LONDON — Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff are helping usher in a new era for tennis.
Wimbledon — the year’s third major championship tournament, the oldest of all four and the only one played on grass — starts Monday at the All England Club. The sport’s most recent Grand Slam singles champions are Alcaraz, a 22-year-old Spaniard, and Gauff, a 21-year-old American, each at No. 2 in their respective tour rankings and coming off French Open titles secured in riveting finals against the sport’s No. 1 players.
They are young, they are charismatic as an be on the court, and they are media-friendly off it.
Along with current No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and former No. 1 Iga Swiatek on the WTA Tour, and No. 1 Jannik Sinner on the ATP Tour, Gauff and Alcaraz offer a bright future for tennis. The timing couldn’t be better for a sport with a fan base that in recent years saw all-time greats Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal walk away and currently might be pondering how much longer Novak Djokovic will contend for the biggest prizes.
“Tennis is just in such a great, great place right now. We are so fortunate to have not only Coco, not only Carlos, but a deep bench of young stars that are just propelling the growth of our sport,” said Stacey Allaster, the director of the U.S. Open, a hard-court major in New York that is played in September and caps the Grand Slam year.