Adriano Panatta was asked by Corriere della Sera about the pace of the tour. In his view, two-week tournaments force the best players to stay at the top for longer and longer stretches, and power tennis does the rest. He cites a 110% rise in injuries compared with the early 2000s.
His conclusion is about the two young champions: “They understood that tennis will not change and that the only solution is to change the way they play,” he said of Sinner and Alcaraz, who are already announcing their intention to take breaks.
Céline, our C30.4 (a club-level ranking) and a regular in interclubs, Belgium’s weekend team league, read the whole article. Then she took out her binder, the one where she logs her own recovery times.
Sinner and Alcaraz are discovering season management. I’ve been managing my load for years, people don’t realise. My breaks, I put them in the zone between the first and second set: towel over the head, three sips, breathing pattern. My opponent calls it “stalling”. It’s planning. And the racket that accelerates, I know that one: I changed head size in March, hit harder, and lost faster. The strings, obviously. Changing the way I play, I think about it every Sunday at ten. Then the match starts. My season really starts in May anyway. Until then I do what they do: I give myself the breaks I need. Court 4 never takes any, and neither does its neon light.
The binder now has a page titled “Sinner-Alcaraz method”. It is empty, apart from the date and a ballpoint drawing of a racket.
It’s true, we checked: We Love Tennis.
