Good morning, Court Theorists! ☕️☀️
Today’s tennis mood: Concerned but also ready for theatrics.
Let’s tennis!
-Allen
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🎾 Alcaraz out: There’s a match missing from Barcelona today, and that’s because Carlos Alcaraz has withdrawn from the tournament with a right wrist and forearm injury he picked up during his first-round win over Otto Virtanen.
What he said: “After seeing the results today, it turns out the injury is a little more serious than we all expected. I need to listen to my body and do what’s best for me, so it doesn’t affect me in the future,” said Alcaraz.
Flashback: It’s not the first time Alcaraz has suffered similar injuries during the clay season. In 2024, he only played Madrid leading into Roland-Garros, which he won (and then Wimbledon…and got to the finals of the Olympics).
Next: It’s a bit unclear. Alcaraz is slated to compete at the Madrid Open, which begins on Monday. We’ll see if he does.
🎾 Roland-Garros antes up: In a press conference on Thursday, French Open tournament organizers announced an increase in prize money by about 10 percent to a total purse of $72.1 million, but it was the other topics that were a little more eye-catching.
Poke in the AO eye: Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said that tennis should “maintain respect for privacy,” noting that, “Players need a private area, something which will not change…no cam access.”
Humans, not robots: Roland-Garros will not adopt electronic line-calling and will keep human line judges, saying, “They are not 100 percent reliable, but our decision was to stick to our way.”
Best of five? Mauresmo said the possibility of women playing best of five could be in the future for Roland-Garros. “You can't change a format overnight to go from best of three to best of five. But if we think about it, would it be only the semifinal, the final, or for all matches?” she posed. “This could be a win-win situation, but we have to talk about this with the women players.”
Scheduling: After a few years of criticism for the lack of scheduling women in the night session, Mauresmo still had little to offer when asked about the topic. “We will talk about scheduling when the time comes,” she said. “Nothing is closed, and nothing is set in stone; it depends on the draws and the lineups.” 🫤
🎾 One to watch: Corentin Moutet vs. Lorenzo Musetti (2nd round - ATP 500 - Barcelona): Watch this one for the pure entertainment value, but also as a temperature check on last year’s hottest clay court player in Lorenzo Musetti.
The record: Lorenzo Musetti leads the head-to-head record over Corentin Moutet 2-0.
On the line: Musetti is attempting to make up some of the points he lost last week when he didn’t defend his finalist points in Monte Carlo, which dropped him from five in the world to nine. Meanwhile, Moutet is looking to build on his current career-high ranking of 31 as he slides into his home slam in Paris.
🎾 🏆 🎤 YOUR CALL
(Yesterday’s poll results: 64% of you called for Mirra Andreeva to defeat Jelena Ostapenko. Andreeva won 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.)
And that’s game.
