Carlos Alcaraz aside, this new tennis gives the field to hesitant tennis players, sometimes over the top.
Daniil Medvedev (27) hesitates: in the semifinal of the Masters 1,000 in Rome, the Russian takes revenge on Stéfanos Tsitsipás by dancing mockingly.
And Holger Rune (20), a newly minted Dane, generation partner of Alcaraz, Sinner and Korda, hesitates, who wears the visor of his cap backwards, like naughty children, and calls out for someone to bring him down to earth, like when he faced Casper Ruud at Roland Garros, in 2022, and the Norwegian asked him:
-Moderate your manners.
(For, among other niceties, Rune had expelled his own mother from the platform.)
In the fight between these two wavers, this Sunday at the Foro Italico in Rome, the Russian prevails, more catlike when he plays the rest, more successful in the decisive moments, in the outcomes of each of the sleeves: double 7-5 .
More experienced, in short, since he already has 22 titles on the ATP circuit, five of them in this 2023, and has been the world leader in 2022, and has won a US Open and has been the most insistent of the members of the Next Gen , the most inquisitive when it comes to standing up to the decayed Big Three (Djokovic, Nadal and Federer).
Medvedev's display appeases Rune, who plays like Alcaraz, testing drop shots and lobs, exceptionally dynamic and daring on court, a guy who enjoys managing points, trying things, breaking the rules.
His audacity weighs him down this time, but in no way limits him.
On the eve of the Grand Slam on clay, the Roland Garros whose small team starts this Monday, things seem to be mixed up on the current circuit.
Paris will not contemplate the prodigious Nadal, the only tennis player whose sculpture shines in the Roland Garros venue.
Nor will Federer appear, retired in tears a year ago, the world longs for him.
Djokovic has doubts, mired in a pothole on clay (in Monte Carlo Musetti knocked him out in the third round; in Banja Luka, Lajovic in the quarterfinals; in Rome, Rune, also in the quarterfinals).
And Alcaraz, who this Monday will dawn as the leader of the circuit, suffered exceptionally at the Mutua Madrid Open, before defeating Struff, and has crashed these days in Rome against the semi-unknown Marozsan.
