A tennis Grand Slam is just like NCAA basketball tournaments: one loss and you’re out. No exceptions, no make-ups and no gimmes.
It’s designed to force players to dig deep and push through the two-week marathon, playing as many as 35 sets over that span. Even top-seeded players have little margin for error, and underdogs are arguably given an advantage by having nothing to lose.
Wimbledon, being the Grand Slam of Grand Slams, has all eyes on the All England Club outside of London, a tournament that has so far been defined by dark horse runs, underdog victories and favorites falling apart.
At the start of the second week, a glance at both the men’s and women’s singles brackets would have made any fan’s jaw drop.
On the women’s side, Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula were knocked out before they could blink an eye. In addition, the No. 1-6 seeds have all fallen, with the major exception of top overall seed Aryna Sabalenka, who’s seeking a deep run after withdrawing last year due to an injury. One outlier is Iga Swiatek, who spent 122 weeks as the No. 1 overall women’s singles player and has found a groove as the No. 8 seed.
Meanwhile, it’s a similar theme for the men.
No. 3 seed Alex Zverev and No. 7 seed Lorenzo Musetti lost both of their opening-round matches, and overall, just five of the top ten seeds remain standing.
While the rest of the bracket has become a free-for-all, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Italy’s Jannik Sinner continue their youthful dominance. Even amidst the chaos, a finale between the two stars still appears inevitable.
This is what the men’s singles game has come to lately: everyone fighting for the glory and honor of challenging one of the two youngsters, just to have their dignity ripped away from them.
This year’s Wimbledon has highlighted it even further as the tournament quickly progresses to the foregone conclusion of a Sinner-Alcaraz championship match. That being said, is it time to start worrying about the future of men’s singles?
Reflecting on the previous two years, there’ve been times when other players have had their shining moments. Taylor Fritz made a run to last year’s U.S. Open, falling to Sinner. Zverev had a similar performance at last year’s French Open, but couldn’t best Sinner in a five-set thriller.
Still, the winners of the last six Grand Slams have been only two players: Sinner at the 2024 and 2025 Australian Opens, as well as his win over Fritz in Flushing, New York, last season. Alcaraz, on the other hand, took the other three Slams: the 2024 and 2025 French Open, and last year’s Wimbledon.
If you’re looking for a sport where multiple players are genuinely vying for trophies, you might want to look elsewhere.
However, the sport’s reality could also be looked at positively, where fans are grateful to have two passionate, fiery youngsters going toe-to-toe in every Slam final. Further, if they’re truly the best, why shouldn’t they be in those matches more often than everyone else? When it comes to developing their game, Alcaraz and Sinner have learned what it takes to dominate clay and grass, whereas victories on hard courts are treated as icing on the cake.
From honing their footwork to mastering lateral movement, the two often spend more time working not on the fundamentals, something they’ve probably reached their training capacity in when it comes to marginal returns. Now, their game is so far along that they take the time to work on their hand-eye coordination or move flawlessly in every direction without any extra effort.
So, it’s hard to complain about seeing the two face each other so often. It’s essentially a repeat of what the beginning of the century looked like, where it was a pick ‘em between Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, while nobody else stood much of a chance.
Then again, it’s also disappointing for the sport to feel so predictable. But this year’s Wimbledon has been defined by its ability to subvert expectations, and as play continues at the All England Club this week, maybe, just maybe, we’ll see a dark horse rise from the ashes and put up a real fight.