Blog Murciego: Masters 1000, a category without an owner

This Sunday we had the end of the season Masters 1000 in the 2024 calendar. Paris-Bercywhich also celebrated its farewell to a historic headquarters before leaving for La Defense Arenaclosed the curtain with a not at all surprising ending. Because yes, that Alexander Zverev governing this category of tournaments is the daily bread, but at another time, if you like, we will pass the bill for what happens in Grand Slams. But today I’m not here to talk about the German, at least I won’t put him in the middle of the stage, although he will be an important actor. After going through the nine most important tournaments in the circuito ATPjust a week after landing in Turin with the eight teachers, it is time to analyze what happened and draw some conclusions. To give context, we start by remembering the champions.

Indian Wells: Carlos Alcaraz

Monte Carlo: Stefanos Tsitsipas

Cincinnati: Jannik Sinner

To quickly raid the mathematical account: nine tournaments, six different champions. Only two had the luxury of repeating, being Jannik Sinner the ‘winner’ of this race that started in Indian Wells and ended in Paris. The Italian, in addition to collecting three trophies – all of them on hard courts – was also the most consistent in the locker room, as he reached the quarterfinals in each of the events in which he participated, regardless of whether they were of greater or lesser magnitude. . A world No. 1 sustained by the forcefulness of his balance and talent to not lose the thread at any time of the year. A hammer from January to November, as an example, there is the classification and the unbridgeable gap with the others.

Turning the page, it’s time to talk about Carlos Alcaraz. It has not been his best season in the Masters 1000, coming out with a bang in the first of them – he revalidated his throne in Indian Wells – and not getting past the quarter-finals again in any of the following ones he played. It is true that he skipped three (Monte Carlo, Rome, Canada), but we must always ask the most of a player who is fighting to be the best in the world, even if he is 21 years old. In fact, in both 2022 and 2023 he had achieved a double in this category, a challenge in which he stumbled on this occasion, in part, due to the good work of some of his rivals. And here I’m not just talking about Sinner, but about another man who has once again taken a step forward in a territory in which he has been reigning for many seasons now.

And that name is none other than Alexander Zverev. Champion in Rome and Paris, semi-finalist in Miami and Cincinnati, quarter-finalist in Indian Wells and Canada, for example. These are just some of the numbers of the German, who ends the course with a record of 28-7 in the Masters 1000 tournaments, this being his best mark since he began to be a regular in the main draws back in 2016. He comes from suffering pneumonia, to make public the diabetes that has been haunting him since he was a child, he was even able to expose the fears he feels every time success knocks on his door, a fear that prevents him from playing brave and confident. For many, he is still a player with unfinished business at the top, but no one can reproach his status in this second category, where he has already accumulated seven championships.

The cast is completed by Stefanos Tsitsipas who was once again inspired by his beloved Monte Carlo, where he has already left his signature three times. A Andrey Rublev who only found peace with himself at the Mutua Madrid Open, his best week of the year despite a terrible fever. Impossible to forget Alexei Popyrin conquering Canada to everyone’s surprise, strengthening the idea that the locker room has greater depth than years ago. And why does it have more depth now? Because the Big3 has finally lifted the yoke to which it had subjected its rivals. For the first time since 2003 – since 2003!! – we have finished the course without any Masters 1000 in the hands of Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal or Novak Djokovic. In fact, the Serbian was the only one who actually fought for one of these awards, reaching the final in Shanghai, where he lost in two sets to the aforementioned Sinner.

Now let’s go back to the data with which I opened this article: six different champions in nine Masters 1000 tournaments. Isn’t that too many? To what extent is it good that there is no clear domain? Did you enjoy the lock imposed by the Big3 more or this new era where lions do not hunt with the same appetite? Let’s look at the trend in recent times.

2021: Seven different champions in eight tournaments.

2022: Seven different champions in eight tournaments.

2023: Six different champions in nine tournaments.

2024: Six different champions in nine tournaments.

The dynamics, which could not be more linear, come to show us everything that the Big3 covered up for more than a decade, confirming that it is (almost) impossible for two or three sick people – from the competition – capable of monopolizing all of them to come together again. the great trophies at stake. Sinner and Alcaraz will be there, there will be no shortage of Medvedev and Zverev, surely Tsitsipas or Rune also have things to say, but what awaits us ahead is a stage closer to communism than to dictatorship. Good or bad news? Neither of them. As long as the level is supreme and the show entertains the fan, it matters little whether the cake is divided between three or twenty-three.