2024 French Open

(12) Paolini 2/1 - 6/6 (1) Swiatek

Yeah, this one was over pretty quick. Paolini moved well, great athlete, moves like a cat out there, but she just didn't have any advantage of Swiatek, who mushed her pretty quickly. Swiatekwas up 5-0 in the 2nd, I felt bad for Paolini, afraid she might get bageled. But she recovered (and Swiatek slacked off) to avoid the shut out. Paolini is a nice player but she's got a ways to go to be a major champion. Swiatek, on the other hand, is on top of the world right now. 

(4) Zverev 3/6/7/1/2 - 6/2/5/6/6 (3) Alcaraz

I only saw the Final, so I got no thoughts on what led up to this. To my eye, while Zverev's size and speed was slightly neutralized by the clay court, it seemed like his defense would be even better, that he'd get to every ball and he felt to me like the favorite. But Alcaraz has the ability to wait til the last second to make his shot, giving him great camouflage that minimized Zverev's defensive advantage. It was Alcaraz that got to every ball and pretty well dominated the 1st set. But Zverev stayed cool and did a good job of pushing Alcaraz around in the 2nd set to even it up. 

In the 3rd set, Alcaraz struck me as celebrating a little too much, a little too early, as if he was pepping himself back up after a disappointing 2nd set. I can understand that he needed the boost (even if it was artificial), but I worried that it might go sideways on him. Well, he went up a break, the crowd was going wild in his favor, and I kinda felt like an idiot. Then....Alcaraz just straight collapsed for the rest of the set, couldn't hit a winner, couldn't get away from Zverev's two-handed backhand and Zverev stormed back from 5-2 to win the set at 7-5. The crowd was stunned and even though I kinda saw it coming, I, too, was stunned. 

Then in the 4th, Zverev gave up two quick breaks, gave back all the momentum and then even though they each broke the other one more time (a rather puzzling development, actually), Alcaraz cruised through the 4th to take back the momentum and set up a classic 5th set.  

Except that Zverev was completely cooked by then and the "classic" 5th set turned into a walkover, as Zverev flailed and Alcaraz cruised. Alcaraz is the more complete player at this point and certainly played better on this day (outside of that disastrous 3rd set), but if Zverev could've held it together for just one more hour, this really could've been something, because I still believe Zverev can be a great player (honestly, he seems like he needs the conditioning, he just didn't seem ready for a 5th set). 

It appears to me that Nadal is now completely finished and Djokovic might be done, too. A new day is coming in tennis and it looks to be the Alcaraz period is officially under way.