"They're playing with two forehands now": Stefanos Tsitsipas, stuck between the Big Three sunset and the new kings rise in Roland Garros

As the 2025 Roland Garros progresses, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, and their next gen contemporaries share the spotlight with tennis' new kings, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner . Once seen as the heirs to the Big Three era, these two now find themselves at an awkward spot, squeezed between legendary predecessors and a new wave of prodigies.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, twice a Grand Slam finalist and currently ranked well below his career-best No. 3, shared in a recent interview in Paris about the challenges his generation faces:

“I feel like the lineup right now is much more difficult than it was back then (2021, when he was a finalist at Roland Garros). Players are so much more mature. Shots have changed. Players have second forehands in this very moment. They're playing with two forehands almost. I have to adapt my game.”

Tsitsipas, reflecting on his past Grand Slam finals, said that the evolution isn’t about tactics or fitness but about the intensity that has overtaken tennis, especially with the rise of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz at the top.

“I have to consider certain things moving forward because it's [tennis] growing a lot in intensity, and physically it has never been in a position like the way it is now. I see constant evolution and constant growth of the sport in terms of how the players are evolving and how much better they're getting.”

“Also, there are a bunch of guys now (presumably, youngsters like Jacob Mensik, Joao Fonseca) that are following in their footsteps and showing the same type of potential.”

Tennis analysts have named Tsitsipas, Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, and Andrey Rublev the “Sandwich Generation.” These players emerged under the ATP’s “Next Gen” banner, only to find themselves wedged between two dominant forces: the lingering greatness of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic, and the meteoric rise of Sinner and Alcaraz.

While some of them had managed to win a Slam or a major accolade (Daniil Medvedev’s US Open title and Zverev’s Olympic gold among them) the rest has struggled a lot to win that coveted major. Zverev, in particular, remains the most decorated player without a major, despite a career that began with a bang in 2017.

Zverev himself recognized the unique challenge his era has presented. As he began his Roland Garros campaign, he reflected on the near-impossible task of breaking through during the Big Three’s reign:

“I wish I would not have had the three greatest players of all time for the first ten years of my career. I think I would have won maybe one or two Slams by now, and probably a few more tournaments. But at the same time, it was a privilege playing them. I enjoyed every moment of it.”

Daniil Medvedev, the only Next Gen player with a major title, seems less convinced about that major change in terms of quality and skill:

“It’s tough to say exactly about the level. Everyone is playing strong. Everyone wants to win. It's always tough. I do think it was the same all the time.”