The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.Good morning! We hope your day is a grand slam. Inside:
Slam: Making sense of an Alcaraz-less French OpenThe French Open will not come down to Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. At least probably not, given that the tournament starts today at Roland Garros and Alcaraz is not in the draw because of a dreaded wrist injury. You can never be too sure, though.Without the two-time defending champion, there’s a clear lane for his chief rival. The 24-year-old Sinner will complete the career Grand Slam if he takes care of business against a weakened field. Last year, he lost to Alcaraz in a final for the ages. There’s also the possibility of Novak Djokovic adding to his record 24 Slam titles, at a time in his career when that had been looking unlikely through no fault of his own. (Djokovic upset Sinner in an Australian Open semifinal over the winter, but was so drained by the experience that Alcaraz had little trouble with him.) With Djokovic having just turned 39, any event without one of Alcaraz or Sinner is one of his best remaining shots. More on that in a moment.The women’s draw is a lot more open, with Iga Świątek and Aryna Sabalenka entering as roughly co-favorites. The last five Slams have yielded five different winners, all of whom are varying degrees of in the mix. American Coco Gauff is back to defend her title, which she won in an incredibly intense three-setter against Sabalenka. All of these women are involved in a protest push to increase women’s prize money at the Slams, by the way.What does an expert find most compelling this month? Let’s tag in Matthew Futterman, the award-winning tennis journalist covering the event for The Athletic.First, on the men’s side: What’s the likeliest scenario you can devise in which someone not named Sinner wins the men’s side? Would he have to get sick?💬 Two words: Novak Djokovic. I know, he turned 39 Friday and he hasn’t played much the past two months. But he’s an outrageously good clay court player who beat a good version of Nadal here and has won Roland Garros three times. He beat Sinner in their last meeting in Australia. Djokovic has a pretty stress-free draw. If he’s healthy, watch out.In the much less predictable women’s bracket, which storyline interests you most, personally?💬 The evolution of Coco Gauff. She won this title last year and then her career went into something of a tailspin. She’s remade her serve and tried to bulletproof her wobbly forehand. She’s rounding into form and is magical on clay because of her defense. A rematch with last year’s finalist, world no. 1, Sabalenka, who desperately wants to win a non-hard court Grand Slam title, would be dreamy.Thanks to Matthew. Strap in between now and the tournament’s end on June 7.News to KnowJason Miller / Getty ImagesKnicks-Cavs is looking sweepyThe Knicks are on the verge of their first NBA Finals in 27 years after a 121-108 Game 3 victory in Cleveland, where home support and a certain famous couple didn’t make the Cavs seem any less shell-shocked from their Game 1 collapse. Here’s your regular reminder that no NBA team has ever blown a 3-0 lead. Takeaways here.The NHL conference finals meanwhile served up a thriller, with favorites Carolina blowing a third-period lead against Montreal and staring down a familiar narrative until Nikolaj Ehlers fired home the OT winner. It was Ehlers’ second — his first was filthy:Full U.S. World Cup squad revealedSources confirmed the entire USMNT roster yesterday, with a couple of surprises. (Make of it what you will that this leaked out fully three days ahead of a nationally televised announcement ceremony.) The big stunner is the omission of midfielder Tanner Tessmann, a regular starter for Lyon who many had penciled into the first XI. See the whole squad here.
