The last ball to strike Stan Wawrinka at Roland Garros was a lob that arced over his head and dropped inside the baseline, ending his 21st appearance at the tournament he won in 2015. The Swiss veteran, 41, then dissolved into tears as a packed Court Simonne-Mathieu rose for an ovation that refused to subside. “Je n’ai pas envie de vous dire au revoir,” he told the crowd, his voice breaking — I don’t want to say goodbye. Tournament director Amélie Mauresmo presented him with a commemorative trophy, and video tributes from Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic flickered across the screen, each saluting a triple Grand Slam champion who, as Argentine media noted, had long been overshadowed by his more celebrated compatriot Federer.

His first-round defeat to Dutch lucky loser Jesper De Jong — 3:6, 6:3, 3:6, 4:6 — was far tighter than the straight-sets loss to Jacob Fearnley a year ago, when many already suspected that chapter had closed. De Jong, ranked 106th, was himself a qualifier reprieved by a withdrawal. Wawrinka snatched the second set and threatened deeper, yet his efficiency faltered at critical moments, Swiss analysts observed. Still, the afternoon was less about scorelines than about an exit that Parisian observers called “devastating.” Across 21 editions, Wawrinka had compiled two quarter-finals, a semi-final, a final in 2017, and the 2015 title that defeated Djokovic in a thunderous final, a résumé that made him one of the defining figures of the red clay’s second week.

Just as the tournament bade farewell to its past, it braced for an unusually concentrated present. Viewed from Washington and London sports-business desks, the absence of Carlos Alcaraz — a late withdrawal — has transformed the men’s draw into a coronation waiting to happen. Jannik Sinner, the world No. 1, is listed at -275 to win his first French Open and complete a career Grand Slam, odds that US analysts place as the heaviest for a male favourite at any major since Rafael Nadal stood at -400 in 2009. “He’s going for his Golden Slam as well here if I’m not mistaken,” Djokovic remarked, noting that Alcaraz’s absence only sharpens the Italian’s path. Sinner opens on Monday against French wild card Clément Tabur.

The convergence of Wawrinka’s poignant farewell and Sinner’s towering odds sketches a sport in generational transition. While the Swiss man’s tearful “adieu” drew lines under the era of the Big Four, the Italian’s heavy burden recalls the long, suffocating shadows Nadal once cast over this tournament. Whether Sinner can convert expectation into a maiden Paris trophy remains the central question, but the emotional geometry of the day — one champion exiting in tears, another stepping into an almost mathematical assumption of victory — captured the twin poles of modern tennis’s romance and ruthlessness.