When the chair umpire says the words, “Game, set, match,” at the end of a tennis Grand Slam final, broadcast viewers usually can’t hear them because the crowd has already started to go wild for the sport’s newest champion.
Throughout what are well-deserved celebratory cheers, the emotion of a two-week grind emerges from the winner, and the fans can’t help but get wrapped up in it. The energy naturally makes its way from the court and into the stands as the players relish in their victory or swallow their defeat.
While those cheers haven’t been diminishing in any way, shape or form lately, the sport is running into one not-so insignificant issue: there hasn’t been a new champion.
For over 700 days.
Over the last two ATP seasons, there have been just two Grand Slam winners: Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Italy’s Jannik Sinner. On top of that, the last three major finals have featured the two youngsters, who seem to consistently outmatch the entire ATP Tour on all surfaces. Even on American soil, where an American theoretically has an advantage, neither player is bothered, and crowning either one as champion is practically inevitable.
24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic is the last surviving player from the sport’s previous era, which was dominated by a trio made up of him, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. From 2010 to 2018, only three other players won Grand Slam titles outside those three, and a similar trend looks to be repeating itself today.
The question for tennis officials to answer doesn’t so much have to do with the sport’s potential for quality tennis because Alcaraz and Sinner know how to produce that. Though Alcaraz won this year’s U.S. Open final by a lopsided three sets to one, the crowd remained on the edge of their seats as they watched the sport’s current top two go after it yet again.
So, the concern isn’t with finding and retaining talented tennis players. Instead, it has to do with stamina and whether fans will grow tired of seeing the same two players in every Grand Slam final.
That being said, tennis may start to lose some of its more casual fans, who prefer to see different winners at its biggest tournaments. The sport has a parallel trajectory with golf, where the more the sports are dominated by one or a handful of players, the less reason casual viewers have to keep coming back. If the outcome has already been decided, there’s not much of a point in watching and hoping to see someone else come out of nowhere and dethrone the champions.
While golf and tennis are similar in that regard, the sports start to differ when it comes to fixing the problem. With golf, the PGA Tour can simply continue to increase its purses, incentivizing golfers who may sit out to travel and tee off at more tournaments than normal.
Though the PGA continues to deal with other larger problems, such as keeping its golfers from moving to the LIV Tour and finding ways to keep fans engaged, it does have an easier, more straightforward path when it comes to producing different winners.
For the ATP Tour, though, there’s not much that can be done. Increased winnings for non-champions and runner-ups isn’t going to erase the pure hunger and drive that Alcaraz and Sinner possess. At the same time, more money won’t magically place other players into championship matches, either.
Given that, there isn’t an obvious way to get players outside those two into finals. However, the sport’s officials may not need to panic just yet.
For now, they should bask in the fact that they have two generational talents playing phenomenal tennis at the highest level. As for how the fans feel about where the sport stands, that remains to be seen.
Until the fans start to be noticeably restless and eager for a new champion, the Alcaraz-Sinner rivalry should be promoted as the sport’s X-factor — the very reason why the average fan should tune in. If the two youngsters can continue to compete at their current level, it’s a near guarantee for matches to be spectacles, accompanied by flashy, energetic, and passionate tennis.