This year’s France Open may have marked a definitive change of guard in men’s tennis. The first two of the world ranking, respectively Italian Jannik Sinner, 23, and Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, 22, on Sunday (8) a final that promises to become a classic for years on end.
This Friday (6), Sinner prevented the Serbian Novak Djokovic, 38 from expanding his record of Grand Slam titles to 25. Won with partials of 6/4, 7/5 and 7/6. Alcaraz, champion last year, eliminated Italian Lorenzo Musetti, number 7 in the world, who abandoned in the fourth set, with pain in his left leg (4/6, 7/6, 6/0 and 2/0).
The generation of Sinner and Alcaraz has been getting something that the previous one has always tried: to break the trio formed by Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. The Serb does not yet talk about stopping. Nadal hung his racket last year at the age of 38, won by the injuries. Federer fought until 2022 at 41.
The hegemony of the three, for two decades, frustrated talented players, who had the unlucky to be born shortly after them. This is the case of German Alexander Zverev, 28, eternal aspiring to the first Grand Slam; or Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, 26, defeated twice by Djokovic in Slam finals.
Physical resistance has always been one of Djokovic’s great assets, but in front of a 15 -year -old opponent who has not lost any set in the tournament, the age seems to have heavy. At the end of the second set, the Serb had to ask for massage on the left thigh.
The other semifinal was also an extremely physical game. MUSETTI did not stand it. Hold on Alcaraz’s rhythm for the Italian, “It’s probably one of the hardest challenges of our sport today.” “Physically it was really intense for me,” he confessed.
“I took him to the limit, trying to make him run from side to side,” Alcaraz admitted.
The best result of Sinner in Roland Garros was last year’s semifinal, when he lost precisely to Alcaraz in five sets.
About the Italian hangs the shadow of a doping scandal. In August last year, a positive test for closet, synthetic substance derived from testosterone was announced. He claimed that he was contaminated by the physical therapist in a massage. The International Tennis Integrity Agency swallowed the excuse, but the world anti -doping agency not.
The solution found was also controversial: in February, Sinner made a deal to stay three months without playing, in exchange for being innocent. The period ended up serving as a vacation, because he returned to the courts just before the clay tournaments of Rome and Roland Garros.
In the women’s tournament, the final of this Saturday (7), at 15h local (10h of Brasilia), will also bring together the first two of the world ranking. Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, number 1, faces the American Coco Gauff, number 2.
Both try the first French clay title. Gauff was defeated in 2022 by Polish Iga Swiatek, four times champion in Roland Garros. Swiatk was eliminated in the semifinal precisely by Sabalenka, whose best result in the tournament was the semifinal in 2023.
The game promises to be a duel of styles between the outgoing Sabalenka, popular in Brazil since starting to date São Paulo businessman Giorgis Frangulis, owner of an acai franchise, and the contained Gauff, who grew up idolizing two other black American tennis players, the sisters Venus and Serena Williams.
Also this Friday (6), the Brazilian Vitória Miranda, 17, won the junior title of Roland Garros in a wheelchair. Vitória, who was born premature and has only 10% of his leg strength, was champion in simple and, alongside Belgian Luna Gryp, in pairs.
