[2] Novak Djokovic won the men's singles title over Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final, marking his 19th Grand Slam singles title and making him the first male player to win the double career Grand Slam in the Open Era.

This was the first time in French Open history that both singles victors were from Slavic-speaking nations, namely Serbia and the Czech Republic.

[6] The beginning of the tournament returned to its traditional late-May schedule after the previous edition being delayed to September 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On 8 April, the originally-announced dates were postponed by one week by the French Tennis Federation due to a third national lockdown and curfew in France enacted the week prior, with the first day of qualifiers pushed back to 24 May, and first day of the tournament proper pushed back to 30 May.

The postponement was made in the hope that restrictions would be eased in time for the tournament, including potentially allowing spectators.

In both singles and doubles, women received slightly higher point totals compared to their male counterparts at each round of the tournament, except for the first and last.