TNT Sports Hopes 2025 French Open Coverage Reignites US Tennis Fans

The 2025 French Open qualifying rounds are underway in Roland-Garros, Paris and TNT Sports is already putting a new sheen on traditional tennis television coverage.

In its first French Open of a 10-year broadcast deal, TNT Sports promises to provide the most comprehensive, fan-focused television coverage of Roland-Garros ever. This is welcome news to frustrated American tennis fans who in recent years watched U.S. broadcasters treat one of the world’s most popular sports like Division III field hockey.

Craig Barry, executive vice president and chief content officer at TNT Sports, believes tennis and its fans are ready for a change.

“I think we’re at a little bit of a crossroads or a renaissance with tennis,” said Barry, in an interview with Forbes.com. “You have a lot of young, super, athletic, potential superstars, both, on the international side, on the U.S. side. And so I think it’s really in a good place to take the coverage and look at it with a fresh lens.”

American tennis fans yearn for a fresh take on the French Open. In recent years, trying to watch the French Open had become such a chore that “Awful Announcing” writer Daniel Kaplan devoted a column to the question, “Why does NBC still bother broadcasting the French Open?”

Kaplan described the viewing headache many American tennis fans suffered.

“I was at a tennis facility for a youth tournament Sunday and NBC was on for the French Open. However, at 3 p.m., coverage switched over exclusively to Peacock, so a golf tournament entertained–well not really–the tennis crowd killing time between matches. Someone said ‘Turn on Tennis Channel,’ and I tried to explain NBC had the rights, but then had to explain why it wasn’t on NBC.”

The day after Kaplan published that column, Warner Bros. Discovery announced the $650-million new deal to cover the French Open.

Without any details of how coverage might change, tennis fans across social media platforms rejoiced.

TNT Sports New Era For French Open Coverage In The US

It’s a new era for French Open coverage in America. All the anticipation and speculation are over. Now, TNT Sports has a chance to strut its stuff. Based on the wall-to-wall live coverage available during the qualifying rounds on Max, TNT Sports is walking with a gangsta limp, left hand tucked behind the back.

The official French Open website features a list of broadcasters from around the world and the daily order of play. Main draw action begins Saturday, May 25. The women’s final airs June 7 followed by the men on June 8. Live coverage begins daily at 5 a.m. EST on TNT and truTV.

No need to scavenger hunt for matches. If you have standard or premium access to Max, you can watch all 900-plus matches — men’s and women’s singles, doubles, mixed-doubles, wheelchair, boys, girls and even Legends — live and replay.

Ealier this week, TNT Sports laid out its coverage plans in a press release. Fans can view multiple featured matches each day and “Live at Roland-Garros,” a daily studio show with analysis from a dream-team of tennis commentators. TNT Sports will also bring fans closer to the game with live in-match player interviews and mic’d coaches at times during matches.

“The Rally at Roland-Garros,” on truTV, will provide Redzone style whiparound coverage including a blend of studio analysis and live match commentary.

TNT Sports hopes to engage today’s multi-platform surfing, multiverse-conditioned sports consumer. When NBC first broadcast tennis, live morning matches on network television were cutting edge. In the 1970s, fans watched tape-delayed matches, which was fine for an audience with no ESPN or cable news coverage to show highlights. People were still reading newspapers for post-match analysis. Now, highlights hit social media during the match. Tennis fans can watch tournaments on a mobile device, laptop, or 4k on a 98-inch television.

Still, despite new technology, the French Open remains steeped in tradition. Sure, Wimbledon is the Major most associated with prim and proper antiquated rituals. However, the French Open was the last Grand Slam to install a retractable roof over its show stadium. Philippe Chatrier got a roof nearly 32 years after the Australian Open’s Rob Laver and a decade after Centre Court at Wimbledon. The French Open is the only Grand Slam not using Hawk-Eye technology to make lines calls. Chair umpires still climb down to inspect ball marks in clay.

Barry, a tennis fan, who once played with a wooden racket, said TNT Sports will try to strike a balance between innovation and tradition.

“We understand the traditional legacy, and, you know, this is a marathon, and we’re going to walk before we run. And it’s small, incremental shifts and pivots to kind of find the sweet spot of where we think we could bring a really entertaining presentation to the fans,” he said. “Because ultimately, we work for the fans. We’re taking all of these great personalities, these assets and we’re going to find some chemistry, and we’re going to go out, and have a really good time delivering tennis to the fans.”

Advertisers are onboard, buying up all available inventory, according to Adweek.

“We have this global property around the world exclusively in WBD, so it’s really in our control… you don’t have to share it with anybody who might mail in the first part,” Jon Diament, WBD’s executive vice president of ad sales, told Adweek. “We are the only provider, so we’re going in big with this: We put a lot of chips on the table.”

Can TNT Sports Deliver Where NBC Sports Fell Short?

TNT Sports’ all-access approach to delivering content could resonate with an increasingly splintered sports audience. App-savvy Gen Z and millennials adapt to change. Gen Xers, many well into their 50s, grew up with cable television and video games so platform options aren’t foreign to them either. Even Baby Boomers, like John McEnroe and Chris Evert might be impressed with new camera angles.

How viewers embrace inevitable change depends on the rollout and execution. Angry NFL fans first balked at the idea of paying for the NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV after decades with DirectTV. The switch came, and the naysayers soon wondered, “How did we survive without the multiview?”

NBC had a sublicensing agreement the Tennis Channel, which aired early-round matches. TNT Sports does not have that type of agreement with the Tennis Channel.

“We didn’t want them to interfere with the cadence. It’s hard enough in this day and age in this fragmented world we live in to understand, “Oh, if you want tennis, you go to TNT or tru or Max,” said Barry. “Even having three platforms, even if they’re all in the same family, we want people to know like, Oh, I’m going home, I’m turning on TNT, or I’m going home, I’m turning on tru and not like, oh, wait, it’s not on TNT. Wait, is it on the Tennis Channel? Or do I have to go somewhere else?”

Tennis greats Caroline Wozniacki and Jim Courier are part of the TNT Sports French Open broadcast team. The two are optimistic about blending old-school knowledge with new technology.

“I just think that the team that TNT put together is very exciting,” said Wozniacki. “I think we’ll see something that is a little different than what we’re used to, and hopefully we can reach a broad audience, not just people that tune in only for the grand slams, but people who see new faces on TV and new broadcasting.”

“What I do know, having worked with TNT in my very first job in television a long time ago, was that they’re really open minded as a network,” said Courier. “They really bring a really interesting spirit, and they’re interested in exploring new ways to look at the same thing. So I hope the viewers will enjoy the experience.”