Wimbledon 2025: The Future is Now

This year’s version of The Championships still had the shadow of The Big Three (Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic) lurking over it, though only Djokovic remains. Indeed, Djokovic made it all the way to a semifinal, before succumbing to his opponent, and an injury sustained in the previous round. The manner of his dismissal suggests the future of men’s tennis is now.

The victor in that match was eventual champion Jannik Sinner. You’re reading his name right; when the headlines said, “Sinner visits Pope in Rome,” I had a laugh. All jokes aside, he’s the number 1 player in the world, coming in with 5 major championships at the tender age of 23. (Djokovic and Nadal are tied for most all time among men, with 24.) Watching Sinner in this tournament is like watching any other player on tape in fast forward. Indeed, in my opinion, it’s his quickness and overall speed that are his best assets. Being right eye-to-eye with an opponent after he hits his best possible shot is unnerving indeed, and I watched Sinner do it repeatedly over the fortnight.

The great phenom and number 2 in the world, Carlos Alcaraz, went too much with the drop shot against Sinner, presumably wary of the speed of Sinner.

To watch Carlos Alcaraz on a tennis court is a privilege and a treat. At 22, he is already in possession of 5 major titles, and is a happy warrior whose game is a terrifying combination of Roger Federer and that of his hero and fellow Spaniard, Rafael Nadal. On this day, the forehand and serve let him down. The sets were tight; these men at high skill together is indescribable. But everyone felt like Carlos would crack. The metronomic consistency and incredible shots of Sinner frustrated the world’s most popular and arguably most talented player. It was a 4-set victory in the first set, all 6-4, avenging Sinner’s loss to Alcaraz in the French Open final, barely a month before. Sinner in fact had three championship points on Alcaraz, but was beaten back, only to suffer defeat in what some said was the greatest match they’d ever seen. That’s saying something, since the 2008 Wimbledon final between Federer and Nadal took place. I’m not ready to move past the Big Three, but these kids make it easier.

The women’s draw was expected to culminate with the American Coco Gauff, and world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka, but Gauff lost early, and Sabalenka was beaten by American Amanda Anisimova, the child of Russian immigrants, whose celebrated junior career led to the expectation of her being “the next one” for American tennis. The pressure of this, and the untimely death of her beloved father a few years ago, led Anisimova to take an 8 month break from tennis for her mental health.

Anisimova—now 23–was soundly beaten by Iga Swiatek, 6-0, 6-0, a score not seen in a major final in some 30 odd years. The comeback story—coming back from a ranking of 189 now into the top 10–is the stuff of movies. And I tell you plainly that it was an effort not to weep during the runner-up speech. She’ll learn what she can, and drop it down the memory hole.

Swiatek, by contrast, hadn’t won any tournament in a year. The former 5-time major champion notoriously hated playing on the grass at Wimbledon. I think she’s over it now. The thrashing took less than an hour. She’s on her way to the US Open in late August as a favorite, where she was champion in 2022. She herself is only 24. We may be well past the glory days, but tennis will make new ones, in the hands of its young superstars.

Jason Kettinger is Associate Editor of Open for Business. He writes on politics, sports, faith and more.