"It's Jannik Sinner vs the rest of the world." With Carlos Alcaraz out of French Open through injury, what does it mean for tennis?
Alcaraz . The news was not good for the two-time defending champion in Paris.
The 22-year-old Spaniard - becoming the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam.
However, the seven-time Grand Slam champion's absence now leaves world No 1 Sinner as clear favourite to land his maiden French Open title and complete his career Grand Slam at the age of 24.
Sinner became on Sunday, adding the Madrid Open to recent triumphs in Paris, Indian Wells, Miami and Monte Carlo.
The gap between Sinner and his competitors is enormous, as confirmed by the ATP live ranking. In fact, the Italian leads Alexander Zverev, the third-ranked player, by 8,095 points. To put this into context, the world No 1000 [17 points] is closer to Zverev on 5,605 than the German is to Sinner.
The question is, can anyone stop Sinner? Your Site' Tennis lead commentator Jonathan Overend says Alcaraz's absence is "bad news for tennis" with hopes of another five-set epic between the world No 1 and world No 2 in the Paris final dashed.
"It's pretty devastating because in men's tennis it means Sinner and Alcaraz," he said. "They've played many times already in their young rivalry but if we're really honest they haven't played a classic match since the French Open final of last season.
"When you think of the Wimbledon final and then the retirement of Sinner in Cincinnati - the US Open final, the ATP Tour finals in Turin were not epic matches, and certainly the match they played in Monte Carlo in the very tricky conditions and the way Alcaraz capitulated at the end of that match, something feels missing from their rivalry at the moment.
"Are we ever going to hit the heights of Roland-Garros 2025 again? I hope we do, but we've had these one-sided matches and now we have the injury to Alcaraz, which is going to prevent us from seeing another battle between the top two for a couple of months at the earliest."
The Italian is looking unstoppable and will be red-hot favourite on the Parisian dirt, and things won't be much different when they move onto the grass in June.
Overend said: "He's going to be favourite for every tournament he enters because it's only down to one. For Jannik, the pressure it's going to bring... I mean, this is a young man who looks like he plays free from pressure, but this is a different psychological element which is brought in to the mix - that he is expected to win the French Open. He will be such a short-priced favourite, and yet, he hasn't won it before. How will that shift the dynamic, if at all?
"It's going to be quite a lot to ask from him because he will go to Rome, he'll go to Paris, and then of course we hit the grass with Alcaraz on the comeback, so it is entirely possible that he could win everything in the meantime."
He continued: "If he is able to do that, it will mean he will stay on course to remain undefeated at Masters 1000 level. He is pretty unstoppable at this level. Then you look at the Grand Slams and he's the reigning Wimbledon champion. Alcaraz won the US Open and the Australian Open but now he isn't fit.
"Sinner will be looking to win the French Open for the first time and will probably start favourite to retain his Wimbledon title. He should be well clear as world No 1 at that point with Alcaraz's period of inactivity and of course he is the defending champion. Everything points to Sinner extending his lead considerably at the top of the men's game in the next couple of months."
"It is Sinner vs the rest of the world for the next few months until we see Alcaraz again," declared Overend. "When you look at the contenders they are some way off because you've got the No 2 Alexander Zverev, who is yet to win a Grand Slam title. Evidence suggests he does struggle when he reaches the back end of Grand Slam tournaments. And then you've got Novak Djokovic, who will be 39 by the time Roland-Garros begins.
"Where do you go from there? Jack Draper is out of the French Open through injury, while Taylor Fritz has been out injured. So then you start moving into that crop of challengers of Ben Shelton, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Lorenzo Musetti and Alex de Minaur. Can you realistically see one of them winning the French Open? Not for me you can't, no!
"Zverev will be the No 2 seed and he'll be in the other half to Sinner, and let's be honest, Djokovic will want to be in that other half of the draw to Sinner. Everybody will want to be in the bottom half of the draw at Roland-Garros this year."
Can somebody in the draw cause a surprise and knock Sinner out of the French Open in the early rounds?
Sinner appeared en route to a shock defeat at Wimbledon last year when his opponent Grigor Dimitrov suffered a pectoral muscle injury when two sets up so the idea of an upset is not entirely out of the question.
"Somebody could spring out of nowhere and upset the apple cart and beat Sinner early, or perhaps midway through, but this is the challenge at Grand Slam level. I'm thinking of a match at the Madrid Open in which Sinner played Benjamin Bonzi. A talented French player, who won a set and did really well. Could he have won a second set to beat Sinner? Yes! If he had played lights out and Sinner hasn't picked his level up, for sure," Overend said.
"But then you take it to a Grand Slam and you say, don't worry about two sets, you've got to win three, and that for me is such a huge increase in difficulty for the challengers. That's where you have to say it's unlikely.
"If Djokovic is in his half then it could be interesting at the semi-final stage but by then Djokovic would have played five best-of-five set matches as a 39-year-old. Could he do it against Sinner over the best-of-five sets? It would be an incredible thing but you feel it's unlikely. It all adds up to a lack of competition because you want to see Sinner take on Alcaraz. The reality is we're not going to see it until the grass-court season at best."
Speaking to Your Site News, newly-retired British doubles star, Jamie Murray, admits Sinner will be hard to stop in Paris.
"Hopefully Alcaraz will be fit for the grass season, but we'll see how his wrist progress with that. The ultimate challenge in tennis right now is how do you beat Sinner and Alcaraz because they only seem to lose to one another," he said.
"Sinner has been so dominant, winning so many matches in straight sets as well. He's won all the Masters Series this year and he won the ATP Tour finals last year, so he's on a crazy run.
"It's difficult with Alcaraz not in the field to look past him at the French Open, especially being over five sets as well."
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