The 2021 French Open Men's Singles final was the championship tennis match of the men's singles tournament at the

2021 French Open The 2021 French Open was a Grand Slam (tennis), major level tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was held at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from 30 May to 13 June 2021, comprising singles, doubles and mixed doubles pla ...

, contested by first-seed

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Новак Ђоковић, Novak Đoković, separator=" / ", ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at N ...

and fifth-seed

Stefanos Tsitsipas Stefanos Tsitsipas (, ; born 12 August 1998) is a Greek professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), first achieved in August 2021 – mak ...

. Djokovic came back from two-sets-to-love down to defeat Tsitsipas, marking the fifth time that such a comeback has occurred in a

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

final in the

Open Era The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Edgbaston, Warwickshire, England, now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today a ...

, after the finals in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

, and

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

. By reaching the final, Tsitsipas became the first Greek player to reach a major final. With the win, Djokovic won his 19th major and became the first man in the Open Era to achieve the Double Career Grand Slam. Djokovic also became the first man to win a major in the Open Era after coming back from two-sets-to-love-down in two matches during the same major. It was a rematch of the previous year's semifinal, which Djokovic also won in five-sets. It marked the second consecutive year a man trailed by two sets in a major final yet rallied to win, following

Dominic Thiem Dominic Thiem (; born 3 September 1993) is an Austrian former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved in March 2020. Thiem won 17 ATP Tour-level s ...

's victory at the 2020 US Open. The match itself was praised as one of the best of the 2021 season.

Background

Entering into the final, Djokovic led the career head-to-head, with 5 wins to 2 wins. Previous to the French Open, Djokovic had won the

2021 Australian Open The 2021 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park, on 8–21 February 2021. It was the 109th edition of the Australian Open, the 53rd in the Open Era, and the first Major tournament of the year. It w ...

, and was aiming to win his 19th major at the French Open, along with achieving the first Double Career Grand Slam. On the other hand, Tsitsipas had won more matches on clay than any other player during the season, and had won titles at both the 2021 Lyon Open and the 2021 Monte-Carlo Masters. In the semifinals, Djokovic defeated the four-time defending champion and thirteen-time overall champion

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for ...

in an epic in four sets that lasted over four hours. It was a rematch of the previous year's final, and marked the third time in Nadal's career that he was defeated at the French Open, and was both his first semifinal loss at the event and the first time that Nadal had lost a match at the French Open after having won the first set. On the other hand, Tsitsipas beat

Alexander Zverev Alexander "Sascha" Zverev (; born 20 April 1997) is a German professional tennis player and the current world No. 3. He has won 24 ATP Tour titles in singles and two in doubles, and has been runner-up at three Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, ma ...

in five sets. Djokovic had also come back from two-sets-to-love down in the fourth round against

Lorenzo Musetti Lorenzo Musetti (; born 3 March 2002) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP rankings, ATP singles ranking of world No. 6, achieved on 9 June 2025 and a doubles ranking of No. 142, achieved on 1 April 2024. Musetti has ...

Statistics

Source
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2021 French Open - Men's singles final

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Novak Djokovic tennis matches Tennis matches at Grand Slam tournaments Stefanos Tsitsipas Stefanos Tsitsipas tennis matches