Roland Garros MARKET TRENDS & Storylines! | Serving Slabs #26

On today's Serving Slabs episode, we look at Roland Garros and all of the crazy storylines coming out of the tournament with big upsets, five setters, historically long matches and more. It's been such a fun tournament so far. One of the craziest first weeks ever. So let's jump in right away and talk about these top 10 storylines. So here we go. We've got 10 to talk about. Number one is that Jannik Sinner is out of the tournament. Second round he was up 5:1 in the third set, looking like he's going to run into the third round very easily and honestly run to the final. And that did not happen. He came down with some fatigue, some cramps, some back issues. Whatever was happening to him, it happened. And Juan Manuel Sarandola came through in five sets and beat center. So center was definitely compromised. But here's the deal, he was compromised for a reason. And I do think that it's a big problem in these five set matches in the heat. He's got a very bad record when matches go over four hours, even over like three hours and 40 minutes, especially in hot conditions. He's had to retire last year at Shanghai against Greek sport because of cramps as well. I think this is a big problem for Y Sinner when it comes to Grand Slams. Yes, he can run through those Masters 1000s in three set matches, especially when Carlos Alcarez is not there to play him in a final. But when he gets these five set matches, I mean he is susceptible to losing. And he did obviously lose to Novak earlier in the year in five sets. Last year's final against El Elkarz, he lost in five sets at Roland Garros. And this year against Juan Manuel Sandalo, body failed him and he lost again. So I do think that's a problem. I know his market has exploded. We'll talk about more later. But either way, you know, center out, big opportunity for everyone else. Number two, the youth explosion, you know, outside center losing. In my opinion, the biggest storyline by far, if you look at the bottom half of the draw, where Alexander Zver sits, who is got a huge opportunity when his first Grand Slam ever. Now not facing Alcaraz center and Novak, all the pressures on Zverev, he has got the three most talented teenagers in the world that he might have to go through one or two, well actually two of the three to get to the finals. So first up he has to play Rafa Hodar who has saved multiple matches now either being down 2 or 21 and he's come through to get to the quarters. His first ever Grand Slam quarterfinal and only a second Grand Slam ever is insane. And he's got Zverev and then if he beats Hodar, he's got to play either Fonseca or Menchik, who both have had huge tournaments. Obviously Fonseca is really, in my opinion, outside of Cinder being out, that is the number one storyline by grouped all the youth together because they're all having a great tournament. Fonseca taking out Novak in that five set classic. It was unbelievable. One of the best matches of the year. Fonseca's backhand is now coming to that elite level like his forehand is, which is scary to think of at 19 years old. And not only that, he closes out the match with three aces. He can juice it up on the first serve. And he closed out three aces against the Goat at the center court at French Open. I mean, that is just absolutely unbelievable stuff from him. Follows it up by being Casper Rude, one of the other favorites to win the tournament. Fonseca's definitely had the hardest draw out of any of those three 19 and 20 year olds. Hodar and Fonseca in 19 men, 20. But he's come through in a big way and he has a huge opportunity, honestly to make this final. I know Menchik's extremely talented, huge first serve, but I really think this is Fonseca's final to make. I think Zverev hasn't faced any hard competition so far. When it comes down to it, Zverev's worst matches he plays are against people who are aggressive. He is literally like on a seven match losing streak to Taylor. Taylor Fritz, who I think we all can agree is not, has not been, you know, one of the best players in the world for the last three years. I mean, he's definitely been one, one of the best in the top 10, I'll say that. But from a perspective of like, you know, the no box and the Carlos in the center, those are the guys who give Sasha the biggest problems. And obviously then Taylor Fritz too. And you look at what Fonseca and I say, Fonseca at 19, yes, he's inconsistent. He's had some bad losses this year, but right now the way he's playing, I would put him as one of the best players in this entire tournament, as would others be. I think he'll give Sasha some massive problems that he faces him in the semi first. He's got to get through Mencha. Kodar might even beat Zverev, to be honest, too so big storylines with the youth explosion. Number three US women's are failing at the Roland Garros 2026. Now Madison Keys is currently in a third set set against Diane Schneider. I'd love to see Keys get to another Grand Slam final. She'd have to go through either Sablinka or Osaka if she wins this match against Schneider. But with Madison Keys being the only one that's left, that does ring alarms. I mean you're talking about Pula eliminated round one, Coco eliminated round three, which is her worst result at the French Open in like five years. This is the first person that she's lost to. Being Patapova, that is an IGA in like four years, I think obviously the defending champion last year. So that was a big opportunity for Coco to get back to the semi honestly with a pretty easy draw, but blew it right at the end against Potipova. You, you look at Yovich who honestly if her first serve was on, she probably would have be in Osaka. I know y is only 18, but it was a huge opportunity for her as well. And then there's multiple others who just did not play. Amanda Anova would be the other who lost a Diane Pari in a three set ten point tie break. So you know, there's just been a lot of unfortunate results for us women's at this. I hope the Mass and Keys can kind of, you know, save it at the end here, get to our final and probably face either Spitaline or Amira. If I'm being honest, those would be my picks, but we'll see what what happens here. So then moving on to the next one, it's opportunity is lost. So this goes for both men's and women's side of this. On the men's side you got to look at Ben Shelton, Alex Diminour, Andre Rublev, Francisco. So Rundelo, there is a host of names here that had a huge opportunity with Sinner losing and Novak losing and all of them in like their next match loss. Specifically Ben Shelton in my opinion is the biggest opportunity lost that you know. I love Shelton, I love what he has to offer. But coming off of the news of Cinder losing, he played one of his worst matches I'd say in a while. Now all the credit to Rafael Colon for playing a great match serving. But Shelton didn't even generate I think one break point. If not he only had one. He got to a lot of 30 30s, but he just couldn't get any of those breaks back. He lost. He lost 1%. And just like that is over in three sets. So really a brutal result for him considering all the other Grand Slam success he's had. Like last year, losing the Alcarez at the French Open in four sets, you know, playing center in basically all of the Grand Slams, either quarter or semis, it seems like he's faced him. So he really has made deep runs at all the Slams recently. But the one where Sinner is out, he can't do it. And Alcaraz obviously wasn't there either. So that was, that was hard to watch. But with that being said, with these opportunities being lost, there's opportunities open, huge opportunities for people like Juan Manuel Sarandolo, like a Tobilo, like a Tiafo and Arnoldi. There's all these names right now that are still in this draw. Caboli, Berrettini, all these names in the top half of the draw who have this opportunity to make a Slam final without having to go through almost any top 10 players, like Felix. OJ Aliasim I think is the last top 10 player left in the top half of the draw. And if I'm being completely honest, I mean, you guys know this. I picked him to lose first round and he almost did lose first round. He got to the five set, 10 point tiebreak to Altmire. I'm pretty sure O.C. was down 4:1 in that fifth set also. So I don't really see FAA being the favorite to even get to the final. I think honestly Kaboli at this point is the favorite to get to the final, but it's really anyone's game in that top half to get to that final. The quarters will start tomorrow for that, so there'll be a lot of interesting results to to see with that. That also goes for the women's side of it though. You look at the top half of the women's side and yes, you've got Sabine Osaka and Keys, three Grand Slam champions. But there's some crazy names in there, like qualifier, the Polish girl who I honestly can't remember her name right now, she's like 124 in the world, is currently playing to get to the quarters, so just really wild. So many opportunities out there for people to have these once in a lifetime Slams. So let's see what happens with that. Next up, first time Slam winner on the men's side. We're guaranteed to have a first time Slam winner on the men's side, which is crazy. If you go look back at Grand Slam winners for the last like seven to eight years, it takes you a Long time to get to a place where there is a non Carlos Sinner, Djokovic, Rafael Nadal winner. Then you get to Danil Medvedev and then before that you keep looking and then you've got like Nadal, Djokovic, Federer and then you finally get to Stan Vavrinka. In the last like decade there's been two dudes who have won that have not been named Carlos Sinner, Novak or Nadal or Federer. Those are you know obviously the big, big names in Tennessee there now or in the last 20 years and it's, it is Medvedev and Valrinka and then also Dominic team. Sorry, I forgot about that in 2020. So there is only like three in the last like 10 years. So this is the opportunity for there to be a fourth name add to that list. I really can't wait to see who it is. I think that these 19 to 20 year olds I in my opinion I do favor Fonseca, Hodar Menchik to become a first time slam winner. That's where I'm looking at right now. Those three guys are playing great test. They have huge weapons. I do think they beat anyone in the top half. It's really who get can get through Zev. That's what it comes down to. Next up, number seven. I had to give her her own slot. Here is Baptist heartbreak. She came off of a huge tournament being in Sabanka. She two tournaments to go in Madrid had an eye great roam but it's understandable after a deep row in Madrid and then comes to Roland Garros wins our first match against Krishikova who's a former slam champion here at Australian Open also sorry at French Open also won Wimbledon and then she ends up tearing her ACL in a tennis injury that I feel like you don't really see very often. Like it was really, really, really just a terrible luck injury where where she jumps up, lands on her knee trying to get a ball that bounces high awkwardly and it was really sad to see the video was pretty much heartbreaking to be honest. And it sounds like she's going to miss the rest of the season and hopefully be ready for the start next season or you know start like middle, middle part next season. So really brutal for her. She was a US women's player who is really breaking out and with Rebakkina losing second round in her in her quarter she really had a big opportunity here and in the future. So I feel sick for her but you know she's got really positive spirits. It seems Posted some really, you know, positive things to Instagram and Twitter, I think, for. For, you know, fans to read. And good for her, you know, I hope that she comes back stronger than ever. Number eight. Two zero comebacks. There have been so many two zero comebacks here at this tournament. There's probably at least five. I'd have to go add them all up. But there's been multiple five setters. I honestly feel like watching the men's side of the draw, if someone wins the first set, they're going to lose the match. It happened a lot of times where whoever won the first set lost the match. There's obviously some exceptions there or a lot of exceptions, but it. It was happening pretty regularly. So really crazy to see you even have Alex Evener, who I thought lost a huge opportunity here, bagel Menchik in the first set after Menchik, like, passed on the court the previous matches, seen from heat exhaustion at the end of that match. And then he loses three straight sets then, which was a big opportunity loss. But, you know, for him, grass is his better service than clay. Alex, for sure, with the way he hits the ball. So we'll see how he does it, Wimbledon and such. But then you've got number nine here. For me, it is Coco, IGA and Amanda and Samova, that tier right there. Those are three players who are really susceptible to big points at just a couple events throughout the year, Coco's had better results than those other three. This year. Coco has made a final 1000. She made other semifinals at 1000. Iga is the big concern here who has not had a great season. I think that she made one semifinal which was at Rome maybe, and then lost in the semifinal. And then you've got Amanda, who has been hurt for part of the year, but not great results at the start of the year. But the reason why it's a current concern here is because a lot of Coco's points were at the French Open. She now lost. Lost 2,000 points. She's down to number six. Could drop further, possibly, if Spinolina wins this thing, I believe, or mirror, maybe. And then you've got Iga and Amanda, where Iga, she's got 2000 points at Wimbledon and then a thousand points at Cincinnati. And honestly, I can't remember a good result for. For the rest of last season or this season so far. So iga, if she does not go deep in Wimbledon or does not go deep at Cincinnati, she's going to drop outside of the top 10 pretty quickly here, I think. And she isn't even in the top 10 for the race right now to the WTA Finals and then the end of the season. So she's got a ton of work to do the rest of the season. This would end up being for sure her worst season in who knows how long, six years probably, something like that. So she's got a lot to find right now. And then Amanda Anova having final appearance at Wimbledon, having final appearance at US Open. She lost a heartbreaker. Diane Perry here at French Open. If she does not get it going, she will drop very far in the rankings too here soon. So talented player for sure just needs to somehow find ways to win matches and get deep at some of these tournaments coming up here because she's going to, like I said, lose a lot of points soon. And then number 10, I've got Mira Kostyuk and Spitalina in this group at the end. You can add Kellen sky to that now too, as she's into the quarterfinal. These are four players with just a mega opportunity. Like these are players that honestly with a huge result here, the French Open and especially the three that are on the screen right now, Mira, Spitalia and Costi, with having really good results this whole season for the three of them. I mean we're looking at one of those three players likely ending the season in the top four. If not possibly number three. I'd say Sablinka or Bakkenna. I'd be absolutely shocked if one of those two did not fit. I mean it really be Rebakka would be the biggest risk, I guess would finish in the top two. But I think it's pretty certain that they'll finish the top two. I think that any of these three players could finish the top three. It really depends on obviously how their grass results go then you know, the hard court swing at the end of the season. But they all have the opportunity to do it. If any of the three win this French Open, watch out. I think that one of them could finish in the top three because iga, Pegula, Coco, I do not have very good confidence in any of them to really like have it absolutely spectacular second half of the season to the point where they make up as much ground as the three of these players have the start of the season. So awesome storylines of the French Open. I have a couple more things to go through here before we end up ending this episode and run through some trends, run through the the ultimate fantasy tense updates and talk about more stuff like that. So as of right now, this morning, June 1st, yeah Mega is in first, barely by 100 points over Mcon in the ultimate Fantasy Fantasy Tennis Challenge. It got really close. Yannick Sinder getting eliminated was a huge deal on this. I think the MCON was very certainly going to run away with this entire thing if Yannick Sinner was just healthy and won the French opener or made it to the final. But with Joel Fonseca having his breakout, beating Novak, getting a ton of points through the last two rounds, and being Casper Ruud, that elevated Yanmega to first right now. And you've got anyone really in the top five with the potential maybe win. I think it really just comes down to how far Fonseca goes versus Menchik because I think that MCON has Menchik and Yemega has Fonseca. I actually think whoever wins that match probably ends up winning this entire pool. So congrats to you guys for being up there. I think that you guys probably had a great time watching us if you guys were the one of the other 60 people playing. Let's look forward to the next one that we can do because grass swing 2026 is coming. I do believe that WTA might be added. I'm not certain about that, but that'd be great if we can get WTA added to this. I am not the developer of this. I don't run this website. Just making it clear. We just host a pool on here as if you were hosting a bracket pool on ESPN Tournament Challenge. So I will send out a text message to our insider text community for information how to join that and I will also update next Monday on our serving slabs. The link for you to join if you're not in the text community, you can become part of the text community very easily by texting. Join to 888-425-1089. Okay, moving on. We've got a bunch of trends to run through here in the next four minutes. So Yannick Sinner Panini Instant Rookie PSA $1064 April 30, 2026 now up to $200. $200 guys. May 25, 2026 he did win someone thousands in that period. Was breaking the records for 1000. I'm very, very, very interested to see where this goes from here. There's a decent amount of these PSA 10s in circulation. It's not a low pop card. I think there was over 6000 print of the JS1 Panini instant. But I'm going to be honest, I am definitely concerned about Yannick Sarah's Grand Slam ability He is one of the last five in his pocket. That is not a great result for being like I would say at this point the for sure the most consistent player in the world. And with Carlos Alcaraz hurt, the best player in the world on Alcaraz is hurt. It's not great. One out of five is not a good record for someone who's going to be pushing to be a top five player all time. He really has to turn around these five set matches and long matches if he wants to get to those heights. So I'm really, really curious to see how this trend maybe changes from here over the next month or two. Next up, Draw Fun Seca. Obviously one of the biggest performers. Like I said. Number 15 pink from graphite April 29th after release 350 look to today $609 on May 31st. And there's a bunch of other Fonseca lower dollar trends. They're even bigger like blue Zot 50 going from 50 to 200. It's pretty wild what's happening in this graphite market. Next up, Yakum. This one is actually my card. I just sold this I think yesterday right after he won against Andre Rublev at instant sold Sapphire PSA 10 rookie numbered out of 10 sold for 525 yesterday. And the previous sale was just in April. April 5th for 300. So that's a pretty big rise. It's almost double in just a month and a half. Obviously because of metrics. Big rise here at the French Open. Mass and Keys Graphite, intricate images. Pretty big sale if I'm being honest. The case hits are super nice. Super rare. It's very hard to find these actually. If you like a player and you try to collect them, go try find one of their graphite case hits and you might see none available because they are so rare. 153 from Addison Keys is a pretty solid sale I have to say when you start comparing it to like Coco for 300, Ego for 350, Sab Linker for 400. You know, one time slam winner, she's got some American vans but I still think a pretty solid sale there. Name Osaka. This one's interesting. So $200 for a red Sapphire auto out of five in April 10th. She's had a nice tournament. She's playing Sabalenka on the night session today to try to get to the quarterfinals. 222 now. So only a $22 rise for red Sapphire Auto. I think it does kind of go to show that while Osaka is obviously One slams in in her career. It's going to take a lot more than just some round of 16 appearances for like the first time actually pretty crazy stat. This is her first round of 16 appearance at either a clay or grass Grand Slam which is obviously either French Open or Wimbledon. She has won four hardcore majors but she has not made it to round of 16 until now. I think it will take her winning our Grand Slam to really make her market go crazy. If she makes a semi and beats Sabalenka, I think it can definitely see bigger increases than what we saw now. But still is going to be hard for her to really recapture a ton of market hype because she is I'd say on the older and obviously compared to the younger players like Coco Mira IGA and more Kosuke and such. But she can do it if she wins a Grand Slam again Kalinskaya, huge opportunity for her. She can really make a semifinal. She has to go through either the Polish qualifier. I apologize for not remembering your name. It is a hard name to pronounce her or Diane Pari which I think the Polish qualifier is winning as of right now of me recording this. But Ken sky can make the semifinal without having to go against a Coco, a Sabanka or a Baka Pugula, an Emboco, that type of player. So here you are. 150 for a royalty auto PSA 10 number out 25 can just about guarantee you a month and a half ago this car is not selling for $150. That's definitely because of her French Open results. The next one, Juan Manuel Sarandolo, the man that beat center after the cramps were center. $19 on a top trim orange rookie Auto number out of 25 now up to $80 just one and a half months later. That's a huge sale for a guy who's never been a top 10 opponent until beating center. I actually had the red auto 5. I pulled out of a pack myself, got a BSA9 and auctioned it because I don't know why it's over $30. I have to say I did not believe in Juan Manuel Serendo to have really many big results in his career. Francisco is the more firepower player but on clay he's obviously is a clay specialist and he got through that center match and that's really obviously sparked his market. But kudos to Juan Manuel Serendo because he followed that up by winning one of the longest matches in French Open history. It's like a 5 hour and 50 minute slugfest. With Lendalous. So pretty crazy that that match went that long. Next up Matteo Arnold the orange triumphant auto $9 raw matt PSA10 now did 110. Obviously it's not a direct to comparison increase but if you were to buy it, grade it, sell it $110 that's a huge profit if you did that. And then lastly really quick I want to give a shout out to this Alcaraz Net Pro 250 release. I want to update you guys as it did go live last Friday at a price of $500 per card. For the 250 copies per four types of cards that was 1,000 total cards. It was like $500,000 in potential sales. The green shirt sold out, the red shirt sold out and then the two retro variations did not sell out. I thought the price point was crazy. That's all I have to say for now. Let me know your thoughts in the comments and keep enjoying Roland Garros guys crazy tournament. I'll see you guys in next week. Serving slabs.