The French Open is nearly here, and the competition is set to be fierce – even if this is the tournament’s first year without Rafael Nadal in as long as we can remember.
The men’s top seed is new number one Carlos Alcaraz, followed by Daniil Medvedev and of course Novak Djokovic, meaning there’s a chance that Alcaraz and Djokovic could meet in the semi-finals.
Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka lead the women’s seeds, with Swiatek the favourite as a defending champion eager to pick up her third Roland-Garros title – Sabalenka has never made it past the third round here.
For all that action and more, here’s how to watch the tournament live and for free on just about any device, anywhere in the world.
When is the French Open?
The tournament will kick off this weekend on Sunday 28 May 2023 and will conclude with the men’s singles final on Sunday 11 June 2023.
How to watch the French Open in the UK
ITV used to have broadcasting rights to the French Open, but this year things are different. Warner Bros. Discovery now has rights to the tournament, which means that you will either need a premium sports channel or a streaming subscription.
You can watch the French Open in HD on Eurosport 1 and 2 on Virgin (channels 521 and 522), Sky (channels 410 and 411) and BT (channels 412 and 413). Sadly, as this is a premium channel, you can’t watch it on Freeview.
Roland-Garros will also be streaming on Discovery+. But access is not free: you need to subscribe to the Entertainment and Sports package, which costs £6.99 per month, or £59.99 per year. There isn’t a free trial available for this package. However, if you’re a Vodafone mobile customer, you may be able to claim six months of Discovery+ for free.
If you’re an Amazon Prime Video subscriber, you can also add Discovery+ as a premium channel to your streaming package. This also costs an extra £6.99 per month on top of your Prime subscription, or £59.99 per year.
How to watch the French Open in the US
In the States, NBC will broadcast full coverage of this year’s tournament. You’ll need a cable subscription to NBC Sports, which also lets you stream the tennis on the NBC Sports app.
If you don’t have cable the easiest way to watch will be via NBC’s Peacock streaming service, which has plans starting from just $4.99 per month and gets you access to loads of other TV, movies, and live sport.
US fans can also subscribe to Tennis Channel Plus, though it’s not cheap at $110 per year. On the other hand, this will let you watch over 100 ATP & WTA events, so it might be worth it if you’re a tennis devotee.
Watch the French Open anywhere in the world
It’s still possible to watch Roland-Garros if you’re in a country without a broadcaster, or simply if you’ll be travelling while the tournament is on.
You can either sign up for Discovery+ (which is already available across Europe and other parts of the world) or Peacock. However, because the websites and apps will block access to anyone from outside of the countries they are available in, you may need to use a VPN service.
VPNs (virtual private networks) reroute your IP address so you can browse the internet securely and as if you’re from another country. You’ll find a selection of recommendations in our best VPN roundup, but to save you time, two good bets are NordVPN and SurfShark.
Once you’ve chosen your VPN, simply connect to a server (either the UK for Discovery+ or the US for Peacock) and sign up for an account. We have successfully managed to sign up for Peacock from the UK without any issues – take a look at our guide to streaming Peacock from abroad for more information.
Official Roland-Garros YouTube channel
If you don’t mind missing the live matches, you can catch up on highlights over on the Roland-Garros YouTube channel.
Author: Dominic Preston, Deputy Editor
Tech Advisor's Deputy Editor, Dom covers everything that runs on electricity, from phones and laptops to wearables, audio, gaming, smart home, and streaming - plus he's a regular fixture on the Tech Advisor YouTube channel.