“And so we meet again.”

First, a housekeeping note. The French Open begins on May 28th and my posts about that and other miscellany will be at Existential Despair as I test-drive a new hosting company. TV movie reviews and “Golden Girls” content will continue to appear here.

As the Italian Open concludes this weekend without my favorite players, Iga Świątek and Carlos Alcaraz, I can’t help but feel slightly nervous about Roland-Garros, which is just around the corner. On the ATP side, Rafael Nadal’s absence from the draw creates no small amount of intrigue. And the WTA points race is as suspenseful as it’s been in years, with Aryna Sabalenka in striking distance of toppling Świątek in the rankings. Their exciting rivalry heated up this clay court season, with Świątek defending her title at Stuttgart and Sabalenka prevailing in Madrid.

Elena Rybakina and Jelena Ostapenko square off later today for a spot in the Rome final; the winner will be the favorite against Anhelina Kalinina in Saturday’s final unless a rain delay puts them on double-duty tomorrow. Kalinina, a Ukrainian dark horse pick who enjoyed the run of her life at this tournament, had to defeat Veronika Kudermetova of Russia for her spot there, and it was uneasy viewing at times. As in Dubai, the two quite understandably didn’t shake hands at the net.

It continues to rankle when Ukrainian players have to face Russian and Belarusian opponents, but Wimbledon, the only major to take a firm (if farcical) political position last year, won’t enforce a ban this year, so these tense encounters will continue. The remaining matches on the men’s side are fraught with dramatic possibilities of their own, for different reasons — there’s no love lost between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev or Holger Rune and Casper Ruud. I’d like to see Tsitsipas and Rune in the final, but expect it’ll be Rune and Medvedev.

Last May, I took time off to luxuriate in tennis, and this year has been much of the same, right down to purchasing a pint of Ben & Jerry’s that’s reserved for what I hope will be another Świątek victory in Paris a few weekends from now. But if that isn’t in the cards, well, maybe Carlitos will give us something to celebrate.