Tennis stops for nothing. The ATP Subsequent Gen Finals occasion rolls on in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, whereas varied pre-Christmas exhibitions occupy gamers earlier than the season resumes from December 27 with the United Cup in Perth, Australia.
There’s nonetheless time for some reflection on 2024, and The Athletic’s tennis writers Matt Futterman and Charlie Eccleshare are right here for the primary of two mailbags, answering your questions submitted earlier this month. This can concentrate on the season simply gone; the following will focus extra on 2025.
Learn on for his or her views on problem Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz within the males’s recreation; the timeline for equal pay between the WTA and ATP Excursions; whether or not or not tennis is getting boring and if the game is embroiled in a doping disaster.
Anon: Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic put the grand slams in a headlock for 15 years. What’s going to the present gamers do (and or can do) to forestall Sinner and Alcaraz from the doing the identical? What classes have been realized?
Charlie Eccleshare: The ‘Huge Three’ have been freakish of their consistency. Even all-time greats ordinarily have off days, a few of which end in them exiting a serious or two per yr prematurely. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic principally prevented even that, however Alcaraz specifically seems liable to the odd upset (witness the U.S. Open this yr, even when that was after a very gruelling run comprising two Grand Slam titles and an Olympic last).
Sinner at the moment has the next ground and is much much less liable to enjoying a number of listless units in a row; uncertainty of a unique variety surrounds him due to the potential for a doping ban of as much as two years. However ought to they each stay out there and fairly constant, then the remainder of the sphere has a serious downside.
Casper Ruud summed it up on the ATP Tour Finals final month when he defined that the best way Sinner and Alcaraz play has rewritten the e book of tennis techniques that he grew up with. Persistence is now not an choice with these two round: to beat them the chasing pack are going to have to show themselves to be extra aggressive even when it doesn’t come naturally. Alexander Zverev and Taylor Fritz look most up for the problem of the present high 10.
The place Alcaraz and Sinner do recall the Huge Three’s hegemony is how their extraterrestrial expertise calls for gamers to play exterior themselves to beat them. It’s not sufficient to only hit massive serves and forehands and hope that may do the job. Gamers want to assert the entrance of the courtroom earlier than Alcaraz and seize the baseline earlier than Sinner — and throw in a little bit of the other to maintain them off stability. For a complete match at a time.
Matt Futterman: Proper now, I don’t see Sinner and Alcaraz sharing all of the Grand Slams for a decade. It’s so much more durable for 2 gamers to do this than three or 4, and they’re the one ones at their stage — apart from the model of Djokovic that received Olympic gold in Paris.
They’re going to must take care of accidents. Sinner might get suspended for 2 years. Stuff occurs. Others will hope to fill any voids.
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Dana L: What’s going to it take to have equal pay for the ladies on the tour? Why is there nonetheless such a large discrepancy beneath the grand slam stage?
MF: Brief reply is the TV contracts. The ladies’s tour contracts herald about one-seventh of what the boys’s tour contracts do. Sponsorships are additionally so much cheaper. In a number of instances I chalk that as much as poor administration and advertising. The WTA takes low-hanging fruit and sells tournaments to places the place the attendance is horrible and the seats are empty. What media or advertising govt goes to activate a match and say, “that’s the place I need to be?”
CE: The quick reply: a real dedication from tennis’ varied stakeholders to ship real equality. It’s superb how rapidly issues can occur when there’s a will. The WTA has dedicated to reaching equal prize cash at mixed occasions by 2027 and non-combined by 2033, however this stays a very sizzling subject. After I spoke to Aryna Sabalenka on the WTA Tour Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia she cited the necessity for equal prize cash as one of many sport’s greatest points.
Max Y: Why is there so little selection on the ATP and WTA excursions for the time being by way of recreation model? The ATP Finals in Turin encapsulated completely simply how comparable and admittedly boring the best way the highest gamers play these days: it’s all simply massive baseline video games, constant two-handed backhands and little or no selection, making for a fairly uninteresting competitors.
MF: Take coronary heart — it’s higher than it was, no less than on the ATP Tour. Alcaraz has compelled everybody to start out desirous about your complete tennis courtroom, not simply the realm alongside the baseline. Additionally, with Alcaraz and Sinner enjoying so aggressively, gamers more and more must assault earlier than they’re attacked. That’s going to drive them to return into the courtroom extra and construct selection.
As for the ladies, a number of us want Karolina Muchova might clone herself 50 occasions. That mentioned, Sabalenka has more and more been utilizing a drop shot. Coco Gauff is working onerous on getting higher on the web. A wave of serve-and-volley gamers appears unlikely, however we are going to take what we will get.
Throw out Turin. It’s a one-off. Indoors, on a really quick courtroom with no solar or wind to deal with, gamers can sit again and go bang. That received’t occur practically as a lot in Australia and positively not on the natural surfaces from April to mid-July. Single-handed backhands appear to be a horrible concept till you watch Lorenzo Musetti thrive at Wimbledon with that killer slice and the power to roll it on the final second. Plus, Alcaraz is a shotmaker. To borrow the basketball phrase, shooters must shoot. So long as he’s round he will likely be attempting all types of mad stuff, and others will attempt to observe.
Karolina Muchova’s gamestyle captivated tennis followers when she performed in 2024. (Pamela Smith / Related Press)
Anon: When are we going to cease describing males’s tennis as boring baseline battles — selection (web approaches, drop pictures, serve/volley, sudden shot picks) appear to be the norm now, not the exception. Really feel like nobody’s acknowledging/celebrating one of the vital thrilling intervals of males’s tennis play; all high gamers want to make use of the entire courtroom now.
James Hansen: A dissenting voice is at all times welcome. The youthful gamers within the top-15-40ish bracket do appear somewhat extra keen to experiment, maybe being much less entrenched than the gamers talked about above who grew up via Nadal and Djokovic’s complete mastery of baseline tennis. The place we’d disagree is the concept high gamers want to make use of the entire courtroom. They do — however most of them can’t and don’t, particularly when underneath stress. Sinner and Alcaraz’s skill to play the best way they do within the tightest moments, significantly that stratospheric tiebreak within the China Open last in Beijing, is what units them even additional aside.
Christopher Z: Is there anybody who peaked this yr that we count on to take a step again? Are Jasmine Paolini and Taylor Fritz actually top-5 gamers?
CE: That’s an fascinating one. I saved considering that Paolini would absolutely come again all the way down to earth sooner or later final yr, and but she simply saved on producing. Perhaps she received’t have fairly the identical affect as she did this yr, however I’d count on her to stay within the high 10 and problem for a number of titles.
As for Fritz, his progress feels very sustainable to me. He’s not somebody who’s all of the sudden burst onto the scene, however as an alternative has saved making incremental enhancements. You may say 2024 was a breakthrough yr for him, however he’s been knocking on the door for some time and it was hanging to listen to him say that he didn’t even suppose he’d performed that effectively in reaching the U.S. Open last. It was greater than a chance offered itself, and he was stable sufficient to take it.
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Somebody I’d count on to take a step again is Alejandro Tabilo, who started the yr ranked world No. 85, achieved a profession excessive of No. 19 and is at the moment at No. 23. Through the first half of the yr, the 27-year-old Chilean had a type of intervals the place all the pieces appeared to fit into place, taking in successful the Auckland 250 in January as a qualifier after which knocking an ailing Djokovic out of Rome on the best way to the Italian Open semis. I’d be stunned if he hits comparable heights in 2025.
Jasmine Paolini had the perfect season of her profession in 2024. (Julian Finney / Getty Photographs)
Parva S: Why is there an increase in doping in tennis or is it only a recency bias?
MF: As my colleague Charlie Eccleshare reported in November, testing numbers and the variety of anti-doping rule violations have remained fairly regular over the previous few years based on the Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company (ITIA). The company sanctioned 12 people for doping offenses in 2022, in contrast with 13 final yr, however two world No. 1s getting sanctioned in the identical yr is extraordinary. As testing turns into more and more subtle and detects smaller and smaller quantities of international substances in blood and urine, it stands to purpose that constructive checks will rise.
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Katherine W: What’s your tackle the Final Tennis Showdown? Right here to remain or fade away?
CE: I do suppose it has a spot, and the gamers appear to get pleasure from it and really feel prefer it’s helpful health work due to how explosive it’s. The prospect to win hundreds of {dollars} in all probability helps too. Followers additionally seem to love it and there’s one thing to be mentioned for occasions that assure — or shut to ensure — seeing the gamers who’re competing on the occasion, in contrast to in most ATP and WTA tournaments the place there’s at all times a threat your favorite participant might exit early or not be enjoying on a given day.
Among the guidelines, like solely having one serve, must also give tennis pause for considered whether or not there are parts of UTS that may work effectively on the principle tour. Co-creator Patrick Mouratoglou actually sounds very decided to make successful of it, so I’d be stunned if it went wherever anytime quickly.
Patrick L: Is Andy Murray teaching Djokovic a one-off or are they searching for it to be a long-term association?
CE: For the time being, the Murray-Djokovic partnership is a short-term association, but when issues go effectively in Melbourne it’s powerful to think about both get together strolling away. Definitely not Djokovic, but in addition Murray: can you actually see somebody as aggressive as him turning his again on a successful ticket?
He would love a little bit of time at dwelling at some stage, however that was true when he accepted the possibility to work with the 24-time Grand Slam champion and his longtime rival of the 2010s. I believe that Murray will love the excitement of teaching and being again in a Grand Slam atmosphere, particularly in the event that they attain the latter levels the place Murray hasn’t been for coming as much as eight years. Ought to issues go badly, that’s one other story.
(Prime picture: Matthew Stockman / Getty Photographs)
