Sinner, Alcaraz, Gauff and Sabalenka at French Open
View(s):The best exponent of any game provide an artistic skill performance of appeal. They are frozen in time and never erased. Glimpses trickle down as nostalgic memory of an era. Sportsmen must achieve this in their prime. If not, they fall into another failed fray who never did good to sport but painted wagons with their own names for no one else did that. A hard-fact to swallow.
Rivalry vital ingredient
Good and sports-minded rivalry propels better standard and participation globally. Before the present lot, it was Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in men and Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova in women. Their appealing rivalry and spectatorship did boost development. Last two icons Federer and Nadal reached sizzling heights in this aspect. Now their golden dust is settling, we recall what it did to the global tennis energy. With WTA and ATP as focused propellant tennis has grown. These professional bodies removed much of the slaves-shackles in the game of tennis.
Long road
In the first part of our present century, tennis flame reached memorable heights with Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and Ivan Lendl and company. In women too, tapering from Steffi Graff and Martina Navratilova, the flame stayed beyond doubt with Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams and Justine Hennen. In both gender healthy rivalry had partisan followers. Fans followed the circus globally to witness their encounters in person to the point of being fanatics. I have witnessed this in European and Asia. Followers were also very knowledgeable in tennis.
Change of visuals
The open professional game of tennis has modified stroke making, pace and athleticism. Modern mechanics of stroke making, court positioning and coverage, shot selection and tactics are extreme speed oriented. Present break-in age for newcomers is well below 20 at around 17. What more, now it is professionalism, money in millions.
Present men
Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are 23. They played their French Open title match for five and a half hours. Of the two Alcaraz arrived at the final that much fresher than Sinner. Alcaraz got a walkover in the fourth set from the other trail blazing Italian Lorenzo Musetti. In fact, Musetti won the first set. Sinner on the other hand played Djokovic, facing tight lid bottled challenge. It drained Sinner, it showed when he could not convert the three championship points he had against Alcaraz in the third set of the final. Although Sinner went to five sets in the French Open 2025 finals, he lacked the freshness of the first two sets. Grand Slam events are cruel on players. I feel Sinner will live another day to win the French Open title; it crowns players as clay court masters.
WADA
Critics say Sinner’s suspension by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) had an emotional impact on his final. WADA wants doping out of sports and show zero tolerance, accidental or otherwise. Their approach and methodology is bringing back credibility to sports, which it lost in the past decades.
Carlos Alcaraz
The Spanish prince in waiting next to Rafael Nadal is now the crowned king of the European clay. He has broken the hoodoo belief that anyone winning the Italian Open will not win the French Open. Alcaraz won both this year.
Credit goes to Alcaraz all the way. He too did not have an easy passage to the final for that matter nobody ever had it easy. Alcaraz’s injury kept him out of competition and had to perform to contain the injury recurring. He comes from the land of Nadal who won the French Open title 14 times. In his honour, centre court of the French Open has the print of his shoe marking on the side of the net post with 14 inscribed along with his name. Ceremonially revealed to him by the Roland Garros Head Groundsman, this year.
Coco Gauff of USA
If we are to name an up and coming WTA player, it has to be Coco Gauff. In fact, she is already up; having the advantage of athletic parentage, Serena and Venus Williams as her idols has given her to be fearless fighter. From what I see, her sports-intelligence level is super high. She has very fast sighting ability and matching footwork to cover court. In her final with mighty Aryna Sabalenka, at one point Gauff got pinned well behind the base line, Sabalenka, noticed it and played a perfect drop shot, it was a perfect shot. Sabalenka was totally surprised when Gauff reached it and made a winner out of it. Adding to this line up of players is Jasmini Paolini, a late bloomer at 29-years-of-age. Italians are very proud to have her.
Gauff confessed she is more comfortable on hard courts. She won the US Open title two years ago. This French Open title is her second Grand Slam title collection. More than her striking and outstanding weaponry, she can ace Top 10 players and return their services as a winner. That says it all about the 21-year-old Coco Gauff of USA.
Europe is in grass season
European sand court and their grass court attracts most amount of spectatorship. It is tourism booster for Europe. Enthusiasts travel half way of the globe to be present in European tennis. Now the events on grass are lighting up tennis with Wimbledon as the grand prize.
Tennis of the century
Global institutions and their events in the early days of tennis played a critical role. Players in the latter part of the 19th century were European [England mainly] and USA. The Wimbledon notion and the Davis Cup of Dwight Davis at the turn into 20th century filled an enormous vacuum in the global sports in making sports to be an elegant ambassadorial event. So powerful was the appeal, energised the revival of the Greek Olympics into its present new era games. The French played a critical role in it.
The present
In men’s tennis, we have the best of talents to boost the game. The model of Sinner verses Alcaraz rivalry, is a wish in every sport. On the tennis court players feel like Alcaraz serving an ace and sizzling strokes of Sinner hitting a passing shot, the drop shot, inside out forehand, covering the whole court with forehand and never letting the challenge end when facing three championship points like Alcaraz did and so on.
Women’s tennis has developed equally, with appealing array of European, North and South Americans, Australians and Asians. Tennis is gender friendly. What tennis needs now is to ease participatory cost with friendly facilities for recreational participation, we had it as clubs, and we have lost this facilitation globally.
–George Paldano, European and Asian competition player; Coach German Tennis Federation; National coach Brunei and Sri Lanka; Davis Cup, Federation Cup coach, coached ATP, WTA and ITF ranked players in Europe and Asia; WhatsApp +94775448880–