2023-05-27 16:24:01
The twilight of the idols? Announced for years, the end of the “Big Three” is getting closer every day. Roger Federer is well retired since 2021. Rafael Nadal swears he has not said his last word, promising ” without a doubt “ a final season next year, but this year injuries deprive him of Roland-Garros for the first time since 2005. As for Novak Djokovic, if he does not intend to abdicate after lifting his 22nd Grand Slam in Australia at the start year, he arrives filled with doubts about the Parisian fortnight.
After two decades in the shadow of the giants, tennis dares, at the dawn of this Roland-Garros 2023, to finally bet on the “new generation”. Or the “new next generation”. We no longer know. Because the takeover of the first pretenders to the throne – Andrey Rublev, Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsisipas or Daniil Medvedev, all aged 25 to 27 – is long overdue.
Among them, Medvedev is finally the only one to have won a Grand Slam (the US Open in 2021 against Djokovic). As a result, it is even more “young people” who are already jostling them, the Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune and Jannik Sinner, from 20 to 21 years old and all their teeth well sharpened.
Alcaraz-Rune-Sinner, the new “Big Three”?
What if he was there, the new “Big Three”? Didn’t the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz become the youngest world number one in the history of the discipline (at 19) by winning the US Open in 2022? And doesn’t he arrive at Roland-Garros this year with the same bib stolen from Novak Djokovic after his spring victories on the clay courts of Barcelona and Madrid?
Didn’t the Dane Holger Rune bite into this same “Djoko” in November 2022 in the final of the Masters 1000 in Bercy, and again very recently, in the quarter-finals of that of Rome? And doesn’t the Italian Jannik Sinner invite himself more and more often to the last four of the big tournaments (in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo already this season)?
“This surge of young stars is definitely creating new excitemententhuses Éric Babolat, the president of the leading brand in the tennis market in France, which equips Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal. Everything is possible in this period of transition where the elders are gradually handing over. And the audience applauds. » Roland-Garros hopes to take advantage of this enthusiasm to break last year’s record which, thanks to these evening sessions, had attracted 613,000 spectators and achieved a turnover of more than 300 million euros.
New icons needed to excite audiences
Some commentators do not hesitate to speak of « tennismania », praising this diversity of talents. Carlos Alcaraz, with his both offensive and subtle tennis, wins all the votes. “We sell his racquet very well, which is rather rare for a champion of his age”, underlines Éric Babolat. Holger Rune is perfect in the role of the young, smiling but determined first man. Jannik Sinner displays the same fixed idea, with a staggering mind and perhaps more adaptability.
Stefanos Tsisipas can play the suspicious and spectacular handsome boy, Daniil Medvedev the elusive, annoying and pissed off. Less, however, than a Nick Kirgios subscribed to the incredible anger that will not take your hair off the Parisian stands, the irascible Australian, Wimbledon finalist in 2022, having been forfeited at Roland-Garros for the sixth time in a row.
The young guns on the circuit are therefore anything but smooth, and if these personalities are not yet fully affirmed, they draw a future that is interesting to say the least for the discipline. With just a downside the lack of certainty which, in the long run, can paradoxically serve it. The stranglehold of the “Big Three” ended up tiring, but no one can dispute that the trio propelled the game to stratospheric heights.
If the new kings that the ATP hopes to crown turn out to be just shooting stars, the renewed enthusiasm may not last. The women’s circuit knows it well, that no one has dominated or reenchanted for a long time. The twilight of the idols may well last a little longer, the dawn of the new icons should not be long in coming.
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