With Wimbledon kicking off Monday, the game’s freshest Grand Slam champions are Carlos Alcaraz, the 22-year-old Spaniard, and Coco Gauff, the 21-year-old American.
Both sit at No. 2 within the rankings and are driving excessive after thrilling French Open victories over the world’s top-ranked gamers.
Young, charismatic and equally comfy below the highlight each on and off the court docket, Alcaraz and Gauff are ushering in a brand new period of tennis.
Alongside No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and former No. 1 Iga Swiatek within the ladies’s sport, plus males’s No. 1 Jannik Sinner, they symbolize a vibrant future for a sport that has not too long ago bid farewell to legends like Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal – and is watching intently to see how lengthy Novak Djokovic will stay within the hunt for main titles.
“Tennis is just in such a great, great place right now. We are so fortunate to have not only Coco, not only Carlos, but a deep bench of young stars that are just propelling the growth of our sport,” U.S. Open event director Stacey Allaster stated. “I’ve been around a long time, and when we have lost great, iconic champions in the past, there’s generally been a little bit of a dip. We have had the exact opposite during this transition. … I always like to say the champions of today are standing on the shoulders of the champions of the past. These champions have jumped off the shoulders of the past champions.”
One key for a sport, particularly a person one, to achieve consideration and develop reputation is to have rivalries that demand buy-in.
Alcaraz vs. Sinner clearly offers that, a lot in the way in which Federer vs. Nadal or Nadal vs. Djokovic did.
The five-set, 5.5-hour males’s closing at Roland Garros was as filled with momentum swings, terrific tennis and athleticism as something these greats conjured.
“The level,” two-time reigning Wimbledon champion Alcaraz stated, “was insane.”
The method he and Sinner, 23, are at present divvying up the most important prizes – they’ve cut up the previous six main trophies and eight of the previous 11 – is actually harking back to the Big Three’s dominance, albeit over a a lot smaller pattern dimension thus far.
“Having these two guys fighting for big trophies – I think we have to be very happy about it in the sport of tennis,” stated Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz’s primary coach. “For them, for sure it’s something that they raise their level every time that they go on the court. They know they have to play unbelievable tennis to beat the other guy, and it’s something that is going to help for sure each player to raise the level even more.”
It certain does appear as if Gauff vs. Sabalenka might present that form of dynamic and buzz, too.
Consider that, like Alcaraz and Sinner, they occupy the highest two spots within the rankings. And contemplate that, like these different two, each personal a number of main titles.
Gauff’s two Slam triumphs got here through three-set victories over Sabalenka within the finals.
Plus, their newest assembly, at Roland Garros lower than a month in the past, got here with some added spice due to Sabalenka’s post-match feedback that have been seen as lower than totally gracious towards Gauff.
It grew to become such a factor that Sabalenka felt the necessity to situation a pair of apologies – one privately through writing to Gauff, and one publicly in an interview at her subsequent event.
Add that form of off-court intrigue to the on-court curiosity, and if there are rematches on the All England Club a few weeks from now, nobody who’s invested in tennis will likely be displeased.
“There’s incredible momentum and wind in our sails as we think about the sport, in total,” stated Lew Sherr, who’s about to depart his function as CEO of the U.S. Tennis Association. “We’ve had five consecutive years of participation growth … and that certainly is being, in part, fueled by the great talent and inspiring players we have at the professional level, and also is feeding record attendance, record interest, record viewership. Those things go hand in hand. We have not missed a beat.”
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