At 21, Flavio Cobolli is a normal player. He is 159th in the world, plays challenger tournaments and tries to break through in tennis. In fact, until this Monday he had never entered the final draw of a Grand Slam tournament. It is not he who has summoned all these people to the Suzanne Lenglen on a diaphanous afternoon in the Parisian spring. On the other side is the real protagonist. One year younger, Carlos Alcaraz is far from being a normal tennis player. Nobody had appeared so early as the first seed of the tournament since Bjorn Borg, with 19, did it in 1976. The Swede won the tournament six times. Alcaraz is the favorite to take it for the first time. In his third participation he began with a 6-0, 6-2 and 7-5 victory, in one hour and 57 minutes.

Neither the light wind nor the dimensions of the track, with less space to develop behind the line, alter the script of the Spaniard, who soon leaves with two breaks, almost without realizing it. Winner in Barcelona and Madrid with an intimidating solvency, he begins to show drop shots and accelerations with his right foot, to the delight of an audience that is no longer amazed, that knows him, although perhaps they have not yet had the opportunity to see him live.. The “Allez Carlos!” comes from the lips of a boy.

There is applause for Cobolli, as the party runs the risk of staying in a breath. Not only will the occurrences of the number 1 in the world be rewarded, but also any display of pride of the applicant, who wins his first game, the fourth of the second set, smiles, then clenches his teeth, raises the racket and receives recognition from the stands. A man is measured against a child. The speed of the ball, the exuberance, the authority with which it is handled…

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What else to say? Mandatory reminder in each of his matches: third stage as world number 1, already champion of the United States Open, ten titles, four of them Masters 1000, 31 wins and only three losses in 2023… This first round was an exercise in annihilation. Alcaraz had just lost in the third round in Rome with the Hungarian Fabian Marozsan, 135th. A defeat without major consequences. A break in a hectic season.

Alcaraz leaves 1-2 and 15-40 in the third set. You don't want to waste energy. He does it by appealing to his dexterity. He moves Cobolli up and down, from side to side, brings and pushes him, almost, written with the utmost respect, as if he were an articulated toy. But the Italian saves three match balls in the ninth game and lets loose, dilates what is to date the most beautiful day of his career.

A few hours after Djokovic’s victory over Kovacevic (6-3, 6-2, 7-6) at the Philippe Chatrier, Alcaraz makes ground against another weak opponent. He will meet Japan’s Taro Daniel, ranked 112th, in the third round on Wednesday. Last year, the current top seed for the title lost in the quarter-finals to Alexander Zverev. Things have changed a lot. And for the better.