Cav's Place

While I’m definitely not changing my stance when it comes to the complete and official elimination of long final sets and my interest in tennis in general is still just about completely gone because of this change, which happened gradually over a number of years and was actually formalized and enforced earlier this year, yesterday’s final proved that tennis could still be exciting. I again didn’t follow the tournament, of course, and the US Open was the first of the Grand Slam tournaments to impose final set tie-breaks anyway, long before the others, and I didn’t make a point of even watching that final, but I gave it a chance while I was in the kitchen and what I saw made me keep watching all the way to the end. I mean, some points were so outstanding that plenty of times that match looked like a demonstrative one!
More than that one match, however, I’m tempted to say that Carlos Alcaraz offers some hope for the future of tennis, despite the utterly terrible direction the sport has otherwise been heading in for quite some time. At first he gave me the impression of being Nadal‘s “heir”, but now it’s quite clear that he’s so much more, and so much better. I’m tempted to say that he likely has some 15 good years of tennis ahead of him, but a lot can happen during that time, including injuries, a loss of interest, getting carried away by fame and fortune, the regulations getting even worse… However, right now he’s not only an outstandingly skilled player, but also one who truly seems to play for the joy of it and does so in a spectacular manner. And he also has that endurance that the sport is now rejecting, having reached the final after winning three consecutive five-set matches and winning the tournament after a total of 23 hours and 40 minutes on court, which is the most time any player has spent on court during a turnament since these records began, in 1999. So to say that he’s the one to watch would be an understatement. And, of course, something that those who weren’t driven away from the sport over the past few years already knew all too well.