The Future of Tennis Is in Very Safe Hands

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Carlos Alcaraz
Carlos Alcaraz (Credit Celso Pupo via Bigstockphoto)

Legends of the 21st century Serena Williams, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer have all retired in recent years, whilst Novak Djokovic plays on but is surely coming towards the end of his career. They are not just modern icons but rank among the very best players to have ever played the game. The four aces mentioned have won a total of 89 Grand Slams between them, the three men occupying the all-time podium and Serena being second only to Margaret Court, though the Aussie won many of her titles before the Open Era.

Words like legend, icon and even great are thrown around too easily but those four players are undeniably worthy of them. For tennis to lose so many exceptional players within a few years of each other was always going to risk there being a bit of a gap at the top of the sport. However, if the latest Slam, the 2025 French Open, is anything to go by, we are very glad to report that the future of tennis is indeed in very safe hands.

Women’s Game Looking Strong


Serena Williams won the last of her Grand Slam titles in 2017, although she went close to claiming a 24th win several times after that before retiring in 2022. In the years since the tail of her career, the search for the next great player has witnessed many false dawns. There have been lots of very, very good players, but none that have really shown themselves to be worthy successors to greats such as Serena, and before her Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova or even Monica Seles.

Since the 2015 US Open, there have been 19 different first-time winners of a Grand Slam. No one, two or three players have really established themselves for an extended period at the top of the game but there are now signs that is changing.

Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff

Last year, Belarusian star Aryna Sabalenka won her second and third majors, Iga Swiatek earnt her fifth and Barbora Krejčíková gained her second. And at the 2025 French Open Coco Gauff, who won the junior tournament in Paris aged just 14, claimed her second Grand Slam.

Gauff is the world number two and won her first major on home soil at the US Open in 2023. Aged just 21, she was the youngest US woman to win the French Open since a certain Serena Williams back in 2002. In the final she got the better of Sabalenka, the top-ranked woman in the world, winning 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-4. She showed real nerve to win after a poor start and despite the windy conditions stayed calm and collected against the woman who has been world number one for a long time.

The number one and number two have not met often enough in women’s Grand Slams over the past decade and it is to be hoped that these two, plus Swiatek, can begin to form genuine rivalries. Gauff certainly looks very capable of challenging Sabalenka and it should be a joy to watch.

Men’s Final in Paris a Classic


The women’s final was a fascinating affair but the blustery conditions made it hard for both players. The next day, however, in better weather for tennis, world number one Jannik Sinner and defending champion and world number two, Carlos Alcaraz, produced an absolute classic. We can but hope that Gauff and Sabalenka, or one of the other female stars, can establish a rivalry as good and exciting as the one that Sinner and Alcaraz have already forged.

Jannick Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz

Aged just 23 and 22 respectively, they have now won each of the last six Slams between them, and seven of the previous eight. Alcaraz boasts five majors and will not turn 23 until May, whilst Sinner has won three; by defending his French Open trophy, Alcaraz became the first player born in the 2000s to win 20 career titles. If they weren’t already, they are now firmly established as the game’s new “big two” and it is truly wonderful for the game.

The kings are dead, long live the kings, but nobody could have dared wish that so soon after the old big three retired, or in Djokovic’s case, nearing that point, we would have two such generational talents ready to almost seamlessly replace them. John McEnroe raised more than a few eyebrows when he said that: “You would make a serious argument with both guys (Sinner and Alcaraz) that they would be favoured to beat Nadal, at his best.”

Quite how serious the American was, or how much his comment was designed to grab attention, we cannot know. Comparisons across ages, even ones that have overlapped to a degree, are notoriously hard. Sinner himself noted that it is far too early to talk about comparisons between the rivalry between him and Alcaraz and that which the big three had, or between what he and his Spanish contemporary have achieved with what Rafa, Roger and Novak have.

We would agree with that but what we can say is that this final, their first meeting in a Grand Slam decider, was one of the greatest we have ever seen, both in terms of the spectacle and in terms of the quality of the tennis. It was the longest French Open final ever, coming in at a minute less than five and a half hours, though time flew by, such was the dizzying class on display.

It had everything you could wish for in a final, with an incredible fightback, and then a final set that swung one way then the other. Alcaraz looked down and out after losing the first two sets 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) but fought back to take the third 6-4. He then faced three championship points in the fourth but he saved those, producing some mesmeric tennis and went on to win the tiebreak 7-3.

It seemed he might steamroll Sinner, who had lost all six of his longest matches previously, but the Italia fought back after a slow start and took the match to a championship tiebreak. This was the first time this first-to-10 tiebreaker had been used to settle the French Open. Alcaraz walked away with it in the end, proving just too good as he won 10-2.

It was the first time a Grand Slam final had been played between two players born in the 21st century but we might well see the second at Wimbledon. It was a match that nobody who witnessed it will forget, and though Alcaraz has now won the last five meetings between the pair to lead the head-to-head 8-4, Sinner remains the world number one by some distance.