tennis gut

  It’s a tantalizing draw on the women’s side at the French Open this year.   There’s an upper shelf of favourites – a group from which the winner is likely to emerge, even if we don’t have a clear pick, like Jannik Sinner on the men’s side.   But there’s a distinct top tier of six, followed by a second tier about five to seven deep. It’s kind of like parity, but it’s not the same as a few years ago, when women’s draws felt wide open and like anyone could win.     So let’s look at these six favourites – Sabalenka, Rybakina, Swiatek, Gauff, Svitolina, and Andreeva – and see where they’ve landed in the draw and how they might be challenged.   Top Quarter Aryna Sabalenka is the top seed, and led my French Open power rankings for four iterations before being displaced yesterday by Gauff.   Sabalenka has been #1 for 83 consecutive weeks.   She hasn’t been invincible but she has clearly been the best. The problem is she’s had a fairly mediocr...

  It’s tempting to think a Sinner win is inevitable.   But he has looked vulnerable physically in long matches and hot temperatures.   And it also bears remembering that he lost to Djokovic in Australia this year.   But can anyone really push him?   And who might they be?   Top Quarter Carlos Alcaraz is not playing and it really sucks.   It’s like Jannik Sinner is playing with no opponent. (Ok, ok, Djokovic, I know…) And granted, Sinner did beat Alcaraz in the Monte Carlo final and got back to #1 before Alcaraz got injured.   But would Sinner have pulled off this historic run of SIX 1000 titles in a row if Alcaraz were still around?   And wouldn’t it be great if it felt like there were some jeopardy, some possible impediment to Sinner completing the career slam and the career Masters 9000 (or whatever it’s called) in the space of a month? That said, considering that Sinner won his first 1000 and first slam less than three years ago –...