The first rounds of the French Open 2024 have been full of top-tier players dropping out left, right and center. Gone are Rafael Nadal, Maria Sakkari, Felipe Alves, Naomi Osaka and Andy Murray, and it could have been more if not for all the matches that've been suspended. It's drama left, right and center!
Tennis fans in Australia will be able to watch the 2024 French Open online for FREE on 9Now. But don't worry if you're abroad while the tournament is on because you can watch French Open 2024 live streams from anywhere with a VPN.
US: Peacock | NBC / Tennis Channel (without cable)
UK: Discovery Plus
AU: 9Now (free) | Stan Sport
How to watch abroad with a VPN
The French Open follows the Australian Open, with Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka coming off wins in that first Grand Slam event. But also going into the tournament are last year's winners Novak Djokovic and Iga Świątek so it'll be hot competition to claim the Coupe des Mousquetaires and Coupe Suzanne Lenglen.
As always, Paris' Stade Roland Garros will play host to the Grand Slam, with its hardcourt surface seeing two weeks of action leading up to the men's finals on Sunday, June 9.
Play actually began at the beginning of the week, on Monday, May 20, with qualifying and practice matches spread out over the week. Not all broadcasters or streaming sites show these friendly games though.
One of the biggest tennis events of the year, the French Open will be sure to draw the eyes of sporting fans from around the world. Here's how to watch the French Open from wherever you are.
How to watch the 2024 French Open in the US
You can watch the French Open online in a multitude of ways, or via cable.
The first online option is the streaming service Peacock, with NBCUniversal's online video platform once again hosting French Open streams. In past years, Peacock has hosted streams of every single court and we'd expect that to be the case this year too.
Peacock costs $5.99 per month for its standard ad-supported option or $11.99 per month for its ad-free alternative, with annual subscriptions that are equal to 10 months' fee.
However a limited-time deal gets you a year of Peacock for only $20:
The Tennis Channel and NBC Sports will also be broadcasting coverage of the games, with the latter showing some games and the former expected to air most of them.
You may already have access to these channels via your cable plan, but if not, one live TV streaming services will let you watch both of them. That's Fubo, which has NBC on all of its plans and Tennis Channel as part of multiple of its sport add-ons. The cheapest Fubo plan is Pro at $79.99 per month and the cheapest necessary add-on is Sports Lite at $9.99 monthly.
Alternatively, you can watch The Tennis Channel on Sling TV with its Orange plan or DirecTV with its Choice package. NBC Sports is available in certain areas with DirecTV plans (depending on your ZIP code) and also Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV (both have only one tier). See prices for all of these below:
How to watch the 2024 French Open in the UK
As with the last few years, neither the BBC nor the ITV will be airing the French Open in 2024; instead, you'll have to turn to Discovery Plus to watch the tennis.
You'll need to sign up to Discovery Plus' £30.99-per-month Premium plan, which allows you to view TNT Sports live streams — this includes the French Open as well as cycling Grand Tours, the Premier League and, later in the year, the 2024 Olympics.
TNT Sports (through Discovery Plus) will offer live streams of courts over the internet, and you'll be able to stream on most internet-connected smart devices including TVs and smart phones.
How to watch the 2024 French Open in Australia
You don't need to pay to watch the French Open in Australia, whether you want to catch streams online or on TV... though a paid subscription service is also offering streams.
The free option is Nine Network: it'll be showing games on its TV channels or airing them online on 9Now to catch live or on demand.
The paid option is Stan Sports which is set to air live streams online, with a subscription costing you $15 per month. Due to the cost, we'd only recommend you stream via Stan if you're already a subscriber.
How to watch the 2024 French Open everywhere else
If you're going to be away from your normal TV setup but still want to watch the 2024 French Open, you might run into some problems. Thankfully, you can solve this exact issue with a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
A VPN lets you change your IP address to that of the area of what you want to watch, meaning you can tune in to your favorite sports, shows or other content even if you're not there. Our favorite is NordVPN, which is the No. 1-rated VPN in the world right now according to our sister site, TechRadar.
How to use a VPN to watch any stream
- Download the app at NordVPN
- Choose the location of the streaming service you want to watch (UK, US, etc)
- Navigate to the streaming service and start watching!
2024 French Open schedule
A provisional French Open schedule has been shared, which is open to change up to and during the event itself. Here's that tentative order of play:
- Monday, May 20 - Saturday, May 25: Qualifying and practice rounds
- Thursday, May 23: Main draw
- Sunday, May 26: Men's & women's singles first round
- Monday, May 27: Men's & women's singles first round
- Tuesday, May 28: Men's & women's singles and men's doubles first round
- Wednesday, May 29: Men's & women's singles second round and men's, women's and mixed doubles first round
- Thursday, May 30: Men's & women's singles and men's doubles second round and women's & mixed doubles first round
- Friday, May 31: Men's & women's singles third round, men's & women's doubles second round and mixed doubles first round
- Saturday, June 1: Men's & women's singles and men's doubles third round and women's & mixed doubles second round
- Sunday, June 2: Men's & women's singles fourth round, men's, women's & mixed doubles third round and juniors' singles first round
- Monday, June 3: Men's & women's singles fourth round, men's doubles quarter-finals, women's & mixed doubles third round, juniors' singles first & second round and juniors' doubles first round
- Tuesday, June 4: Men's & women's singles and men's & women's doubles quarter-finals, mixed doubles third round, juniors' singles second round, juniors' doubles first and second round and wheelchair first round
- Wednesday, June 5: Men's & women's singles and women's doubles quarter-finals, mixed doubles semi-finals, junior singles' third round, juniors' doubles second round and wheelchair first & second round
- Thursday, June 6: Women's singles and men's doubles semi-final, mixed doubles final, juniors' singles & doubles quarter-finals and wheelchair second round and semi-finals
- Friday, June 7: Men's singles, women's doubles, wheelchair, juniors' singles & juniors' doubles semi-finals
- Saturday, June 8: Women's singles, men's doubles, wheelchair, juniors' singles & juniors' doubles final
- Sunday, June 9: Men's singles & women's doubles final
All you need to know about the 2024 French Open
Who's playing in the 2024 French Open?
The French Open 2024 draw has been made and it's Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner that stand at opposite ends of the tree diagram as first and second seeds respectively.
The Italian has the nastier of things, for sure, with Carlos Alcaraz, Cameron Norrie, Francis Tiafoe, Ben Shelton, Stefanos Tsitsipas all in the same half of the draw with Andrey Rublev the likely semi-final opponent. Worst still, the Australian Open champion has a particularly tricky First Round match against America's Christopher Eubanks to content with, with a possible Third Round meeting with Andy Murray.
The unseeded Rafa Nadal has popped up in the top half with Djokovic. His First Round opponent? Fourth seed, Sascha Zverev. Imagine the German's face when that one came out of the hat?
In the women's competition, Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka are the top two seeds. The Pole will play a qualifier in her opener but has third seed Coco Gauff in her half of the action. Sabalenka has Russian Erika Andreeva in the First Round and Elena Rybakina in a possible later stage match-up.
There will be no Emma Raducanu, though. The Briton is targeting Nottingham as her return from injury, just in time for Wimbledon.
Here are the top 10 French Open seeds for 2024 on the men's and women's competition:
Men:
- Novak Djokovic (defending champ)
- Jannik Sinner
- Carlos Alcaraz
- Alexander Zverev
- Daniil Medvedev
- Andrey Rublev
- Casper Ruud
- Hubert Hurkacz
- Stefanos Tsitsipas
- Grigor Dimitrov
Women
- Iga Swiatek (defending champ)
- Aryna Sabalenka
- Coco Gauff
- Elena Rybakina
- Marketa Vondrousova
- Maria Sakkari
- Qinwen Zheng
- Ons Jabeur
- Jelena Ostapenko
- Daria Kasatkina
Where does the French Open take place?
The French Open historically takes place at Paris' Stade Roland Garros, and the 2024 event is no exception.
The Roland Garros courts are outdoor ones with clay surfaces, and the French Open is the only Grand Slam to take place on this kind of court.
