Key events
Preamble
Salut! And welcome to Roland-Garros 2023 – day 13!
Individual sport is a funny thing: we may have our personal favourites, but in the main players come and go as we move on. Of course, there are those who sustain, often because they come to represent something greater than themselves – Billie Jean King, Arthur Ashe, Martina Navratilova – or particularly appealing qualities – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray – but in the main, our obsession is with the thing itself, so anything that augments its overall glory gets us going.
Take today’s first semi-final, for example. Most of us watching won’t much care who wins, yet all of us watching are embarrassingly invested in how that winning comes about, buzzing at the prospect and exercising all that remains of our feeble brains to try and predict how it’s going to go.
Novak Djokovic is the greatest male tennis player who ever lived. He might not have John McEnroe’s feel, Pete Sampras’ serve, Roger Federer’s beauty or Rafael Nadal’s forehand, but if you asked any of those who they’d feel least confident about beating, chances are they’d answer him. There is simply no antidote to his combination of elasticity, consistency and composure, which is one reason he’ll end his career out on his own – potentially waaaay out on his own – as the, er, most winningest man of all time.
But maybe not for long, because – and yes I know exactly how ridiculous this sounds – of Carlos Alcaraz. True, one of them has 22 majors and the other just one, taken in a tournament missing Djokovic. But make no mistake, we’re watching the growth of an all-time great, and one unlikely to spend most of his career battling two other all-time greats and another near all-time great for the four Slams on offer each year.
Even at 20, Alcaraz is the complete player – far more so than was Djokovic, who won his first biggun at 21 but didn’t grab them regularly until 27. He knows exactly how good his all-court game is and attacks every match like he expects to win, but also like he must deserve to win, a gorgeous combination of superiority and intensity. He is a joke.
And that’s just our first match! Then when it’s through, we get to enjoy Casper Ruud v Alexander Zverev, on the face of things a fight to decide who loses the final. Except sport doesn’t work like that – and nor do the individuals who play it. On y va!
Play: not before 2.45pm local, 1.45pm BST