Red dirt alert

João upon eliminating Djokovic.

They're playing the big-time tennis on the clay courts of gay Paree, and the first half of this year's French Open tournament has been more than a wee bit interesting, particularly in the men's singles. With 16 men left standing, only five were seeded in the top 16 to start the event. The world's top-ranked player, Jannik Sinner of Italy, lost to Juan Manuel Cerúndolo of Argentina in the second round, and the legendary Novak Djokovic of Serbia soon followed, falling to teen sensation João Fonseca of Brazil in the third. Carlos Alcaraz is back in Spain nursing a bad wrist, and so the top men still playing in the second week are Sasha Zverev of Germany, Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, and Casper Ruud of Norway, none of whom have ever won a Grand Slam. Frances Tiafoe of the U.S. and Andre Rublev of Russia are still dashing around as well, hunting down that first really big trophy.

On the women's side, the Americans are all gone except for Madison Keys. The defending champ, Coco Gauff, crumbled in her run-in with the icy hot Austrian, Anastasia Potapova, in the third round. Coco basically had it won, 6-4, 6-5, defending at 30-30, but she fell apart in the second-set tiebreaker, 1-7, and lost the third set 4-6. Nine of the top 16 women's seeds have been eliminated. Still in it and looking like finals combatants are Iga Swiatek of Poland and Screamin' Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.

I managed to watch a replay of some of the Djokovic-Fonseca match, which went the distance, and it was quite a spectacle. The kid punctuated his win with three aces at the very end, which against the world's greatest returner was something to see. It doesn't appear that the Djoker, who turned 39 last week, is ever going to nail down that 25th major singles title that he's chasing. His career won't be over until he says it is. But he's starting to use the word "maybe."

Anyway, he's out of the picture until England, and meanwhile, the future is upon us in La République. There's another week of action to go at Roland Garros, and at least with the boys, anything can happen. Roll over, René Lacoste.