonga won his first clay title in Lyon and has won three titles this season, the most since 2009. A Frenchman has not captured a Grand Slam singles title since Yannick Noah at Roland Garros in 1983.

15. Lopez Grand Slam Streak: Feliciano Lopez is playing in his 61^st consecutive Grand Slam tournament, which is the longest active streak in men’s tennis. The 35-year-old Spaniard is closing in on Federer’s all-time record of 65 Grand Slam tournaments played in a row.

16. Doubles Field: Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut hope to become the second French doubles team since 1984 to win Roland Garros. Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin captured the title in 2014.

Also in the field are 2016 champions Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez and 2016 finalists Bob Bryanand Mike Bryan. The Bryans, who won Roland Garros in 2003 and 2013 and are 2-5 in finals, have not won a title since Rome in 2016 (19 events).

* KING OF ROLAND GARROS: In 2012, Nadal passed six-time winner Bjorn Borg with the most titles in Roland Garros history (since 1925). Three years ago he won for the ninth time. Here are the players with three or more titles:

* SIX MORE TITLES: Here are the players with six or more titles at the same Grand Slam event (post Challenge Round):

Player	Grand Slam	Titles	Years
Rafael Nadal	Roland Garros	9	2005-08, 2010-14
Bill Tilden	US Championships	7	1920-25, 1929
Pete Sampras	Wimbledon	7	1993-95, 1997-2000
Roger Federer	Wimbledon	7	2003-07, 2009, 2012
Novak Djokovic	Australian Open	6	2008, 2011-13,2015-16
Roy Emerson	Australian Championships	6	1961, 1963-67
Bjorn Borg	Roland Garros	6	1974-75, 1978-81

* CLAY-COURT DOMINATOR – Nadal has the best career match record on clay in the Open Era with a 382-35 mark (.916), and he’s 52-9 in clay finals. In 11 of the past 13 years he’s won at least two European clay court titles coming into Roland Garros. Here’s a year-by-year look at Nadal’s clay court supremacy since 2005 (year of first Roland Garros crown):

* ROLAND GARROS WINS LEADERS: Nadal, Federer and Djokovic are among the all-time Roland Garros match wins leaders:

W-L Titles

1) Rafael Nadal 72-2 9

2) Roger Federer 65-16 1

3) Guillermo Vilas 58-17 1

4) Novak Djokovic 55-11 1

5) Ivan Lendl 53-12 3

Jaroslav Drobny 53-14 2

7) Andre Agassi 51-16 1

8) Nicola Pietrangeli 50-17 2

9) Bjorn Borg 49-2 6

10) Mats Wilander 47-9 3

* CAREER GRAND SLAM CLUB: Last year Djokovic became the eighth player in men’s tennis history to complete a career Grand Slam and he became the first man to hold all four Grand Slam titles since Rod Laver in 1969. Djokovic, Nadal and Federer are the three active players in the Career Grand Slam Club. Other players to accomplish the feat: Fred Perry, Don Budge, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, and Andre Agassi.

* MOST ATTEMPTS TO TITLE: Murray is making his 10^th appearance at Roland Garros. The most attempts to win the Roland Garros title in the Open Era is 12 by Djokovic last year. The most attempts to win any Grand Slam title in the Open Era is 14 by Goran Ivanisevic, who won Wimbledon in 2001. Here are the players with the most attempts (10 or more) to win the Roland Garros title:

* ALL-TIME GRAND SLAM CHAMPIONS: Here is a look at the all-time Grand Slam titles leaders with 10-more:

It was one year ago that Andy Murray began to plot his climb to the top spot of the Emirates ATP Rankings on the European clay. A title in Rome was followed by a run to the final at Roland Garros and the Scot was soaring.

But Murray is the first to admit that his current clay-court campaign is a bit different. Much has changed for the World No. 1 and after consecutive early defeats at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Rome, he is seeking to rediscover his rhythm on the terre battue of Paris.

While he acknowledges that his struggles are real, Murray believes that he needs to embrace them in order to break from them.

“I haven’t been doing well recently,” Murray told the assembled media prior to his Roland Garros opener. “The last few months have not been good. I haven’t played well. I need to accept that I’m struggling and then find a way to get through it. I will get through it. I’m sure of that. When that happens, I don’t know. Hopefully it happens in a few days. Hopefully happens at this event. If it doesn’t, maybe it happens during the grass.

“But the only way to get through it is to work your way through it, keep working on your game, try and understand what’s not been going right. Although it’s very frustrating, you have to try to enjoy this part of what we do, as well, because the struggles are part of what make the good times so enjoyable. I need to enjoy my struggle a little bit just now and that will help me get through it quicker, I believe. The more frustrated you get, it doesn’t help either. I’ll try and get through it as quickly as I can.

“I don’t know exactly why that happens, what the reason for it is, because I still love the travel, I love practising, I love the training aspect. I still love tennis. But it just happens sometimes. I’m sure everyone in here sometimes maybe hasn’t enjoyed writing stories for a few weeks sometimes. Maybe there are no interesting stories at the time. And it’s not as much fun. Everyone goes through it. But I know why I play tennis; because I love it and I enjoy it. I’ll keep plugging away until I get back to where I want to get to.”

Murray is making his 10th appearance at Roland Garros, with his best result coming last year in finishing runner-up to Novak Djokovic. The top seed opens against Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov. He leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-0, having most recently prevailed in Beijing last year.

A potential blockbuster third-round encounter against Juan Martin del Potro awaits the Scot, with eighth seed Kei Nishikori and ninth seed and reigning Rome champion Alexander Zverev also looming in his quarter of the draw. Murray admits that he has been feeling under the weather recently, but says he will be ready to go for the second Grand Slam of the year.

“I still pretty much got everything done that I needed to do,” Murray added. “I was supposed to practise on Monday here. I traveled on Sunday. Sunday afternoon was when I started to feel a bit sick. It was Monday and Tuesday that I didn’t feel great. But I still practised a bit on Tuesday.

“I feel much better just now. I’ve just got a cough, but I was just a bit sick for a couple of days. It’s been frustrating, obviously, because it’s happened the third time this year where I have had to miss days or have been in bed. I’m surprise it hasn’t happened more really, considering the amount that we travel and how long the season is. I have been pretty lucky with that over the last couple of years. I have not had too many sort of bad illnesses.

“So maybe they have just come in a small space of time. But I feel okay now. I will be all good when the tournament starts. It happens. We are in the locker rooms with lots of players, lots of sweat, lots of germs and in airplanes all the time. It happens. I practised a few days in London. It was raining and very cold. But I still tried to practise quite hard through that. Maybe that was why I just picked up a little something.”

Murray is slated to open his Roland Garros campaign on Tuesday. He owns a 34-match win streak in Grand Slam first rounds.

After a year inside the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, Dominic Thiem now feels like he belongs among the elite group.

It wasn’t always that way, though. For a time, Thiem looked at the Top 10 as a place for his “idols”, not a destination for the 20-something Austrian.

“If you come there for the first time at quite a young age, I don’t know, you look up to them, to the other ones in the Top 10 and feel strange somehow, because they have been your idols and now you’re with them,” said Thiem, who joined the group as a 22 year old after his Roland Garros semi-final run last year.

But the Austrian has more than proved he’s among the best of the best on the ATP World Tour, and he now feels that way as well.

“It’s very nice to be in the Top 10. I’m very pleased that I have been there for one year now. I didn’t quite expect it when I came in the first time last year,” Thiem said. “Now I’m a little bit more confident. I feel that I belong there, basically, and it’s a little bit easier for me.”

Thiem’s semi-final run last year in Paris (l. to Djokovic) propelled him to No. 7 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Heading into Roland Garros, which starts Sunday, the Austrian is back at the career-high position and a popular pick to return to the semi-finals or go farther in Paris.

The 6’1” right-hander has gone 12-4 during the European clay-court swing, with two of his four losses coming against nine-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal. But Thiem is also the only player to have beaten Nadal during the clay-court season, upsetting the “King of Clay” 6-4, 6-3 last week in the Rome quarter-finals.

Thiem During European Clay-Court Swing

“The win over Rafa was of course a big thing for me. I played the best player on clay three times in three tournaments. I learned a lot from that matches, so I think I prepared well for this tournament,” Thiem said.

The two could meet in the semi-finals in Paris. Nadal leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 4-2, and all six matches have come on clay.

Read More: Nadal Prepares For Run At History

“He’s back at his best this year, and then also he’s won [Roland Garros] nine times. So he knows how it works to win here,” Thiem said. “I think he will try everything to win ‘La Décima’. I think it will be very unique in tennis to win a Grand Slam title ten times. It’s pretty crazy. So 100 per cent he’s the one to beat here and the big favourite.”

Thiem, the sixth seed, opens against Aussie Bernard Tomic on Monday. The 23-year-old Thiem won their only prior FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting at the 2016 Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco.

“I feel good. I always come here with a good feeling. I played finals as a junior six years ago. Then last year the semis,” Thiem said. “Obviously it’s my favourite surface, so it’s always a good feeling to come back. And as I defended many [Emirates ATP Rankings] points in the last weeks in Rome and Madrid, I don’t come here with that much pressure.”