GQ Hype profiles the young himbos of mens tennis: whos your favorite?

Since I follow tennis, I kind of love that GQ Hype put the young men’s tennis stars on their GQ Hype cover. It’s really strange that Carlos Alcaraz wasn’t chosen as one of the “young guns” though – Alcaraz won his maiden Slam title in New York last year, and the dude is only 19 years old. He’s having an injured season though, and maybe he didn’t say yes to this. They also left out Daniil Medvedev, the lanky 26-year-old Russian who won the US Open in 2021. GQ’s cover story is for all of the guys who are in the mix but haven’t won a Slam yet, it seems.

GQ gave mini-profiles to Frances Tiafoe (I love him), Taylor Fritz (meh), Casper Ruud (cutie), Matteo Berrettini (super-handsome), Stefanos Tsitsipas (good hair), Felix Auger-Aliassime (cute babyface) and Holger Rune (no comment). You can see the full GQ package here. The whole point is that they’re all hyping themselves and declaring that they could be the next Slam winner, especially now that the era of the “Big Three” is over…? But… Novak Djokovic is still around and kicking their asses. Rafael Nadal has kicked their asses a lot of the time too. Only Roger Federer has retired. And Andy Murray is still around with his metal hip. So… a lot of these guys are still going to have to wait a few more years before it’s really their time.

The larger message from this piece, and one which I think should be a bigger deal, is that once Rafa and Novak retire and/or don’t know when to quit, the whole narrative of men’s tennis changes from what it’s been for the past twenty years. Suddenly, it’s not about the neverending Slam count and battle of the aging GOATs. Suddenly, it goes back to what it was in the ‘80s and ‘90s – dudes who just want to win one Slam, not 22 Slams. Dudes who are happy to peak once and get their big trophy. We’re not going to see anyone like Roger, Rafa and Novak for a long-ass time.

I will say one thing: even though a lot of these guys are himbo idiots, I enjoy many of them. They’re fun and infuriating personalities and they’ll bring new fans to the sport.

Cover courtesy of GQ, IGs courtesy of GQ and Matteo Berrettini/Esquire.

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