Culture

Alcaraz and Sinner were the future of men's tennis. Now, they are its present

Published

2 weeks ago

June 7, 2024

Alcaraz and Sinner were the future of men's tennis. Now, they are its present

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have been the future of men’s tennis for a little while already.

Their first meeting, at the Paris Masters in October 2021, gave a glimpse into the highlight-reel tennis the pair produce when sharing a court.

The following year, there was a hugely exciting match in the Wimbledon round of 16 that caught the eye of the casual tennis watcher, followed by an entertaining final in Umag, Croatia, and then the late night/early morning barnstormer at the U.S. Open that announced their brand of tennis as the next great thing at the top of the sport. Then came the seminal Miami Open semifinal in 2023, then another classic in Indian Wells in 2024.

They did all this in long shadows. First two, and then increasingly one — those of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Even as they won their first Grand Slam titles, Alcaraz two and Sinner one, both beating Djokovic along the way, the mythos created by 20 years of domination hung over them.

As they stepped on to the red clay of Roland Garros on Friday, that mythos had lifted. And in a see-saw French Open semi-final that Alcaraz edged in five sets to reach the French Open final, it was he who moved a step ahead of his opponent in what is looking like being a similarly see-saw rivalry.

Their Roland Garros semi-final was another seesawing match. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP via Getty Images)

With Djokovic expected to miss at least Wimbledon following knee surgery, suddenly this is not just a rivalry in men’s tennis, but the rivalry in men’s tennis. They are the two best (fit) players by a distance, with Sinner to be anointed as world No 1 in mere days and Alcaraz on the heels of the stricken Djokovic, ready to overtake him as world No 2.

This is one of those tennis quirks: the match that feels like a final but isn’t one, because of the way the draw has panned out. On the other side of the draw, Casper Ruud faces Alexander Zverev — Ruud, a two-time French Open finalist and Zverev, the form player in the last few months — but Sinner and Alcaraz have been operating at a different level the last year or so (longer, in Alcaraz’s case).

It’s early days in the rivalry, but there are a few things to assess already. It should be close, with both men winning four of their first eight matches against one another, before Alcaraz triumphed 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 at Roland Garros to move into the French Open final.

This is not like the early stages of the Roger Federer-Nadal rivalry, which began with the latter winning six of their first seven encounters, or the one going on between two of the best women’s players in the world, with Iga Swiatek leading Coco Gauff 11-1 in their head-to-head.

Carlos Alcaraz prevailed to move 5-4 up in the head-to-head. (Tim Goode / Getty Images)

Nor does there appear to be a surface issue for either player against the other. Alcaraz has wins on indoor and outdoor hard, Sinner on outdoor hard, grass and clay. But they’ve only met once on those latter two surfaces and Alcaraz became Wimbledon champion in 2023 after four matches at SW19 the year prior, and also won at Queen’s. The clay rivalry, too, should be close if Alcaraz can emulate what he did on the slow hard courts Indian Wells, using his ability to vary spin, speed, and depth to throw Sinner off the metronomic, bludgeoning consistency that is a hallmark of his baseline tennis.

This was, ultimately, how things played out on Friday, with Alcaraz’s win making it one victory apiece on clay. Sinner led by two sets to one, but some mesmerising lobs and drop shots, coupled with impossible-looking winners from the baseline, eventually swung the match in Alcaraz’s favour.

The closeness in their head-to-head is mirrored by the closeness of their relationship. They are not best friends off the court — few tennis players are with one another — but they get on very well and love playing against each other. How long that will endure as they face off over time and the stakes get higher is another question, and it was interesting to see the differing dynamics pre-match on Friday compared to how friendly they were together while waiting to enter the court for that Indian Wells semifinal.

On that occasion they greeted each other as if meeting at a cocktail party; on Friday in the tunnel before going on Chatrier, the mood was altogether different. There was a handshake, followed by as serious an expression as you get from Alcaraz, and then both men found their own space and started going through their routines.

This was strictly business. Previously, there’s been an almost exhibition feeling to some of their encounters.

Carlos Alcaraz applauded his rival off after the match. (Tim Goode / Getty Images)

After that first meeting at the Paris Masters, a defeated Sinner said to Alcaraz: “I hope we play a couple more times.” A beaming Alcaraz responded: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.”

Something happens when they play each other — there’s an electricity and a chemistry that sees both players raise the other’s game. In the Indian Wells semifinal in March, there was a sweet moment when after a mind-bending rally that Sinner somehow won, the pair looked at each other and laughed. It was as if they were saying, “Would you look at what we just did?” It, and other on-court interactions the pair have had, give off the feeling you sometimes get in life when meeting a kindred spirit. Wait, you like that band too? You support that team as well? You can also sprint at full pelt and then somehow flick away an angled crosscourt forehand?

“I am quite fast already, and he is much faster than me,” Sinner has said of Alcaraz, sounding like someone who is excited to have finally met their match.

This mutual improvement was a hallmark of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic triumvirate. Nadal dominated Federer, so Federer figured out how to beat him. Nadal figured out grass. Djokovic figured out clay. Their finals, some of the greatest matches men’s tennis has ever seen, demonstrated this in real time, forcing each other to even greater heights and creating a closed-loop training camp that took them further and further away from the field below.

Time will tell if the rivalry takes each player to greater heights (Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)

Who knows whether Alcaraz and Sinner retain their fondness for one another if the rivalry becomes less even, either in the head-to-head or in the number of Grand Slams won, or both.

They seem to genuinely enjoy the way the other raises their game. This is not like Federer admitting in the 2018 documentary Strokes of Genius that, rather than welcoming the threat Nadal posed when he burst onto the scene, he was much happier winning major titles pretty much unopposed, thank you very much.

It’s hard to see either Sinner or Alcaraz streaking away from the other and there are cases to be made for either having the upper hand. Alcaraz is better at changing things up to suit the surface, whereas Sinner typically plays his own game and makes the surface almost irrelevant. This works almost all of the time against pretty much everyone, apart from Alcaraz and Djokovic, and it didn’t work all that well in Paris, with Alcaraz’s greater variety making the difference.

In Sinner’s favour is his momentum, which although checked, has taken him past Alcaraz to claim the No. 1 spot, as of Monday, as Alcaraz predicted would happen back in November at the ATP Finals, where Sinner reached the final. But now Alcaraz is the one into another Grand Slam final, on course to have won three of the four with Sinner on one.

It’s tempting to try and say that Friday’s match was somehow definitive or hugely revealing, but that would be a stretch.

Sinner won more total points in the match, but Alcaraz stepped up when it mattered. We’re going to need a much bigger sample size to predict where this rivalry might end up, and there’s a level of pressure that comes with being the flag-bearing rivalry for a sport, as Alcaraz and Sinner suddenly are.

At times on Friday they hit the heights expected; at others there was understandable tension — shown most clearly in the cramps afflicting Sinner in the third set, which Alcaraz said afflicted him too.

Alcaraz said before Friday’s meeting that “it’s the match everybody wants to watch.”

As Djokovic recuperates, it promises to be this way for a while longer.

(Top photo: Dan Istitene / Getty Images)

Culture

'God bless me': The story behind Yankees pitcher Luis Gil's throat tattoo

Published

5 hours ago

June 22, 2024

Press Room

They’re three words, tattooed in capital letters across Luis Gil’s throat, and they’re as loud as the screams he unleashes after a big strikeout.

“GOD BLESS ME.”

For Gil, the New York Yankees’ rookie wunderkind, it’s a public message in a peculiar place and with a personal (and blunt) meaning.

For opposing hitters, it’s the last thing they see before he delivers the ferocious fastballs that have put him on a short list of possible starters for the American League at this year’s All-Star Game.

Gil, who takes the mound against the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium on Thursday afternoon, is 9-1 in 14 starts this season.

The 26-year-old also leads the AL with a 2.03 ERA and a .142 batting average against. His 96 strikeouts are the sixth-most.

He does it with a heater that averages 96.8 mph — tied for the sixth-fastest in MLB, according to MLB’s Statcast — a low-90s changeup and a slider. It’s come after he was the surprise pick to replace injured ace Gerrit Cole in the rotation out of spring training.

“It starts with the fastball,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s elite. It’s special. He can lean on it. … To see him hunger to get better and learn from everything that he’s gone through, build a really solid routine — that’s what’s been really satisfying about Luis.”

And while keeping the Yankees in first place in the AL East has been his chief concern, his Christian faith will remain his main motivator.

Luis Gil neck tattoo pic.twitter.com/J8auyC6cuL
— Eddie Garcia (@Eddieonfox) May 30, 2024
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The point of the tat is simple.

“It’s just a message for God to protect me,” he said via a translator in Kansas City last week.

He wanted it in a place it would be seen.

“It’s a reminder in asking to be protected,” he said.

How he got there wasn’t so simple.

Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Gil said he always felt a greater power in his life.

“I’ve been put in really good situations. … Ever since I could remember, I could see things shaping around me,” he said.

It wasn’t until he was about 15 or 16 years old that he became deeply religious. It was after he signed with the Minnesota Twins. The $90,000 signing bonus he received wasn’t life-changing money, especially relative to the seven-figure deals other teens out of the D.R. were signing at the time.

But the chance to possibly one day pitch in the major leagues? It felt like a blessing.

“From that moment on,” he said, “I developed my strong faith.”

He called religion a “good way to anchor myself into something that could help me through my career and understanding the opportunity I was going to have, something to help me through the journey.” He added that he prays right after he wakes up and just before he goes to sleep.

The tattoo wasn’t Gil’s first, though. His arms and the side of his neck are covered in colored ink. Some of it is religious imagery. He had many of them when he made his MLB debut on Aug. 3, 2021.

But Gil added the neck art in the winter. Yes, it was painful.

“But it was quick,” he said.

He was overcoming shoulder surgery when he was traded at age 19 to the Yankees in exchange for outfielder Jake Cave. In 2022, Gil needed Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for the rest of the year and nearly all of 2023. He knew that in 2024 he might get a chance to establish himself in the Bronx.

With the tattoo, he wanted to double down on how he felt in his heart.

“It’s a way to be thankful,” he said.

His teammates love it.

Starting pitcher Marcus Stroman has more tattoos than Gil. He’s covered from his legs all the way to his neck and to the back of his head.

“I love someone who has the confidence to get a neck tat,” Stroman said. “I think a lot of people in society are like, ‘Oh, a neck tat, you can’t get a neck tat.’ But I just feel like that speaks to the confidence in someone because it’s always so frowned upon, I guess, in American society.

“I had those conceptions, too. But once you feel settled and confident with who you are as a person — I’ll tat my whole body. It doesn’t change anything besides outside opinions.”

Left fielder Alex Verdugo is tatted up, too, but he has a limit. He won’t get them on his hands, neck or his face.

“My mom doesn’t like tattoos much,” he said. “She’s already mad enough at the little tattoos that I have. … It takes a lot of confidence to get it on your neck. It’s a spot that I’ve avoided, but it works for him, right? I love it. Maybe I’ll get one on my neck.”

Rookie catcher Austin Wells remembered what he thought the first time he saw Gil’s neck tattoo.

“Probably a little shocked,” he said. “But I think it works for him.”

Wells said he did something similar to Gil. When Wells suffered a cracked rib in spring training 2022, he wasn’t allowed to work out for weeks. He used the downtime to bolster his tattoo collection, putting a Chi Rho — a Catholic marking symbolizing the Holy Trinity — on the inside of his forearm.

On Wednesday, the buzz around Gil’s tattoo had reached a new level. Several Yankees players were wearing the same navy-colored shirt while walking around the clubhouse and during pregame workouts.

The wording on their chests?

“GOD BLESS ME.”

(Photo: Adam Hunger / Getty Images)

Culture

What's it like when Steph Curry shows up at a pickup game? 'Even the adults were screaming'

Published

12 hours ago

June 22, 2024

Press Room

What's it like when Steph Curry shows up at a pickup game? 'Even the adults were screaming'

It started like any other pickup basketball game at an open gym — players sweating on the court, others waiting on the sidelines and spectators casually observing. Jessica Brogan, who had attended similar practice-like sessions with her two hoops-hungry sons, said it began as a “normal open run.”

However, on this particular Saturday, there was unusual electricity in the air at the Life Time gym in Folsom, Calif., as rumors circulated in the greater Sacramento community that a global basketball star was in town and might swing by. Still, there was reason to doubt it.

“I didn’t even tell my kids about it because I hear that kind of stuff all the time and it doesn’t pan out,” Brogan said.

Others, like Berry Roseborough IV, a basketball trainer in the area who works with college and pro players, were more sure. Roseborough received a call from Marcus Kirkland, who was organizing the session, asking him to recruit his best players because of the expected attendance of this special guest.

On the morning of June 8, Roseborough called his pupils in town without revealing too much, just enough.

“You’ll probably be mad if you miss it,” Damarion Vann-Kelly said Berry told him.

Vann-Kelly had a hunch, one that grew after Kent Bazemore — a G League player who spent 10 seasons in the NBA — walked in. About 10 minutes after Bazemore arrived and with a game underway, the screams began: It’s Curry. It’s Curry.

“All the little kids are screaming,” Vann-Kelly said. “Even the adults were screaming.”

Sure enough, Stephen Curry, wearing a light gray hoodie pulled over his head, walked in.

“I look up while we’re playing and I’m like — excuse my language — but, ‘Oh s—, Steph just walked through the doors,’ ” Roseborough said. “And you could feel it. … You feel all the energy in the gym radiating. Everybody’s almost in shock.”

Brogan looked at her sons’ faces. Braxton, 13, turned red when he noticed the four-time NBA champion, and Easton, 10, grew wide-eyed and broke into an ear-to-ear smile when he realized it was Curry stretching nearby, she said.

It’s not unheard of for NBA players to join amateur pickup games as a way for them to stay tuned up, especially during the league’s offseason. Players with college and pro experience, including Bazemore, regularly attend the runs Kirkland organizes in the Sacramento area. The two met at a gym in 2022 and stayed in touch, according to Kirkland, bonding over a shared love of basketball and a desire to pass that love on to others in their community.

Bazemore encouraged Curry, who was in the area for his daughter’s youth volleyball tournament, to drop by the gym, Kirkland said. Curry, whose NBA season ended in April with the Warriors’ Play-In Tournament loss to the Sacramento Kings, will make his Olympic debut at the Paris Games next month as the United States men go for their fifth straight gold medal.

“We’ve had a lot of (NBA players) come to our runs but never anyone of the caliber of Stephen Curry,” Roseborough said. “That was like ‘Wow.’ ”

Brogan called it a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” for her family.

During a roughly two-hour session, Curry put on a masterclass. He and Bazemore teamed up, playing five-on-five against Kirkland, Vann-Kelly, Roseborough and others. Brogan and her sons watched in awe along with a growing crowd that became so large that security asked people to leave, she said.

Naturally, Curry delivered. Roseborough said he noticed Curry’s pace and how simple his game is.

“He didn’t do anything more than he needed to do in that moment,” Roseborough said. “His pickups — basically how you pick up the ball before you get into your shot — they were just so fast like you couldn’t even see them.

“Then his release. He’s getting his shot off in, had to have been, .3 seconds or less. It doesn’t matter if it’s contested. It looks the same every time. It’s coming off the same finger every time.”

Added Vann-Kelly, 17, a 6-foot-5 guard with Division I and pro aspirations and a recent graduate of Monterey Trail High: “He was making all of them. It was nothing but net. How (Curry) attacks, you can just tell why he’s at the pro level. All his moves are perfected. He has great patience, great skill overall.”

During one game, after Curry crossed up Kirkland for a step-back 3-pointer that rimmed out, Curry got the ball back off a pass and then made the game-winning 3 on his next attempt. He reflexively celebrated with his iconic “night night” gesture. A clip of the moment, shot by Brogan and posted to her Instagram, went viral.

Steph Curry hits the Night Night at an open run in Sacramento 😴😂🔥
(via jessicabrogan/ig) pic.twitter.com/kIPOodso1P
— TheWarriorsTalk (@TheWarriorsTalk) June 9, 2024

“He’s a generational player, his IQ,” Kirkland said. “He’s just different.”

Markus Kirkland guards NBA icon Stephen Curry during a pickup game in Folsom, Calif., on June 8. (Courtesy of Markus Kirkland)

But it wasn’t only Curry’s viral shots and elite ballhandling that left the gym buzzing. He impressed in another sense, according to those who were there. They noted how Curry introduced himself to each player and shook their hands. He asked for their names and told them not to be nervous.

“Guys were trying to give him the ball so he could do all the scoring and he was telling them, like, ‘No, we play team basketball. We’re not gonna play like that,’ ” Roseborough said. “He was actually setting up other guys to score. He was giving confidence to the players and other people that were there.”

After a series of eight or nine games — largely dominated by Curry and Bazemore, Kirkland said — the two took photos with the other players and the kids Kirkland invited to watch, including Brogan’s sons.

“He just made everybody around the building feel good,” Roseborough said. “He made everybody that was in there feel comfortable. And that was crazy to me, just how his energy really affected everybody in the building that much.”

(Top photo of Steph Curry and Kent Bazemore with other players: Courtesy of Marcus Kirkland)

Culture

Why Mbappe is wearing a mask at Euro 2024

Published

19 hours ago

June 22, 2024

Press Room

Why Mbappe is wearing a mask at Euro 2024

Follow live coverage of Netherlands vs France, Slovakia vs Ukraine and Poland vs Austria at Euro 2024 today

Kylian Mbappe will wear a mask when he returns to play at Euro 2024.

The France captain, 25, fractured his nose in their first game of the tournament.

He avoided surgery but following medical assessment it has been determined he must wear protective equipment to safely return to the field.

The Real Madrid striker was pictured in a mask with the French national colours of red, white and blue — the tricolore — and the French Football Federation (FFF) logo on it during training on Thursday.

France play Netherlands in the second game of Group D on Friday.

Des idées de masques 🎭😅 ?
— Kylian Mbappé (@KMbappe) June 17, 2024

What happened to Mbappe?

Mbappe fractured his nose in France’s opening game of their tournament, against Austria on Monday.

He sustained the injury in an aerial collision with Austria defender Kevin Danso with blood seen coming from his face and on his playing shirt.

Mbappe received medical treatment before leaving in the closing stages of the game in Dusseldorf, being replaced by Olivier Giroud.

Mbappe’s collision with Danso (Lars Baron/Getty Images)

What are UEFA’s rules on masks?

UEFA has very specific rules on clothing and other equipment worn while playing.

It reads: “Medical equipment (e.g. head protection, face-masks, casts, kneepads or knee braces, elbow pads): Medical equipment worn on the field of play must be a single colour and free of team and manufacturer identification.

“Items worn on legs and arms should be the same colour as the corresponding playing attire item (e.g. elbow pads or tape used on the arm the same colour as shirt sleeves and kneepads the same colour as shorts).”

Any equipment has to be approved by UEFA so it is not possible for Mbappe to take the field wearing a mask that does not adhere to those regulations. The FFF will need to ask UEFA and clear whatever mask he chooses to wear.

GO DEEPER

The night Kylian Mbappe broke his nose at Euro 2024 – ‘Any ideas for masks?’

What mask will Mbappe wear then?

Mbappe has a number of masks prepared, all of a single colour, which will work inside UEFA’s regulations, the FFF has confirmed to The Athletic.

The FFF knew of the guidance that must be followed before getting the masks made. He also has different sizes prepared.

Kylian Mbappe is wearing a red, white and blue mask in #LesBleus training @TheAthleticFC pic.twitter.com/dBsNlBQs5D
— Charlotte Harpur (@charlotteharpur) June 20, 2024

Will Mbappe play against Netherlands?

On Wednesday, Mbappe teased the prospect of him taking part in France’s second game of the group stage with a cryptic message on social message.

“Without risks, there are no victories,” he wrote on Instagram, sparking speculation he would be available.

“Everything’s going in the right direction,” Didier Deschamps then said at his news conference on Thursday.

“After this major shock that he’s had, with the consequences of course. “Yesterday, as you saw, he was able to go out and do a bit of activity. And that’ll be the case tonight too.

“So things are moving in the right direction so that he can be available tomorrow. We’ll make sure he’s available, I repeat.”

UEFA regulations require teams to confirm their teams at least an hour before kick-off of each game.

France face Netherlands at 8pm BST (3pm ET) in Leipzig on Friday.

A win will see them progress to the next phase of the tournament. They then play Poland in their final group game in Dortmund on Tuesday.