FIVE BOLD PREDICTIONS FOR THE 2025 CLAY SEASON

Alexei Popyrin turns to his coaching team after a big win at the 2025 Monte Carlo Masters. (Getty/Mateo Villalba)

Every year, the European clay court swing manages to see players make a name for themselves and set up their careers or cement their place at the top of the tennis mountain.

2025 will be no different if the results from the year are anything to go by, so here are five bold predictions for the clay court swing that will culminate in Roland Garros.

Aryna Sabalenka will win Roland Garros

People may disregard this prediction as Sabalenka is the top-ranked player in the world, but she has yet to make a major final away from the hard courts.

Her best run at the French Open was in the 2023 semi-finals, where Karolína Muchová prevailed in an epic before going on to fall victim to Iga Świątek in the decider.

In recent years, the Pole has beaten everyone in her path on the hallowed Parisian clay, losing just one of her past 33 matches on the surface which was to Maria Sakkari in the 2021 quarter-final.

However, this is the first time since the Covid-impacted year of 2020 that the former world No.1 has failed to win a title in the first three months of the calendar. Sabalenka, on the other hand, has won two and reached two finals.

There is plenty of water to go under the bridge, but the Belarusian looks primed to win her first non-hard court Grand Slam.

João Fonseca will make a Masters 1000 final and French Open quarter-final

The talk of the tour has been about the bullish Brazilian João Fonseca, and it's easy to understand why.

He has the temperament, the tenacity and a blistering game that will see him go a long way in the sport, not to mention his ability on all surfaces.

The 18-year-old has already shown what he can do on a hard court, pushing and beating some of the very best players on the planet, while also conquering his maiden ATP title on the clay of Buenos Aires in February.

Fonseca will continue his meteoric trajectory in this clay swing and post big results at a Masters 1000 and Roland Garros.

Novak Djokovic won’t make the final eight of Roland Garros

Djokovic has been in moderate form by his own lofty standards, still managing to make his way to the Australian Open semi-final and the Miami final, but he looks a shell of his former self.

The 24-time Slam winner is desperate to claim one more major to overtake Margaret Court in the all-time singles tally, but the French Open will not be his best chance to achieve the goal due to the prowess of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner on clay.

Wimbledon remains the Serbian’s best hope of doing so, and while clay is a strong surface for Djokovic, a question remains as to whether he may preserve himself for an eighth tilt at the All England Club.

That’s why he won’t get past the fourth-round in the French capital.

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Jessica Pegula will win a WTA 1000 on clay

Pegula is fresh off claiming a maiden clay court title in Charleston, (yes, green is very different to the red European surface), but it’s a win nonetheless.

The American has supreme power and seems to be on a mightily confident stretch in 2025, and that’s why she will take home a WTA 1000 over the coming months.

She has ventured to the final in Madrid in 2022, where Ons Jabeur saw her off, but that could be where she excels once more with the altitude of the Spanish capital often providing favourable conditions to strong ball strikers.

Alexei Popyrin will make the top-15

The Australian is working with a new coach in Wayne Ferreira after a successful stint with Xavier Malisse concluded earlier this year.

That tenure saw Popyrin win his first Masters 1000 in Canada last year and defeat Novak Djokovic at the US Open before losing to Frances Tiafoe in the fourth-round.

His new coach has changed his backhand grip, helping him secure a sensational win over Ugo Humbert in Monte Carlo to set up a showdown with Ferreira’s former pupil in Tiafoe once again.

The 25-year-old Aussie is a former French Open junior champion and knows how to work the clay, so after a sluggish start to the year, it seems like this new change could see him catapult up the rankings and into the top-15.

Popyrin currently ranks 27th in the world after achieving a career-high No.23 in August last year.

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