Alcaraz's Seamless Reset for Big W with Queen's Crown

The French Open champion is making the complicated switch from clay to grass seem routine

- Rutvick Mehta

MUMBAI: Here's how the four singles finalists who appeared on the concluding weekend of the French Open a couple of weeks ago fared in their next tournament appearance: Coco Gauff: First round, Berlin. Aryna Sabalenka: Semi-final, Berlin. Jannik Sinner: Second round, Halle. Carlos Alcaraz: Champion, Queen's.

The Roland Garros to Wimbledon route is the most challenging on the professional tennis calendar. The surface change from the slowest to quickest is complex, and the turnaround time - of less than a month and involving, at best, one tournament for the top players - is next to negligible.

It's unforgiving even for the reigning women's French Open winner in Gauff and the current men's world No. 1 in Sinner. For the men's French Open champion, however, it's business as usual.

Alcaraz went from being the prince of the Parisian clay to the king of the Queen's grass in a fortnight. And he will go with a spring in his step to Wimbledon that begins next Monday at the All England Club.