The tournament has only gone through round 2, but it is enough for people to flip the ATP and WTA rankings and look back. In the men's singles event, 13 seeds were eliminated in the first round - the most in the tournament in the Open era. In the women's singles event, 5 seeds were in the top 10 when they just reached round 2, including 4 players from 2nd to 5th place. Are the top names falling like autumn leaves just a temporary phenomenon, or is it a signal of a major shift in the world tennis map?
First of all, it is necessary to see that Wimbledon is at a disadvantage... left-handed, when the match schedule is only 3 weeks away from Roland Garros. That makes it difficult for players to recover their physical strength, not yet able to convert the state from clay to an extremely unpredictable grass field. The pitch at the All England Club not only requires powerful passes and sensitive crosses, but also requires speedy adaptation. Outstanding tennis players in Paris do not mean they will continue to flourish in London.
But blaming the match schedule, pitch or weather is not enough. In fact, tennis is witnessing a fierce underground wave from young, bold, un tireless tennis players who are not tired of fame and of course have confidence. The ATP 250 and 500 tournaments are now no longer an experimental playground, but a place to train courage. Many young tennis players are creating a feeling of "overage", ready to sow sadness for any monument.
As for the seeds - are they just stumbling, or are they going down in the natural cycle? Novak Djokovic is fighting against time, Carlos Alcaraz has a hard start, Iga Swiatek is still clumsy on the pitch, Aryna Sabalenka is losing his usual coolness... They continue their journey at Wimbledon 2025 in this tournament like a mid-term report: Warning those who sleep on the top, and encouraging those who climb quietly.
Maybe it's not a revolution, a coup d'etat, but with the consecutive waves of talents of all ages, tennis today has become much more difficult.
