With Wimbledon kicking off Monday, the sport’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 in the rankings and are riding high after thrilling French Open victories over the world’s top-ranked players.
Young, charismatic and equally at ease under the spotlight both on and off the court, Alcaraz and Gauff are ushering in a new era of tennis.
Alongside No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and former No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the women’s game, plus men’s No. 1 Jannik Sinner, they represent a vibrant future for a sport that has recently bid farewell to legends like Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal – and is watching closely to see how long Novak Djokovic will remain in the hunt for major 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 tournament director Stacey Allaster said. “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, especially an individual one, to gain attention and grow popularity is to have rivalries that demand buy-in.
Alcaraz vs. Sinner clearly provides that, much in the way Federer vs. Nadal or Nadal vs. Djokovic did.
The five-set, 5.5-hour men’s final at Roland Garros was as full of momentum swings, terrific tennis and athleticism as anything those greats conjured.
“The level,” two-time reigning Wimbledon champion Alcaraz said, “was insane.”
The way he and Sinner, 23, are currently divvying up the biggest prizes – they’ve split the past six major trophies and eight of the past 11 – is certainly reminiscent of the Big Three’s dominance, albeit over a much smaller sample size so far.
“Having these two guys fighting for big trophies – I think we have to be very happy about it in the sport of tennis,” said Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz’s main 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 sure does seem as though Gauff vs. Sabalenka could provide that sort of dynamic and buzz, too.
Consider that, like Alcaraz and Sinner, they occupy the top two spots in the rankings. And consider that, like those other two, both own multiple major titles.
Gauff’s two Slam triumphs came via three-set victories over Sabalenka in the finals.
Plus, their latest meeting, at Roland Garros less than a month ago, came with some added spice because of Sabalenka’s post-match comments that were seen as less than fully gracious toward Gauff.
It became such a thing that Sabalenka felt the need to issue a pair of apologies – one privately via writing to Gauff, and one publicly in an interview at her next tournament.
Add that sort of off-court intrigue to the on-court interest, and if there are rematches at the All England Club a couple of weeks from now, no one who is invested in tennis will be displeased.
“There’s incredible momentum and wind in our sails as we think about the sport, in total,” said Lew Sherr, who is about to leave his role 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.”
