The stage was set in Madrid. The only teenagers in the ATP Top 100 faced each other for the first time. Both carrying the weight of some ever-distant "future of tennis". One loses, gets called overrated, unsubstantiated hype, flop. The other, the real deal, the next Rafa Nadal, the one who will disrupt the Sinner-Alcaraz dual dynasty.

Of course, tennis is played over many tournaments, over many months, different conditions, different surfaces, and players ride momentum, get big wins, then fall back a little and struggle with tough losses.

As such, Joao Fonseca and Rafa Jodar benefit most not of the hype trains departing the station of Tennis Twitter, with the insanely hyperbolical cries from Tennis TV social media coordinators at every winner. They benefit of the calm. The quiet. The time to think, to assess their mistakes and acknowledge the positive and negative from each match. They need our patience.

Jodar is not Alcaraz. He is really freaking good, and I really am excited to see him develop into a Top 10 player threatening to win the biggest titles. But there's a lot of road ahead for him to get disappointed, to lose from match point up, to play a terrible match in windy conditions, serve under 50% first serves in a match. He'll have that, and he'll be alright.

Fonseca has had his moment last year. He came, he played, he conquered. Now the other players know him. They work with their coaches to find strategies to exploit his weaknesses and neutralize his forehand. He is getting frustrated, probably, by not having another big win under his belt and a deep run in a big tournament. But it will come. Fonseca will work with his own team to hide his weaknesses, to improve his game, and to find a way to crack into the Top 10 and, along with Jodar, to also be a big threat to win the biggest trophies in tennis.

All in due time. All in their own timeline.

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Carlos Alcaraz should not have played Barcelona. Now, dropping out of the remainder of the clay season, he's left with no Barcelona title, no Madrid title, no Roland Garros and a chance to hold all four majors at once, and probably no No.1 until 2027.

It seems like it's never going to get easier for Sinner. He now has the chance to completely dominate the tour, win every tournament he enters, post what could probably be the best season of ALL TIME.

That is, if he can handle the now immense pressure of being the heavy favourite to win every tournament he enters. As heavy a favourite as it can possibly get.

And, a quick look into Arthur Fils, whom I believe has tremedous potential to be a huge challenge to the current Big 2 of Alcaraz and Sinner. Maybe just not this year yet, though.

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Elena Rybakina could have lost in the quarterfinals in Stuttgart. She didn't. And maybe that was the confidence boost she needed to know she could be one of the big favourites for Roland Garros and the World No.1 mantle, both for the first time.

Losing to Fernandez could have thrown Rybakina's No.1 quest off course, and given Sabalenka almost free rein over Madrid and Rome, making only herself her biggest enemy. But now that Rybakina is playing amazing on clay, Madrid and Rome suddenly became the battle grounds for favouritism ahead of the clay-court major in Paris. The results from both, and possibly two mouth-watering clashes in the final of both tournaments, could be decisive factors for who will finish the clay season on top of the World.

But the battle doesn't end on just the Top 2 players, unlike what we are seeing on the ATP. The entire WTA Top 10 is very strong, and upwards to the Top 30, every player can be extremely dangerous. Gauff, the Roland Garros defending champion, is a bit of a tough prediction, since she plays at her best infrequently, but always finds ways to win matches no matter against whom she plays. Pegula is not just going to sit there and hope for the best either, letting Sabalenka and Rybakina have all the fun.

I am particularly curious about Karolina Muchova and Iga Swiatek. Muchova, former French Open finalist, is having a great season so far, and injury-free, too, which is a relief for her. Although she lost to Rybakina in the Stuttgart final convincignly, she got her first wins over Gauff (1-6) and Svitolina (1-3), both in three tough sets. Perhaps after that emotionally tiring run, she'll come out firing in the next WTA 1000 events.

Swiatek is a huge question mark. She showed positive things in Stuttgart, but remains unconvincing as a favourite to any of the next tournaments, despite her impressive clay resume. Will she find her level in time for Roland Garros, where she is a four-time champion? Who knows.

All rests on the results from Madrid and Rome.

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