alcaraz and the new gen

14 Apr 2025

Last night I couldn't sleep at all, I was still up until 4am when I finally gave up and went to bed. Within that dead time, I first spent my time catching up Carlos Alcaraz' Monte Carlo tournament highlights before falling on a rabbit hole on his career highlights. I mean look at this guy, he's won 4 grand slams by the age of 21, having won in all surfaces of the grand slam. He's entertaining to watch. At his best, he can pull off bizarre shots or simply displays crazy athleticism. Look at the Olympics final, Cincinnati final, China Open, those were some crazy matches. Unquestionably with Jannik Sinner, they are today's face of men's tennis.

And I'm so happy that with all the titles and success, exemplary sportsmanship goes hand in hand a.k.a not being a prick. Alcaraz celebrating with the ballkids, him conceding a point after opponent gets incorrectly faulted even at the most pressing scoreline, and such and such.

As someone who also follows badminton, I feel that tennis can be too loose in terms of manner. Badminton is well Asian-dominated so there's that but abusing an umpire or throwing tantrums at the ballkids is simply unthinkable. Though I don't think it's just a matter of culture but by the way their sport are structured too. Badminton is country-oriented while tennis are individually oriented hence I can see why they'd probably have inflated egos. It's wild that a player like Kyrgios can still play but that's the world for you I guess (Still entertaining to watch though, try see this, damn hilarious).

Needlessly to say, it's refreshing being able to follow the journey of the new generation (Not just Alcaraz or Sinner though I reckon their names will be one that we hear the most). I was too late for Federer or Nadal¹ but what can I do.