The 2026 French Open is guaranteed to be won by a first-time grand slam champion after 24-time major winner Novak Djokovic was ousted in a five-set thriller (4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 7-5) by 19-year-old rising Brazilian star Joao Fonseca on Court Philippe-Chartrier in the third round.

With so much early carnage in the men’s draw — starting with Carlos Alcaraz being unable to play due to a wrist injury and then top-seeded Jannik Sinner’s shocking second round loss — Djokovic seemed to have a clear path to a record-setting 25th major title. Instead, he joins the two other top men’s stars in watching the second week of this year’s French Open from home, with Fonseca ascending to star status with his performance in an instant classic.

The loss is Djokovic’s earliest at Roland-Garros since 2009 and Fonseca became the first teenager to take down the legend in a grand slam, where Djokovic had previously gone 18-0 against teenage opponents. The match stretched out to 4 hours and 49 minutes, the longest in Djokovic’s career at Roland-Garros, and after beginning in sweltering 90 degree heat, the veteran’s legs wore down as the match dragged on — with the 19-year-old seemingly finding more strength the longer it went.

The first two sets of the match were vintage Djokovic, as he cruised to a 2-0 advantage by controlling points and dictating the flow of the match against an opponent 20 years his junior. Even when he did get put on the run, he spent the first two sets looking the part of a 24-time grand slam champion, flying around the court, refusing to concede points.

However, after coming back from 0-2 down in his second round match, Fonseca was undeterred and found his footing in the third set. The Brazilian leaned on his hard-hitting serve and forehand to start pushing Djokovic deeper into the court and attacking the lines, frustrating the legend and putting him on the back foot.

While Sinner completely wilted due to fatigue in the heat during his shocking loss, Djokovic battled through tired legs and the occasional vomiting spell to keep clawing close to victory. In both the third and fourth sets, Djokovic made late charges to try and wrap things up, but Fonseca had answers to every question Djokovic asked of him.

In the fifth set, the dam finally broke for Djokovic in the 11th game when Fonseca, after driving Djokovic back to the baseline all match, hit three sensational drop shot winners to break the Djokovic serve that the legend could only applaud as he watched them bounce across the clay. Facing the ultimate pressure of trying to serve out the match to avoid a tiebreak, Fonseca was shaky early and allowed Djokovic to create a break point at 30-40.

He then produced his three best serves of the match, painting the lines with three aces to close out Djokovic in style and earn a rousing ovation from the Parisian crowd that had been treated to an all-time match and a potential passing of the torch moment.

Djokovic gave Fonseca an embrace at the net to show him all the respect for besting him on a warm afternoon in Paris, creating the most wide open men’s draw in recent grand slam championship memory.

Djokovic’s loss means that none of he, Alcaraz, Sinner or Rafael Nadal will win a grand slam title for the first time since the 2021 US Open when Daniil Medvedev earned the crown. It’s also the first time since 2004 that Djokovic, Nadal, Alcaraz, Sinner or Roger Federer did not play into the fourth round of a grand slam tournament.

The only top 10 seeds remaining in the draw are No. 2 Alexander Zverev, No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime and No. 10 Flavio Cobolli — all of whom still have to play their third round match, and none have ever won a grand slam title. The men’s game has long been dominated by a select few players, but with Alcaraz not playing and shocking first week upsets of Sinner and Djokovic, we will get a new champion at Roland-Garros as the door is wide open for someone to make a name for themselves.

Colonial Country Club can be one of the tougher places to score on the PGA Tour, but with light winds and a soft golf course after rain this week, low scores have been on the menu at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Two of the last four winners at Colonial finished at single digits under par, but that will not be the case this week with friendly conditions in Fort Worth, Texas. The leader is already at 10 under and Friday’s second round saw the cut line end up at 3 under, the lowest at the event since 1983. Players have had to take on a more aggressive mindset in the first two rounds than Colonial typically allows.

Among those who have answered that call the best is Hideki Matsuyama. The 11-time PGA Tour winner moved into a tie for second at 9 under after shooting a 5-under 65 on Friday afternoon. Matsuyama, per usual, is doing much of his damage with his irons, but his short game and putting have complemented that approach play for a well-rounded start to his week.

Matsuyama flashed his all-world hands — or, in this case, hand — on the 14th to get up-and-down for par with a chip from an awkward lie above the bunker.

Matsuyama has the most career wins of anyone in the field this week at Colonial, and after a gutting playoff loss earlier this season at the WM Phoenix Open, he’s put himself in position to challenge for win No. 12 this weekend in Fort Worth.

The forecast calls for winds to pick up a bit on Saturday, but at no point is it expected to really blow this week, which means Matsuyama and the rest of the leaders will need to keep the pedal down if they want to pick up the win. Because of the quality conditions, the leaderboard is incredibly condenseed with the leader just seven shots ahead of the cut line, and that will mean a lot of players who make the weekend will feel they have a real shot at the win.

The leader

1. Jordan Smith (-10)

The man they’re all chasing heading into Saturday is Jordan Smith, who put together back-to-back 65s to start the week and become the first to reach double figures under par. The 33-year-old Englishman is in his first full season on the PGA Tour and has been in contention before this season, finishing third at the Valspar Championship. He will try to hold his nerve and capture his first win on the PGA Tour this weekend, showing off an impressive all-around game so far this week, gaining strokes in all four phases of the game through two rounds. He’ll need to keep up that quality if he’s going to hold off the chase pack that features some strong veterans and rising stars.

Weekend contenders

T2. Hideki Matsuyama, Brian Harman, Ryan Gerard, Michael Thorbjornsen (-9)
T6. Russell Henley, J.J. Spaun, Akshay Bhatia, Alex Smalley (-8)
T10. A.J. Ewart, Michael Brennan, Mackenzie Hughes, Brice Garnett, Mac Meissner (-7)
T15. Ludvig Åberg, Gary Woodland, Keegan Bradley and seven others (-6)
T33. Justin Thomas and 14 others (-4)

For a tournament that doesn’t boast the deepest field of the season, the cream has certainly risen to the top through two rounds of play. Joining Matsuyama in a share of second is another fellow former major winner in Harman and a pair of rising stars in Gerard and Thorbjornsen. Gerard has one career win at the Barracuda but is still searching for his first full-field win, while Thorbjornsen is still looking for his breakthrough victory on Tour.

Bhatia and Spaun are the only players in the top 10 with a win on the PGA Tour this season and will try to double up this weekend. Henley hasn’t quite had the year he’d hoped for to this point, but can change that in a hurry if he can back up a steady 66-66 start by cashing in for his sixth career win. Smalley is brimming with confidence after his T2 finish at the PGA Championship and can try to lean on that positive experience in a weekend in contention in Fort Worth.

Åberg came into the week as the favorite and after a putter change he’s positioned himself in solid position going into the weekend, but he will need to find that extra gear if he’s going to get his third career win. Thomas will need something special on the weekend to factor in for the win, but he’ll have a chance with an early tee time on Saturday to go out and post a low number before the leaders get going.

A.J. Ewart wins the “most improved” award from Thursday to Friday, shaking off an opening 70 to fire a tournament-best 7-under 63 to jump into contention — with some help from this ace on the 16th.

Notable players who missed the cut

• Pierceson Coody (-2)
• Brandt Snedeker (-2)
• Tony Finau (E)
• Harry Hall (+2)
• Rickie Fowler (+3)
• Max Greyserman (+5)
• Sungjae Im (+6)

A cut line at 3 under isn’t very forgiving, and while many of the top names in the field gravitated towards the top of the leaderboard this week, there were some surprising early exits. Fowler is probably the biggest stunner, as a back nine 42 sent him tumbling from 4 under and in the hunt to 3 over and a Friday flight home in a hurry. Im perhaps ran out of gas this week after spending last week in contention at TPC Craig Ranch and will get a couple extra days of rest after a rough two rounds of play in Fort Worth.

A marathon day at Colonial Country Club ended with half a dozen names atop the leaderboard following the first round of action at the 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge. A weather delay that stretched over two hours long pushed play to the brink of darkness with Lee Hodges holding the solo lead before a bogey on his last brought five other names into the equation.

The one-time PGA Tour winner’s long day of work resulted in a 6-under 64 that put him in lockstep with J.J. Spaun, Matt McCarty, Ryan Gerard, Andrew Putnam and Tom Kim, who is beginning to find some form. The still 23-year-old captured his first top-10 finish of the season at the Myrtle Beach Classic earlier this month and has continued to make in roads towards the player that claimed three early victories in his career.

“Working on a few things, new swing coach, and just kind of getting back to the things that I’ve done so well,” Kim said. “It’s kind of nice, I’ve worked really hard on fundamentals. That’s kind of what I’ve been working on.

“It’s nice to not be able to change so much but be able to make some tweaks where I felt like…I wanted to get better at and the little things that are just kind of combining, and I haven’t really changed much with my golf swing, but the little things that I’ve changed has allowed me to start hitting it better. I would say the confidence out there is getting a lot higher, too, which is nice.”

More than half the field finds themselves within five strokes of Hodges’ total after 18 holes of play as soft conditions due to early-week rains allowed players to pin their ears back around a historically difficult Colonial. The Round 1 scoring average came in at a shade under 69.00 with U.S. Open winners Spaun and Gary Woodland among those to cause some damage.

Spaun’s 64 clipped Woodland’s tally by a single stroke as the two Americans played alongside Swedish superstar Ludvig Åberg who came in with a respectable 66 of his own. At 4 under, Åberg spearheads a logjam of players that includes seasoned winners like Max Homa, Russell Henley, Nico Echavarria and Hideki Matsuyama.

Two-time major champion Justin Thomas got his tournament off in less-than-ideal fashion with two straight bogeys out of the blocks, but he battled back tough to get into red figures with a 69, while his good friend Rickie Fowler will have work to do to make the cut after an opening 70.

The leaders

T1. Lee Hodges, Ryan Gerard, Tom Kim, Andrew Putnam, J.J. Spaun, Matt McCarty (-6):

Hodges rolled in a birdie from 28 feet just as the horn sounded for the weather delay, but he wasn’t done yet. Returning to finish his round after two hours, he tacked on two more birdies, played the Horrible Horseshoe (Nos. 3-5) in 2 under and sprinted through the finish line to the top of the leaderboard.

On the day, he made more than 100 feet worth of putts, while hitting 10 greens in regulation in a row during the meat of his round. Making this more impressive is that he closed his round on the front nine in 4 under — the side that played slightly more difficult on Thursday.

It’s a great start for Hodges and one that is desperately needed. He is without a top-10 finish since the opening event of the 2026 season and finds himself No. 117 in the season-long race, one year after narrowly failing to earn his full-time status.

Other contenders

T7. Alex Smalley, Ricky Castillo, Keegan Bradley, Brian Harman, Kevin Yu, Jordan Smith, Luke Clanton, Doug Ghim, Erik van Rooyen, Gary Woodland, Billy Horschel (-5)

For the fifth straight round dating back to the PGA Championship, Smalley finds his name on the first page of the leaderboard. While he was the 18-, 36- and 54-hole leader at Aronimink before settling for a runner-up result, the Duke graduate started his Charles Schwab Challenge just outside of pole position with hopes of finally capturing his first PGA Tour title.

His continuous run of top-tier golf has included five straight top 20s, a pair of runner-up finishes and another top 10 sprinkled in. Unlike at Aronimink, where Smalley’s putter carried the load, it was his ball striking that was superb on Thursday as he split 10 fairways, hit 15 greens in regulation while making zero putts outside 15 feet. All of this added up to five birdies, zero bogeys and another opportunity to position himself for a weekend run.

“Everybody wishes to get off to a good start,” Smalley said. “I realize that that’s probably not going to happen every single first round that I’m going to play for the rest of my career — hopefully it does. But, yeah, just I felt like the first few holes I had some chances, just made some pars.

“I knew it was playing relatively easy so I just tried to stay patient and was able to get a couple the last few holes on the back nine. I mean, always getting off to a good start is good, but you still have to keep pushing forward, you can’t let off the gas once you do get off to a good start.”