#Roger Ferrero

[pinkcaraz]

make me alive || atp multi ships (being alive from company)

prompt

[channelslam]

[carwens]

ARE WE KIDDING

[knightscanfeeltoo]

Ferrero Roger...

(haha lmao...)

[janesurlife]

They're talking about Rafa

[kalibabysworld]

Tennis Players as THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT Track list

(Based purely on the title not the content)

1. Fortnight

- Novak Djokovic: He breaks a new record every two weeks (at least it feels like it)

2. The Tortured Poets Department

- Iga Swiatek: She's a Swiftie and I really want one know her reaction to the album announcement and her first listen

3. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys

- Andrey Rublev: *montage of broken racquets here*

4. Down Bad

- Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter: He flew to San Diego to watch her final after he won the title in Acapulco. I've never felt so single in my life

- Taylor Fritz and Morgan Riddle

Again. I've never felt so single in my life.

5. So Long, London

- Andy Murray: He's English. And we're saying goodbye to him😭

6. But Daddy I Love Him

- Casper Ruud: My heart hurts every time he loses

- also: me whenever a player is injured

7. Fresh Out the Slammer

- Simona Halep: drug testing and trial

8. Florida!!!

- Ben Shelton: University of Florida alumni

9. Guilty as Sin?

- Alexander Zverev: Self explanatory

10. Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?

- Jannik Sinner: idk what was in the bottom of that trash bin hut I don't think anyone wants to play him now

11. I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)

- Andrey Rublev: (sorry for the repeat) I don't like his temper but he's hot. I could fix him.

12. loml

- Roger Federer: The love of my life my first tennis idol. Also the loss of my life

13. I Can Do It With a Broken Heart

- Rafa Nadal: He's doing it with a broken body right now. And it breaks his heart to leave

14. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived

- Diego Schwartzman: For a tennis player, he's really short (I'm so sorry Diego)

15. The Alchemy

- Juan Carlo Ferrero, Darren Cahill, and Simone Vagnozzi: They have made gold in Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner

16. Clara Bow

- Maria Sharapova: It girl of Hollywood and it girl of tennis

[alacants]

hello tumblr user alacants, it feels kind of cursed to be saying this on the literal day of rafa’s retirement, but i have been so Moved by the federer/juanki narratives lately and would love to hear your thoughts

hello anon please know that when i got this on the literal day of rafa's retirement i laughed aloud. perfect timing, actually!!! sorry that it took me seven weeks to answer. 😬

the tennis narratives really are sooooo interesting. like. they started out very much as equals. juanki won their first two matches. by the end of 2003—the year they both won their first grand slam titles, the year they split the channel slam—the h2h was a nice even 3-3. (and one of those was a juanki retirement.) then exactly as roger's imperial phase began, juanki fell off the cliff. like. exactly.

juanki took the atp world no. 1 ranking on september 8, 2003. on october 18, he beat roger in madrid en route to his one and only masters title. on november 3, juanki dropped to no. 2 behind andy roddick. on november 12, juanki lost to agassi in masters cup round-robin play and andy clinched the year-end ranking. on november 14, juanki lost to roger in same, bringing their h2h even for the last time. on january 30, roger beat juanki in straight sets in the aus open sf and in doing so clinched his first world no. 1 ranking, effective february 2. on february 25, juanki—holding at world no. 2—was upset in the first round of the marseille open, contracted chicken pox shortly thereafter, and did not play another tennis match until april. one year later, he was ranked no. 98. roger was still no. 1. on august 17, 2008, after 237 weeks, roger finally lost the world no. 1. spot to rafa. juanki was ranked no. 50 at the time.

and if you started watching tennis at any point between 2004 and 2022, you don't even recognize that world—i certainly don't. it's all historical archaeology. these two are living links to a vanished age, except one of them helped bury it and the other was one of the earliest casualties.

like. juanki is the warning! he is the dead body in the first act! here is this young threat who's materialized out of nowhere and he is coming to murder you. the difference is that juanki stayed murdered, and roger famously did not.

so nowadays they're looking back on the same era with similar—but not identical—rose-colored glasses. for roger, it's the first blush of success, salad days just before the golden age. for juanki, it is the golden age. and i mean, they are both romantics and nostalgists, to different degrees. juanki admires roger's tennis so much, and speaks of it in such superlatives—the best player in history, the only player who's ever made me feel inferior on the court. and, you know. i think this is also how roger thinks of his own tennis, ahaha. (I DO TOO SO IT'S FINE.) i think they really feed each other's errrrr how can i say this lovingly. appetite for recognition. you were the greatest player ever. oh, well, you were great too, we played some amazing matches. mutual validation cycle.

i think one of the big what-ifs for me is, what could the relationship/rivalry (such as it is) have looked like if it hadn't been for the chicken pox-broken rib crit. juanki was never going to be rafael nadal, but let's say he'd kept building on his momentum. let's say he was the spanish clay man for a couple years—the main obstacle standing between roger and roland garros and rome and monte carlo. or maybe he followed through on the early narrative that here was a spaniard who wasn't just a clay courter, actually—maybe there's another uso final in his future with a different ending. like, there's no question that roger would ultimately be the better and more successful player but it could have been a really interesting pre-rafa moment. anyone who would like to write this fic feel free.

(i mean for that matter, what about the fic where juanki is the repressed closet case to end all repressed closet cases and roger federer is reddit conspiracy theory manic pixie dream gay roger federer, BOY would that be some encounter c. 2003-5. sorry this is not an actual narrative, it's just a fun fic idea.) (wait what about the fic where that did happen, c. 2003-5, and though it might be 20 years in the past it's definitely played into their present day fondness. really gives some nice flavor to the shanghai final box.)

i saved this thought for the end, because much of this post is silly and this is not. but of course there's one more thing they share—the unenviable experience of losing someone very, very important to them before they'd achieved the dream. i find it hard to believe that this is something they would have talked about then, but they certainly would have known it about each other. maybe it's something they can talk about now.

[antadogoias]

you know I might have already said it but I think we need to start writing and appreciate more the dilfs of tennis. I mean I already see some (I only saw with Juan Carlos Ferrero) but they are NOT enough. we got so many dilfs and they are all so damn hot and theres not a single fic or whatever with them.

[luzmyway]

I was listening to Pink Floyd on the way home and couldn’t help that this Rafa/juanki energy today was a bit like Waters/Gilmour during Live8 😂😂

[channelslam]

roger meets carlos once and suddenly he’s with him 24/7 omg @ rafa STEP UP!

[melissa-leaf]

[s1ncaraz]

i wanna listen in on his convo with juanki and fed so bad

carlitos and his team watching the final from jan’s box I am livingggg

[alacants]

Ok ok I have a scenario. What happens if carlos alcaraz doesn't happen. Like what would happen if this big blinding ball of energy and sunshine, magic kid and saviour of tennis and whatever just didn't exist. WHAT happens then???

you KNOW i love a good What If!

i mean what carlos did was drive the bleeding edge of the youngest generation right up against the fading end of the big four era. like roger announcing his retirement 4 days after carlitos won his first slam is really something. that i didn't put together until just this minute. (yeah the writing was on the wall but let me have my NARRATIVE.) 

so without carlos, maybe someone's doing that but maybe not. maybe the 90s kids who've been smothered their whole careers get to breathe?? a couple extra years in the sun before the shadow of jannik sinner descends??

i mean OR MAYBE NOT maybe jannik wins that uso qf and goes all the way. (rip casper.) but tbh i think that even if he does it wouldn't be quite as much of a shock to the system—the three years of up and downs from 2019 to 2022 soften the effect into a more natural progression. as opposed to carlos rolling up to win his first 500, masters, and major—TWO majors—all in the same year. this fucking kid lmao. so maybe jannik (or holger! or someone else!) steps in and takes some of carlos' titles, but even if that happens i bet you anything the impact is less paralyzing and the mid-gen still manage to like. rack up some results. believe in themselves. lmao.

and for that matter, that's if we assume jannik develops similarly to irl—i'm sort of intrigued by the counterfactual where jannik doesn't make the jump from piatti quite so quickly. like, he's EOY top 10, he's won some titles, so what if he isn't beating medvedev or tsitsipas or rafole or making it past the early slam rounds, neither is anyone else his age. yet.

having said that i don't think the dissatisfaction jannik felt with where things stood in early 2022 had all that much to do with the presence or absence of carlos in particular (who was also not doing most of those things yet) so for now we'll set that aside. 

anyway so. without carlos, the big rivalry among the younguns is jannik and holger. hahahahaha. and, look, i bet it's not as thorny as it is irl because you don't have the ready-made big three comparisons, holger is probably way better adjusted??? yeah i'm thinking this is who the big winner of a carlosless universe is. holger rune. jannik is (at first) an attainable level of rival and it's not like there's someone else leaving both of them in the dust! meanwhile holger-novak becomes the djokoraz of this universe. and without carlos who was literally born to be a media beloved, holger's the next-best material—like yeah he's ~dramatic and ~controversial but he gives them more than jannik. so what you have is ljfkldajf janholger is the new fedal. no, the new rafole. help i can't stop laughing. i hope jannik is visited by a dream vision of this universe someday.

M E A N W H I L E what is happening at the juan carlos ferrero tennis academy? i mean, it's a normal tennis academy. juanki has a normal job cultivating the youth. it is a little bit crazy to think of the effect that carlos had on juanki's stature and career. like otherwise juanki has the zverev experience and is like oh HELL no—or. hm. actually this is a different and fascinating question, ha, was juanki itching to get back into top-level tennis badly enough that even after getting burned by the zverev experience he would have given it another shot with a non-carlos player. or would it have redirected him definitively back to the academy. 

…….this train of thought is colliding with the discarded counterfactual above + the tidbit that jannik allegedly almost went to rafa nadal academy to produce an outcome that from a pure storytelling perspective i should have anticipated yet somehow didn't see coming. hope you enjoyed witnessing the thought process in real time.

RIGHT so what happens if carlos alcaraz doesn't exist is: juanki coaches jannik to a gripping career rivalry with holger rune. TA DA.

/user alacants out

[gamesetcheckeredflag]

Here with a new sincaraz fanfic yayyy! So, the beginning isn't the best bc it was written at 7:30 in the morning and I was sleep deprived and the end was written at 11:30 in the night where I also was sleep deprived but the middle part is great i think hahah!

I hope you will like it and if you see any mistakes pls just tell me.

Tiny little summary: Carlos watches Jannik (his bf) in Shanghai playing against Novak and then they are in Riyadh.

Ig i may write a pt. 2 but not this week bc I should study haha!

Jannik looked up to his box where he saw Roger Federer. Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Alcaraz - his boyfriend sitting. 

Of course, he had known that Carlos would come to cheer him on, but seeing also Roger and Juan Carlos in the stands just added to the pressure Jannik was already feeling as he was playing against Novak Djokovic. 

He tried not to think about the fact that there were so many important people of the tennis world watching him and focused on the fact that Carlos will always be cheering for him. 

He didn’t know who Roger was cheering for, but imagined it was for him to give himself a small confidence-boost.

He focused on the racket in his right hand, the ball in his left. 

He had barely won the first set so he knew he had to play better. So, he did.

And it was worth it because what felt like hours later, he had won the match in straight sets. He had defeated Novak Djokovic in straight sets - in front of Roger, Juan Carlos and of course Carlos who tried not to cheer too noticeable as they haven’t told anyone that they were a couple yet. 

It was still new for both of them so they had decided to wait a bit and figure things out first.

Jannik could see Carlos’s smile from the stands which made him even happier. He just won a Masters 1000 in front of his boyfriend. He couldn’t imagine anything better than that.

After all the formalities including the trophy presentation, the photos and interviews, Jannik finally walked through the hallways of the stadium, finally getting away from the noise and people.

Of course, he loved to play, to win, to be around fans, but at some point, it all became too much. He was stressed with everything that was currently going on in his life, and the only thing… person, that was helping him, was Carlos, who he found standing near the lockers.

He was leaning against the white walls, his arms crossed, and he immediately started smiling when he saw Jannik stepping through the doors.

“You did it,” Carlos said, his voice full of pride and something more. Something intimate.

Jannik grinned broadly. “Yes, I guess I did.”

Carlos didn’t wait for any more words and stepped forward to wrap his arms around Jannik’s waist to pull him in for a tight hug.

“You played so well, mi amor,” Carlos whispered into Jannik’s ear and his voice sent a shiver down his spine.

“Thank you. I tried my best,” Jannik said breathlessly.

Carlos pulled back slightly so he could look into Jannik’s hazel-colored eyes that seemed green in the bright light of the locker room.

Slowly, Carlos’s hands slid up Jannik’s sides until his hands brushed his skin under his shirt.

“You deserved this win. I am so, so proud of you,” Carlos said with his lips just inches from Jannik’s.

The older guy leaned in slightly until his lips touched Carlos’s. The kiss started soft, maybe even shy but soon both of them leaned in more and the Italian’s arms came up to wrap around Carlos’s waist to pull him in closer.

The taste of Carlos’s lips, the warmth of his skin that Jannik felt through the fabric of the blue Nike hoodie, it all felt perfect and grounding after the demanding match Jannik has just been through.

But soon, as the kiss deepened, the Spaniard’s hands moved to grip Jannik’s hips as he pressed their bodies closer.

Carlos’s lips moved form Jannik’s mouth, over his jawline, to his neck. Jannik let out a soft sight and tilted his head back to give Carlos more access. His skin felt like it was on fire everywhere his boyfriend’s lips touched him.

“Carlos…” Jannik sighed, his fingers tightening around the fabric of Carlos’s hoodie, that he noticed was really soft, and he made a mental note to steal it from Carlos at some point.

But then, reality came crushing into him. They were still in the locker room – a public space. It didn’t matter how private it felt in that moment, anyone could walk in. His team, Carlos’s team, security guard. As much as he wanted more, he knew they couldn’t. Not here. Not now.

Reluctantly, Jannik pulled back, his hands gently pressing against Carlo’s chest which he let go again immediately as he felt Carlos muscles tensing under the thick fabric of his clothes.

“Wait,” he murmured with his voice still breathless and low from the kiss.

Carlos looked up at his boyfriend, surprise and desire in his eyes.

“What��s wrong, mi amor.” His voice was soft but concerned as if he thought he had done something wrong.

Jannik shook his head while offering a small and apologetic smile. “Not here, babe,” he said while his thumb came up to brush over Carlos’s cheek. “I want this. But not here, ok?”

For a small moment, Carlos just stared at him, his brown eyes searching Jannik’s face for any signs that would tell him that he had done a mistake. But as he couldn’t find one, a small smile appeared on his face.

“You are probably right. But we will continue this later, alright?”

Jannik let out a small laugh, which made the tension between them ease again. “Later,” he agreed and leaned in to give Carlos another soft kiss.

They pulled apart and Jannik moved his hands over his shirt.

“Let’s go celebrate,” he said, but when he saw Carlos’s look, he added a “with everyone. We’ll go out for dinner, with our teams. Not what you think.”

His boyfriend pouted which only made the redhead chuckle.

“Then let’s go back to being friends,” Carlos said and Jannik could swear that he heard a pang of disappointment in the Spaniard’s voice.

An hour later, they were seated at a long table in a nice restaurant in the city. Carlos was talking with Juan Carlos Ferrero, laughing at something he had just said.

Every now and then their eyes met and Jannik could feel the same flutter in his chest he had felt the first time he had met Carlos.

Throughout the whole dinner, they managed to keep their distance, careful not to do anything that would draw too much attention. But despite their efforts, there were subtle things - a small brush of Carlos fingers on Jannik’s hand when they handed each other a dish, the way Carlos’s foot would nudge against Jannik’s under the table - that didn’t go unnoticed by their teams.

But it wasn’t until dessert was served, that Jannik noticed Simone’s knowing look. It was just a flicker of something. Amusement? Curiosity? Still, it was enough to make Jannik nervous. He looked away quickly, but he couldn’t stop his brain from forming the little thought in his mind. They knew.

Of course, it made sense. Their teams were there with them all the time. They were accustomed to catch every shift in their mood. It wasn’t exactly easy to hide something from them. Maybe they just hadn’t said anything yet because they waited for Jannik and Carlos to be ready. Or maybe they simply didn’t care.

Toward the end of the dinner, when the plates were mostly empty, Carlos leaned a bit toward Jannik.

“Ready to get out of here?” Jannik could again see the spark in the younger man’s eyes, that he had already seen before in the locker room.

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

They made their excuses and thanked their teams for the lovely evening, before they went back to their hotel rooms. Or more hotel room. The second hotel room was just booked so their coaches didn’t see them together.

“Do you thing they know?” Jannik asked as they were standing outside in the cool air of the night.

“They know what?” Carlos seemed confused.

“About us. Simone had that look in his eyes.” Jannik shook his head. “You know what, just forget it. I am probably just paranoid.”

After a moment Carlos reached up to turn Jannik’s head so he looked him in the eyes. “Does it matter? We are happy. No one could take that from us and they haven’t said anything so they probably don’t have a problem with it, right?”

Jannik smiled, feeling a weight being lift off his shoulders. “Yes, as long as we are happy.”

They walked through the streets for a while until Carlos eventually reached for Jannik’s hand, intertwining their fingers. Jannik squeezed his hand in return with a smile on his lips.

***

A few days later, Jannik and Carlos were laying in bed but both of them couldn’t quite sleep as they were too busy thinking about the next day. They were about to face each other in the finals of the six kings slam.

Jannik was curled up next to Carlos with his head resting on his boyfriend’s chest while he listened to his heartbeat. It usually was a comforting sound that grounded him after long days or stressful matched, but tonight it wasn’t enough to calm his nerves.

Carlos’s hand was gently stroking through Jannik’s hair but then the Italian shifted slightly and turned his head to look up at Carlos. He pushed himself up on his elbow so he could get a better look at him.

“Carlitos… what if it changes things? Between us? When we play each other tomorrow?” His voice wasn’t more than a whisper but Carlos could sense the vulnerability in it.

His eyes widened in surprise as he hadn’t expected Jannik to tell him he was scared.

“Mi amor, why would you think it may change anything?” His voice was gentle as he reached out to brush his thumb over Jannik’s cheek that was covered with freckles.

Jannik looked away and started fidgeting with the thick blanket.

“I don’t know… this is a final? This is different. We are rivals on the court but in a relationship off the court. This is kinda weird.” Jannik stared at his fingers that were still playing with the hem of the blanket.

“Listen. This is just an exhibition match. Nothing will happen. And the six million dollars will be shared by us either way and it isn’t as if we hadn’t enough money yet. We will both go out there and play the best fucking tennis we have ever played. No matter what happens on the court, I love you, mi amor. That’s not going to change just because of some match.”

The sincerity in Carlos’s voice did a lot to calm his raging nerves until Jannik realized something.

“You… you love me?”

Carlos looked surprised before he looked out the window and then back to Jannik and met his in the dim light dark looking eyes.

“Of course. I have known that since I first met you.” Jannik felt tears well up in his eyes. “I love you too, Carlitos. I love you so, so much.”

The Italian sat up to pull his boyfriend in a tight hug. He buried his face in the Spaniard’s neck.

“We’ll be ok, mi amor. No matter what happens tomorrow, we will be ok. I promise you that.”

Jannik could just nod while Carlos leaned in to press a kiss on Jannik’s forehead. The doubts were still on Jannik’s mind but they didn’t feel as overwhelming as a few minutes ago.

***

The next day, the atmosphere in the stadium felt electric. It was weird. It always felt different when it was a “sincaraz final”. It was as if everyone knew what was going on. As if they sense the chemistry between the two players.

Jannik really played his best tennis and Carlos couldn’t help himself but admire Jannik’s game. But after it was 4-1 for Jannik, Carlos managed to catch up and win the first set in a tiebreak.

There was this fire in Carlos’s eyes that Jannik knew all to well. It was this fire that made him fall in love with him.

But Jannik didn’t give up. Even though he knew it was his boyfriend who he played against he fought hard. He wanted to win. It wasn’t about love here. It was about tennis. About proving that he deserved to be the world number 1. This year messed a lot with his mental health so he knew he had to win this to give himself a confidence boost.

And he did. He won the next two sets 6-3 6-3 and heard the familiar “Game, Set, Match, Sinner.”

They stepped forward to the net were Carlos pulled him in for the usual net hug but still a bit closer than usually. “You played incredibly well, mi amor. I am so proud of you,” he whispered in Jannik’s ear.

“You too. You fought so hard but thank you for letting me win at least once this year.”

Both men chuckled. “Well, I thought I should let you win you know I could have won,” Carlos said but Jannik knew he was only joking as he saw the pride in Carlos eyes. “This doesn’t change anything. I am so happy for you, Jannik. You deserve this so much.”

The trophy ceremony was all a blur for Jannik. He shook hands, posed for photos, lifted the trophy in the air. But it felt kind of surreal. He had just won Six. Million. Dollars.

He was soon asked if he had enjoyed playing in Riyadh so he just answered like usually. Yes, I liked it and so on…

But then the interviewer continued.

“Every time you play against him, you produce these spectacular matches. What’s it like to go toe-to-toe with him, do you enjoy it or is it you know so difficult, is it demanding, how do you see the rivalry?”

For a moment Jannik had to think about what to say. He couldn’t just say that this isn’t rivalry. This is love.

“Well, uh,” Jannik chuckled. “It’s a mix of everything I would say. But, uhm, you know as… as Carlos said we try to push ourselves to the limits, uhm, you know I wake up in the morning trying… trying to understand the ways how to beat him and, uh, you know this kind of rivalries and this kind of players they push us always to our 100 percent limit so you know obviously I’m very happy about this.”

He said some more stuff as well as the interviewer, but then he was asked a question that made him nervous. He realized that he had said too much. Something he probably should have kept to himself.

“So, did you just tell us that every day you wake up and you think about him?”

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Well, no, I”, Jannik chuckled nervously while Carlos was just laughing next to him. “I mean it would it… it would be strange, no?”

Jannik could now only hope that no one would realize he was lying. But he was. And he wondered how everyone would react if they realized that Jannik didn’t just wake up thinking about Carlos. No, he woke up next to Carlos every single day.

[channelslam]