the triple crown
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When Sascha breaks in the fifth he feels his stomach drop out like it’s him down there pinned to the court like a bug in front of thirty thousand people, losing. But he watches all the way until Jannik’s waving at the crowd and walking back into the dark cool underbelly of the stadium, and then he clicks off the television almost viciously, his mouth curling. He really doesn’t give a shit what Sascha has to say about the victory, about how he feels winning, about beating Jannik. He doesn’t want to hear it.
What he wants is to talk to Jannik.
or: Carlos Alcaraz discovers something important in New York.
Series
- Part 1 of the triple crown
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Carlos is shaking his head, laughing at Jannik now, the pain of losing not forgotten but set aside, for a time. “You’re crazy. I don’t know someone else who talks like this when they win, no one. You don’t know how you—I don’t know anyone like you at all.”
“No? Good for me, I think. Maybe you don’t like me so much if you have a lot of other options,” Jannik says, laughing a little himself. He’s got a lightness in his throat that almost makes him forget how tired he is. Carlos always does this to him, always.
“No, not possible. I mean, I like you anyways, more than—more than anyone. Feels like this, like you are more important. You know?”
“Yeah,” Jannik says. “I know.”
or: Beijing to Paris, 2023. Jannik Sinner is getting closer, but he's not there yet.
Series
- Part 2 of the triple crown
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His whole career pretty much he’s been the one in front, the one being chased. Even when he hasn’t been number one he’s always felt like it; whoever he played, felt he was better, that if he played his game he would win. Jannik had been chasing him too— he’d always believed Jannik was good, that he could be, probably, the best in the world, but Charlie had still felt that he was better. When Jannik beat him he always felt like he could have won if he’d played better, if he’d played his best. That was the belief you had to have, to win.
It’s the belief he can’t quite find anymore.
And meanwhile, Jannik has— well. He doesn’t want to feel this stupid jealousy, but he does. In all the time he’d been imagining what it would be like, when Jannik caught him, he had never thought, not really, that he would be left behind. He’d never thought he would be alone with it. But if the only thing they can be to each other is rivals, every time Jannik wins, he loses, zero-sum.
or: the World Tour Finals, and after. It won't be easy. Carlos and Jannik have never let that stop them.
Series
- Part 3 of the triple crown