The results of the Mutua Madrid Open 2024 and of ATP Roma 2024 have caused a curious debate to open surrounding the ATP circuit. See names like Alejandro Tabilo, Use Play hedge or even Happy Auger-Also, newbies in these affairs and even players with a certain “irregular” sign, in final rounds, has raised all kinds of comments. Has the men’s circuit entered a kind of massive lack of control in which everyone opts to win big titles? Do we have to forget about the big names in the next Grand Slams? Is madness coming to us?
Nobody knows the answer for sure. Maybe yesmaybe we will have the next three Grand Slams that show that we have returned to the times when Joachim Johansson o Gaston Gaudio, stilettos of a transitional era between two historical generations, were crowned in the large squares. However, there are a series of conditions that provide context and that, in the opinion of yours truly, distance us so much from this supposed “madness” that has taken over the circuit. On clay, the story is very different… but It would be very surprising that this trend is here to stay in the coming year. Because?
A FIRST QUARTER WITH VERY CLEAR WINNERS
Is what we have seen in recent weeks the dominant trend of the circuit in recent months? Here, the answer is very clear: no. Neither for what happened at the end of 2023 nor, above all, for what has happened in the first quarter of 2024. Madrid and Rome contrast with a circuit in which several names rose above the rest, leaving a hopeful panorama of great rivalries and, in fact, giving us great matches in the best tournaments on the planet.
Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami. Let’s take the first three major tournaments of the year as an example. If the ATP has plunged into such a state of madness, the logical thing is that we find clearly surprising names in the final rounds, right? Nothing is further from reality. The biggest names on the circuit booked an appointment in the final rounds of these events, setting themselves apart from the pack: Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev They reached -at least- the semi-finals in these three tournaments; Alexander Zverev He only failed in Indian Wells (he lost in the quarterfinals against Alcaraz, a more than justified failure); Carlos Alcaraz He conquered Indian Wells and gave up in the quarterfinals of the other two and, of course, many of us expected a triumphant return from Novak Djokovic to join what could be a solid top-5. How different from what we are seeing in clay…why?
ALCARAZ AND SINNER’S INJURIES
External circumstances, unfortunate in the case in question, also play a fundamental role in the making of a circuit. What would have been of so many names without the damn injuries: how many Grand Slams Marat Safin, Juan Martín del Potro or Dominic Thiem could have won. However, to ignore that the absences and inconveniences of the two men destined to dominate the circuit in the next decade have been a fundamental factor in explaining this situation… would be to miss the truth. In fact, both Carlos and Sinner were able to reach the quarterfinals in Madrid despite being in trouble; Jannik himself also reached the semi-finals of Monte Carlo and was only knocked out by a devilish Tsitsipas (be careful with the Greek, recovering him for the cause is another factor that distances us from that certain feeling of existing irregularity).
CLAY COURT AS A DEMOCRATIZING SURFACE
Everyone knows how to play on fast courts. He cement It is the obvious choice for 75% of world youth tennis, a long-resolved hieroglyph in which the law of the strongest prevails. With very marked exceptions (which are not so marked either; more than one could think of Tsitsipas or Ruud, but both have accumulated Grand Slam finals on hard courts), almost the entire world tennis elite dominates the most extensive surface on the calendar. On the contrary, discovering the secrets of clay seems to still seem difficult for many, “democratizing” the circuit and giving the opportunity to players with a lower ranking, but much better knowledge of the surface. Not only the Ruuds and Tsitsipas count: Tabiloa renewed Taylor Fritz (with less opposition), Nico Jarry… and don’t be surprised to see some earthling in the quarter-finals in Paris: Mariano Navoneto me, looks like a possible successor to Tomás Etcheverry in the quarterfinals.
THE UNREAL EXPECTATIONS OF THE BIG THREE
Duels repeated like trading cards in each big week and we, however, devoured them hungrily. We never get tired of seeing excellence on our screens, and that led us to coin a dream that is difficult to repeat as a reality. Seeing on the main floor of the circuit three monsters and a series of sentinels who did not want to lose much step (Murray, Wawrinka, Ferrer, Berdych, Thiem, Tsonga, Raonic, del Potro and company) raised our bar, unconsciously. That generation has already left and we, however, ask the next for an almost unreal consistency, throwing our hands up at the possibility of surprising names sneaking into the final rounds of major tournaments.
Periodically, a historical generation has always been succeeded by a transition era. We found ourselves mired in it, with the last blows of Djokovic and Rafa and the appearance of Medvedev, Zverev or Tsitsipas, until the reign of Alcaraz and Sinner It seemed, finally, to have come to stay (with Djokovic always involved, be careful, but we are talking about a unique type, immune to any type of cycle or logic). The injuries of the two spearheads of the circuit of the future have brought us back to reality: that, even when another great generation appears, no tournament can be exempt from surprises.
Definitely: Don’t get carried away by two tournaments of big surprises. The health of the circuit is determined, of course, by the Grand Slams… and there could come a real test of fire. Will Alcaraz and Sinner return? Will Djokovic find the best version of himself? What about Nadal? Will they avoid the ‘luxury secondaries’, with a historic window of opportunity to be crowned for the first time -ejem, Zverev, Ruud, Tsitsipas-, that the most important tournaments in the world also become a historic disaster? Beyond that, it will be nice to revisit this analysis a year later. Maybe in 2025 we will have Grand Slam champions who are outside the top-25, maybe the men’s circuit has subscribed to the madness… but still, at least still, It’s too early to say.
2024-05-16 10:38:36
#mens #tennis #strange #madness
