'Sandwich class' of tennis looking lost between eras

The "sandwich generation" of men's tennis increasingly looks like a group of lost boys.

- Charlie Eccleshare

PARIS -

They are the players born in the 1990s who were projected for big things but suffered a double misfortune of circumstance. The first was that they entered the sport when it was in the vice-like grip of the Big Three: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

Those three scooped up titles for longer than anybody expected, and no sooner had their collective powers waned than Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner arrived, seemingly fully formed, to steal away the promises that were made to the children of the '90s.

In the first week of the French Open, their diminishing hopes of staying among the truly elite have dwindled further.