Open season at Roland Garros

With the Big 3 behind us, no set narratives, and no overwhelming favourites—the French Open is anyone's game now

- Deepti Patwardhan

Mohamed, remember when tennis was easy?" Alexander Bublik needled chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani during a changeover in his round of 16 match against Jakub Menšík at the Madrid Masters last month. "Like five years ago it was super easy to play tennis. A bunch of random people in the top 50, barely moving. Now this guy is not even top 5, not even top 10. F*** is that?"

Though Bublik's entertaining tennis took him to World No. 17 last year, the Kazakh is known more for his histrionics and sometimes controversial comments. But in Madrid, where he duly went on to lose 3-6, 2-6 to Menšík, the 27-year-old provided an incisive commentary on the changing landscape of men's tennis.

A few years ago, it was a handful of players, namely Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who dominated the sport, leaving the rest fighting for scraps. But the end of the Big 3 era means every player believes they are in with a fighting chance for the big prizes. Infused with this new sense of self-belief, the younger generation is hitting the ball bigger and bolder than ever. They are not bowing down to the established world order.

Teen sensation Menšík blindsided everyone by racing to a title win at the Miami Masters, an ATP 1000 event that sits just below the Grand Slams in the sport's tournament hierarchy. The 19-year-old owns a powerful serve and has the big groundstrokes to dictate play from the baseline. He put them to great effect in Miami, blowing past more seasoned players like Arthur Fils and Taylor Fritz in the earlier round. In the final, he defeated Novak Djokovic to win his first tour title. Menšík fired 14 aces and faced just one break point against the best returner in the game to win in two tie-break sets.