Big-name absentees dominate build-up to French Open

Attention heading into the French Open is as much on who is not in Paris as who will take to the clay courts at Roland Garros.

Carlos Alcaraz is the biggest name absentee having been ruled out of the majority of the clay season and Wimbledon with a wrist injury.

It has also been a disappointing campaign so far for British players, with injuries and illness affecting a number of leading names.

Jack Draper’s ranking will drop outside the top 100 after his long absence with bone bruising in his arm was followed by a knee problem that is keeping him away from Roland Garros.

Sonay Kartal also remains sidelined by a back injury, while Emma Raducanu has just returned from two-and-a-half months out with a post-viral illness and Jacob Fearnley and Fran Jones have also spent time away from the court.

Jones suffered a leg injury at the Australian Open and has recently been battling to recover fully from a concussion sustained in a gym accident in the USA, for which she is taking legal action.

“I think for anyone to be sat in a room with headaches and concussion for a couple of weeks is always going to be quite a challenging experience and one that I wouldn’t really wish on anyone,” she said.

Jones went into the Australian Open ranked 71 but is now down at 105 and had to rely on other players withdrawing to avoid going through qualifying here.

“You see a ranking plummeting, you can’t really do anything about it,” she said. “You feel useless.

“Trying to fight for a place at Roland Garros when you start the year closer to the top 50 than you do the top 100 is not a position I expected to be in. It’s felt like two steps forward, two steps back.”

The 25-year-old believes the small number of leading British players compared to other