The Lost Season
Tennis is without it's biggest box office draw at the worst possible time.
Professional tennis is unlike every other sport - in this way - there seems to be always only a very few at the top capable of winning the biggest tournaments at any given time. It’s not golf where big surprises happen damned near every week, like Aaron Rai at the PGA Championship a few days ago. The PGA Tour has Scottie Scheffler yes - and he’s claimed four Major titles in the sports’ last 20 events. But golf has lots of other stars and high quality at the top.
In the last 10 PGA Majors - seven different men have won.
In tennis - the last 9 Grand Slams have been won by two guys - Jannik Sinner (currently ranked number one in the world) and the now injured Carlos Alcaraz.
Alcaraz has claimed 7 of the last 14. He’s 23 years old. Sinner at 24 has 4. That’s 11 of the last 14 claimed by one or the other.
And now the one - or the other - depending on your point of view - is gone for at least the next two big ones. Carlos Alcaraz has pulled out of Roland Garros - The French Open - and now Wimbledon as well, citing an ongoing wrist injury, and leaving Sinner alone with nobody to play, not really.
No repeat final at the French or Wimbledon for “Sincaraz” - and the timing couldn’t be worse for a sport finding its legs and audience again in the United States because of Alcaraz and the rivalry with Sinner.
Everything was teed up for a big year. Vanity Fair just put Carlos on the cover and featured the sports’ biggest star with a profile that hinted at - burnout - already - while telling us about a guy who attracts celebrities to his corner like few others in recent memory.
I see him every year here at Indian Wells. It’s just down the street. And this year when I watched an early Alcaraz match I thought - man… he looks tired - bored - disengaged.
Add to it the very large change in his life and career this year - and the fact that it wasn’t mentioned in the Vanity Fair piece makes me wonder exactly what’s going on in Camp Carlos…
