Theodore credits Golden Knights’ ‘no-quit attitude’ in rollercoaster win

Roland Garros will be a quieter place this year. There could still be comebacks and great matches, but it’s hard to imagine any recreating the roar from the Parisian crowd as Carlos Alcaraz raced around the red clay whipping them into a frenzy as he saved three Championship points in his incredible five-set final victory over Jannik Sinner. This season Alcaraz made further history by becoming the youngest man to complete the career grand slam, but where the Spaniard really excels is his ability to excite. Through his shotmaking or infectious spirit, his greatest quality is that it can be hard to take your eyes from him.

But now there is no other option. The defending champion last week confirmed that he would be missing this year’s French Open due to a wrist injury. It will be the first grand slam tournament Alcaraz has been absent for since the 2023 Australian Open, when he was 19, and will likely confirm what has become increasingly apparent since then: that men’s tennis has been overly reliant on Alcaraz and Sinner’s rivalry. “Tennis needs Carlos,” Sinner said, confirming as much, as he reacted to Alcaraz’s withdrawal from Roland Garros and Rome. “Tennis is a much better sport when he’s around.”

Alcaraz has helped take a sport to heights few foresaw so soon after the rivalries between Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer drew to a close. But for the past year, men’s tennis has been dealing with a trade-off. It has, on one hand, a compelling rivalry between two generational players, emerging immediately from the era of the “Big Three”. Ever since their mind-bending Roland Garros final, in one of the greatest matches of all time, fans have yearned for a repeat, and there were sequels at Wimbledon, the US Open and the year-end ATP Finals.

In their dominance, Alcaraz and Sinner have racked up titles and accumulated ranking points to the extent that the world No 3, Alexander Zverev, is closer to the world No 1001 than the No 1. While Alcaraz and Sinner have won nine grand slam titles in a row between them, there has often been an absence of drama in the earlier rounds of major tournaments; too little drama involving them, anyway. And until the 38-year-old Djokovic produced one of his greatest ever performances to beat Sinner in the semi-finals of the Australian Open in January, the idea of Alcaraz and Sinner meeting in another final has at times felt too predictable.

But the sport has undoubtedly been grateful to have them. Perhaps this year’s Roland Garros, without Alcaraz, could reveal what predictable really means. “They’ve been playing some incredible matches,” said Djokovic, who very much still views himself as a rival, last season. “Hopefully they can keep going, because that’s what our sport needs.” Federer hailed their dominance but offered a warning, too. “I think that French Open final was unreal. I think the game, not that it needed it, but it was great that we had it. There’s obviously more to come. I just hope they stay injury-free, obviously.”

Last season, Sinner and Alcaraz would regularly turn to each other during trophy presentations and offer their thanks for providing the motivation to improve. There was a noticeable dip in Alcaraz’s levels during the three months last season where Sinner served his anti-doping suspension, followed by a sharp improvement when the Italian returned at the Italian Open. Even though Sinner will not need to face his greatest rival if he is to join Alcaraz by completing the career grand slam at the French Open in June, he expressed his disappointment and described the Spaniard’s absence as “painful and very sad”.

It may be good news for Djokovic, who will turn 39 before his latest bid for a 25th grand slam title. For the past two years he has been faced with the challenge of defeating Alcaraz, Sinner, or both at the same tournament. Even when Djokovic received a fortunate route to the Australian Open semi-finals and took advantage of that by beating Sinner, he still had to face Alcaraz in the final and ultimately ran out of steam after a bright start. Djokovic will know he has an excellent chance, potentially the window of opportunity he has been waiting for these past two years.

It also brings into sharp focus the question that was hanging over the sport at the start of the year, and whether a third man can become a contender for grand slam titles. So far, we’re yet to see conclusive evidence. Alcaraz won the Australian Open, and Sinner won the first three Masters titles of the year. There have been good moments this season for Arthur Fils, Jakub Mensik, Ben Shelton, Flavio Cobolli and Jiri Lehecka, as well as a Daniil Medvedev resurgence. But, the Frenchman Fils aside, it feels a stretch to say any of them could challenge Sinner at Roland Garros. Jack Draper, meanwhile, has suffered more injury setbacks, this time with a knee problem that threatens his participation in Paris.

Alcaraz, though, deserves credit for making his long-term health a priority. Wrist injuries are serious, and have derailed the career of many a top player, with Dominic Thiem and Juan Martin del Potro recent examples. “Injuries are always tough, especially a wrist,” Sinner said. “There’s certain areas of our body that are very sensitive. The wrist, we saw with other players in the past that they can complicate our life. If you come back too early then maybe you have a bigger problem afterwards.”

Alcaraz has made the right decision, but it’s down to others to determine if a grand slam tournament without the Spaniard is as much of a nightmare for tennis as it appears.

At this stage of the season, when the Champions League really reaches that gloriously charged air, even staff meetings can have an edge about getting it right.

While some coaches at both Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain are naturally concerned with working out structures to stop opposition attackers, for example, others are more keen to shift the emphasis. Make them stop us.

In other words, to go for it. To let Jamal Musiala rampage at PSG and pin them back, as Kvicha Kvaratshkelia tries to do the same to Manuel Neuer’s defence. The potential effects could be electric football, and a tie to match any of those from recent Champions League history and the 2015-19 “era of comebacks”. They would also be a natural follow-on from the free-flowing play we saw between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the quarter-final, perhaps suggesting new trends for the competition.

Except, in the other semi-final, we may well see other evolving trends. If PSG-Bayern is set up to be attackers expressing themselves from end to end, Atletico Madrid-Arsenal looks likelier to be a fraught battle within the margins. The contrast was already visible in the quarter-final that took place at the exact same time as Bayern’s victory over Real Madrid. While Arda Guler and Luis Diaz were exchanging screamers at the Allianz, there weren’t even any goals in Arsenal’s second-leg elimination of Sporting.

And while Atletico Madrid’s defeat of Barcelona was as absorbing as anything seen in Munich, that was more about clashing styles making the game rather than an exhibition of open play. Atletico may not be what they used to be, but a Diego Simeone team is always given to a fight. The latter may be even more pronounced against Arsenal.

Another feeling that may be pronounced is the sense of almost watching different sports depending on the game. The contrast is all the more relevant for the future of the sport, too, since this has been a season characterised by debate about tactical directions. The eventual final may even end up being presented as a game for football’s future.

For now, while one semi-final could define a new roaring 20s in the sport, the other might descend into trench warfare. And yet, as persuasive as such perceptions seem from the very football, there are sources at all the clubs who contend it is nowhere near so simplistic or binary.

Antoine Griezmann has been at the centre of some of the most elegant attacking play in the competition, with Atletico far more progressive than their 2013-16 peak. It is meanwhile only five months since Arsenal overwhelmed Bayern Munich with forward play of their own in a 3-1 group-stage win. And while it already seems like another trend is developing in how little there is to read into the first round, other differences since then should be acknowledged.

Most of all, there are the demands on the clubs. While Arsenal and Atletico have had to toil through testing seasons against rivals with superior resources, both Bayern and PSG have been able to cruise to their league titles. The newly crowned German champions, earning over €300m more in revenue than Borussia Dortmund, sealed the title last weekend by going 15 points clear of their closest opposition. PSG have meanwhile so beaten down Ligue 1 through their power from a Qatari sportswashing project that a mere six-point lead over Lens is welcomed as closer than usual.

Such superiority affords a lot more space to keep players physically and mentally fresh so as to play more idealised football. As one source at this level insists, “it’s drastically underestimated how dependent modern systems are on full capacity”. “Any drop-off or notable absences and all of the links in your team go.”

Such differences have also transmitted in another crucial way. Bayern have won the Champions League as recently as 2020. In that very final, they beat PSG, who finally got over the line last season. Such victories bring a deeper assurance that Arsenal and Atletico don’t currently possess. They’re still agitating to get there.

In fact, they’re now probably the two biggest clubs never to have to have won it. That reality is more acute given what has happened in recent seasons.

The Champions League has become Atletico’s great quest under Diego Simeone. They lost two finals to Real Madrid in 2014 and 2016 - and in the most painful manners at that - and now find themselves having gone further than their great local rivals for the first time in Simeone’s entire era.

Mikel Arteta is meanwhile just as determined to become the first manager to finally deliver the Champions League to Arsenal. Such an ambition already has a greater importance given the growing risk that Arsenal don’t actually end the season as English champions. The huge pressure to deliver one of the two major trophies is already there.

And that pressure can produce reactions that intend more control, as has already been discussed a lot with Arsenal this season. It’s like the closer they get to glory the more Arteta tries to take more control, actually just constricting the team. By the same token, sources at Atletico who love Simeone say he constantly tries to progress but it is like he can’t fully escape an inherent conservatism any more. He can’t rely on a defender like Diego Godin any more, since the game doesn’t produce as many. Perhaps one of the most prominent, Gabriel, is at Arsenal.

That does condition a certain outlook. The Atletico-Arsenal semi-final is going to be driven by this agitation, PSG-Bayern by affirmation. That isn’t to say it will be any less absorbing. At this stage, it’s the stakes that really make the game. The prize, an appearance in club football’s greatest stage, produces all sorts of responses. Teams, ultimately, will do almost anything to get there.

They will here be guided by different approaches, but from different contexts. It isn’t necessarily a fight for football’s future. Barcelona 1994 were still more influential than the Fabio Capello Milan that thrashed them. The present, this week, is nevertheless going to involve very different tests that are going to immerse both sides. There’s little like it, especially when the games are set to be so unalike.

Charly Rodríguez, who was part of Mexico's entire World Cup cycle, has been notified of his exclusion from the national team. Rumors suggest Álvaro Fidalgo may replace him in midfield.

Additionally, Marcel Ruiz has been cut due to physical condition following an injury in the Conchampions.