The Australian Open exists alone in the tennis calendar at the beginning of the year – not really linked to what was preceded or what follows immediately after; It is almost five months from the United States Open which precedes it and the Open of France which follows it. For most sports enthusiasts, the real start of the tennis season of the calendar year, for men and women, is the PNB Paribas event in Indian Wells, which begins on Wednesday. Considered the “fifth slam” of sport for a long time, the tournament is launching a hot section constantly seven months of intense competition. While this long winter slowly loses its grip on the country, fans will revel in looking at the best men and women in competition under the sun of the hot desert.
But, unfortunately, the side of the men of the draw will be a bit lacking because of the absence of Jannik Sinner, due to His three -month ban on competition For his “Inadvert” doping. Sinner will be able to resume on May 4, in time for the Italian Open, then Roland Garros.
So that an event also of high level of losing the male player n ° 1 deprives fans of a possible force test between Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. And although Alexander Zverev currently holds the second position in the ranking and is now considered the “best player to never win a slam”, there is no doubt that the rivalry to look in this current era in sport will be between the sinner and the Alcaraz – they are unquestionably the two best players in the world. As it stands, Alcaraz leads its head-to-head meetings, six games at four. Alcaraz also has more slam titles (four) than Sinner (three).
Tennis does not have the luxury that team sports do with regard to rivalries. When the Red Sox and Yankees play, for example, there is always an additional energy jerk, regardless of their respective places in the ranking. They could be mired in Al East Cellar, but the game would always have an additional import because of their legendary and ferocious rivalry; The same goes for Celtics and Lakers, or Eagles and Cowboys or any number of NHL, NBA, NFL or MLB rivalries.
For better or for worse, tennis rivalries are solidified and defined by the Grand Slam meetings. While Sinner and Alcaraz met during major tournaments on several occasions, they have not yet challenged a final of Slam – or, moreover, even a Masters 1000 final.
Tennis has been flooded for almost 60 years of stellar rivalries, especially on the men’s side. Since the open era began in 1968, there was a series of almost uninterrupted rivalries: the Australians – Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe – until the early 1970s; Then the Jimmy Connors-Bjorn Borg-John McEnroe Duels; Followed by the often neglected period from the middle to the end of the 1980s when Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker regularly contributed to each other for the majors; Then Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi’s rivalry defined the 90s. And finally, of course, the period of 20 years which has just ended, without evidence the greatest era of rivalry in the history of sport with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. To indicate the evidence, the tennis fan was spoiled.
One of the many aspects that have rendered the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic meetings so intriguing is that they have challenged so many slam finals on all surfaces. It was most certainly a rare thing. Consider how McEnroe and Connors have never been able to constantly go deep to the Open of France or how Lendl fought powerfully on the grass and Sampras could never master red dirt.
It is too early to say of course how the Alcaraz-Bréner rivalry will develop. At this point, it seems that Alcaraz has the bright edge because it is much more suitable for the game all-surface than the sinner. With its astonishing movement and its ability to hit any shot from any place on the field, Alcaraz is the only player on the tour who is not mowed by the brute force with a sinful right blow. It should also be noted that Djokovic challenged two slam finals with Alcaraz, including one of the best games of recent memory, during the Wimbledon 2023 final. If it was not for his inevitable and imminent retirement, the Djokovic-Alcaraz rivalry was already more bright than that of Alcaraz and Souk.
The question in the future: Who will be this third key player younger to question Alcaraz and Sinner’s supremacy? At this stage, no one has emerged in this position while the gap between Alcaraz-Bréner and the rest of the terrain only grows. The American Ben Shelton, who works to add greater soil coherence to balance his prowess in service seems to be a main candidate. Another player who, according to many, will be the next threat to the top is Joao Fonseca. While the 18 -year -old Brazilian has only made the main draft of a slam once (2025 Australian open), there seems to be a consensus among the Tennis Cognoscent that Fonseca and his supernaturally powerful blows will undoubtedly be the next great thing in sport.
For women, the situation is fully opposed to men, because there has been no coherent and essential rivalry for almost 30 years, because Steffi Graf and Monica Seles have had their epic meetings. And before the battles of Graf-Seles, there was the rivalry of the most legendary women of all time: Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. The two played an incredible 80 times between 1973 and 1988 and, more incredibly, 60 of these matches were finals.
Yes, Venus and Serena created a drama each time they played because of their disproportionate personalities and their singularly extraordinary impact on sport, but there has never been a real rivalry since Serena completely dominated, claiming 18 of their last 25 games. And many of their fights were unilateral.
So many different women have won slam titles in recent years that if a tennis journalist has been asked to appoint, say, all the wins of slam since 2020, I doubt that one of them is able to respond correctly to this request. Is this parity proof that there are so many talented players? Undoubtedly. But this parity stole women to have more essential matches.
Part of this can be attributed to the too similar play style that predominates in the players. Variable game styles are essential to enrich a tennis rivalry, as illustrated by the Evert-Navratilova couple. Power has exceeded the female game just as much – if not more – than men and there has been a shortage of players who can play a style of play entirely. There have been a few players in the past 20 years – Justine Henin and the recently retired ash of Spring in mind – who have bathed the trend and used finesse as much as power. But for the most part, the female game concerns power: see Sabalenka, Aryna.
Sabalenka and Iga świątek are the two best players in the world and met 12 times. But, remarkably, only one of these meetings occurred during a click. This is due in part to the fact that świątek, in at least slams, dominates on clay, as shown by her four French titles (she also has a US Open title (2022). Meanwhile, the three Sabalenka slams all have hard -haired.
But women have an advantage of rivalry on men because there is clearly a third player in the mixture: the winner of the US Open 2023 Coco Gauff. And each of the three has different games. Świątek is built on the leg game, patience and consistency; Sabalenka is on pure power; And the mental strength of Gauff and the competitive sense are just as impressive as its setback and its speed of the foot. It would now seem that Gauff, who will be 21 years old during the Indian Wells, and Swiatek, 24, would be both to start a convincing and heavy rivalry because they are both younger than Sabalenka (27 in May). And while świątek has an advance of 11-3 commanding during their meetings, Gauff took his last two games.
In addition, each of these three will seek to overcome recent difficulties and to return to its superior form to Indian Wells: Swiatek, who wants to put the stress of her doping suspension behind her and play her best tennis again; Sabalenka seeks to bounce back after her Australian Australian final defeat against American Madison Keys; And Gauff, who after winning the WTA end -of -year championships in November, has been fighting a lot since the Australian Open.
With the absence of a sinner, there will be an opportunity for several men in the hope of making a huge breakthrough in Indian Wells, proving that they can challenge Alcaraz during one of the biggest events and perhaps being part of the conversation in the future to the majors. And for women, this seems to be an opportunity for a rivalry among the three best players aforementioned to crystallize in essential visualization.
