How quickly things change. It was only last year that we were waving Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray off into retirement and muttering sadly that we would never see their like again.
Yet here we are, back at the All England Club with a new set of history-makers ready to do battle over the course of the next two weeks.
Jannik Sinner (main picture), the top seed and lord of all he surveys on a hard court, and Carlos Alcaraz, seeded No.2, the defending champion and the master of clay and grass, obviously do not have to worry about each other for the first six rounds (should they get that far). That will be a relief after their epic, five-and-a-half-hour Roland-Garros final just three weeks ago.
Since then, Sinner has been trying to shake the loss from his mind and has won just one match on grass (he beat Yannick Hanfmann in Halle). Alcaraz, on the other hand, has had a brief holiday in Ibiza and has won the Queen’s Club title. He is looking awfully confident.
Sinner opens his campaign against his compatriot, Luca Nardi, the world No.94, and then has a host of awkward obstacles to overcome if he is to book his place in the quarter-finals and a potential showdown with another Italian in Lorenzo Musetti. There is Denis Shapovalov who could bar his way in the third round and Grigor Dimitrov or Tommy Paul who could lie in wait in the fourth round.
As the draw was made, Jack Draper found himself stepping into Murray’s shoes as the local favourite (and, fear not, Murray thinks the world No.4 is more than ready for the pressures and attention that will fall upon him now).
As the No.4 seed, he found himself in the top half of the draw with a scheduled quarter-final appointment with Novak Djokovic, the No.6 seed and seven times a champion here. Hopefully recovered from the bout of tonsilitis that hindered him at Queen’s Club, the thought of a fit and firing new hope against the established great should have the Centre Court crowd salivating. It should whet Draper’s appetite, too.
Alcaraz has not exactly got off lightly, either. He begins against Fabio Fognini who, at 38 and with a ranking of No.130, may not be what he once was but he is a wily old campaigner. And he loves to put on a show.
Lurking in that quarter of the draw are Frances Tiafoe, who took him to five sets in the third round last summer, and Jiri Lehecka. Alcaraz described the Czech as “a nightmare to play” (in the nicest possible way, mind you) after their Queen’s Club final and he will be glad not to have to deal with the big-serving No.23 seed until the quarter-finals.
The champion’s second-week diary looks fully booked. According to the seedings, he should face either Alexander Zverev, the No.3 seed, or Taylor Fritz, the No.5, in the semi-finals. But Fritz has never passed the quarter-final stage here while Zverev has been trying to rebuild his confidence and momentum since losing the Australian Open final to Sinner.
Zverev formed a new relationship with the grass courts last summer – he decided he liked the green stuff – although it may be tested in the first week. He faces Arthur Rinderknech, the Queen’s Club quarter-finalist, in the first round, and could take on Matteo Berrettini, a former finalist here, in the third round.
Fritz faces a massive task in his opening round – he plays Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, all 6ft 8in (2.03m) of him. The Frenchman walloped down 51 aces against Sebastian Korda in his first round last year and went on to reach the fourth round. With Alexei Popyrin (and his huge serve) or Daniil Medvedev as potential fourth round opponents, Fritz has a huge workload ahead of him.
But there are 128 men in the draw and every one of them is looking to make his own little bit of history. The draw looks exciting now but how it unfolds is a whole new story.