Yes, this is a picture of Wimbledon under the sun. It was taken on my first day here last week, and right now, I’m trying to manifest summer again. Because this is currently the view of the courts from the screen at my desk as I type these lines:

I was hoping we had left all the rain at Roland-Garros but apparently not. So what has happened so far at this Wimbledon, outside of bad weather? Well, quite a lot already!

We lost Marketa Vondrousova, the defending champion. We also lost Aryna Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka before they could hit a single ball.

Most of all, we lost Andy Murray. I still cannot imagine Muzz’s disappointment at not being able to play singles here one last time. Considering how much this place has meant for his career, it seems incredibly cruel. He’ll be back with his brother Jamie for the doubles and with Emma Raducanu in mixed doubles, but I’m not sure it can compensate for this new heartbreak. I was on that Centre Court for both of the finals he won at Wimbledon and, especially for the first one in 2013, it’s tough to describe the emotion that went through the crowd. It’s crazy to me how fast the time really does fly. Murray about to retire? Nah. And yet…

A reminder to enjoy these champions while they’re still here and to give them the respect they deserve while they’re still around. And to understand how much they mean for the game while they’re still playing it.

I’ve gone through the whole Big 4 era, so it’s one of the reasons why I cringe when reading how Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are supposed to bring the same type of rivalry already. I was also at Roland-Garros for their semi-finals. So, I’m sorry, but there’s no way to compare already what these two young players are doing to what the Big 4 has done for the game and how they competed against each other. I understand the marketing need to say tennis has found a replacement for that Golden Gen, but it’s not the right strategy or the truth.

Let Alcaraz, Sinner, and the others write their own story. You just don’t repeat the Big 4 after a couple of years of a rivalry. We had over a decade of out-of-this-world matches in the last stages of the biggest events. We had a level of play that broke so many tennis brains. We had the guarantee of seeing them deliver every single week they played. It was a blockbuster-only era. So, let’s enjoy the rise of the new kings while respecting the legacy of the Avengers, on and off the court. It’s a hell of a legacy to try to catch up to, and it shouldn’t be taken for granted.