Sixty years on from her first Roland Garros singles title, Lesley Bowrey maintains her love for tennis and closely follows the professional game.
The 80-year-old Australian won the 1963 and 1965 French titles thanks to a consistent, strategic style initially nurtured on a backyard loam court in New South Wales.
And, despite surfaces, racquets, technology and physicality morphing dramatically in the decades since she played, this is a style she still appreciates today.
Particularly in young Spanish sensation Carlos Alcaraz, the current world No.1.
"I like to see players using their heads, because I always had to do that, and I always enjoyed that part of it, the tactical side of the game,” Bowrey told ausopen.com ahead of Roland Garros.
“I think you see it in the men; they're all starting to volley a little bit, play a lot of drop shots. Alcaraz, wow. That has really changed. And I enjoy that; this is great, this is like the old times, a little bit.
"There are a lot of good men now. (I’ve) been watching the Italian Championships and right through... I think the French Open is going to be very open.”
Alcaraz commenced his campaign with a straight-sets win over Flavio Cobolli on Monday. Later that day, Jannik Sinner joined him in the second round thanks to a similarly-convincing defeat of Alexandre Muller. On Tuesday, Holger Rune also progressed, in four sets over Christopher Eubanks.
The trio, all 21 and under, are the youngest players in the ATP top 10 and have captivated tennis fans – Bowrey among them.
“Djokovic is (in terms of achievements) the top player but he's struggling a little bit. The other players then think that when he's lost a couple, that they've always got a chance, nothing to lose,” said Bowrey, who will fly to Paris to attend this year's Roland Garros tournament.
"Like Holger Rune; I saw him last year at the French and he was quite temperamental but he's improved a heap since then, mentally and physically. And Sinner, another one. The Italian players, there's lots of them now.
“So it's very, very open I feel.”
Originally known as Lesley Turner, she appeared in four Roland Garros singles finals, the last of those in 1967, which she lost in three sets to Frenchwoman Françoise Dürr.
A year later, she married fellow player Bill Bowrey, the same year he won the 1968 Australian Championships.
Bill Bowrey also represented Australia in Davis Cup, and, along with his wife, continues to follow the sport avidly.
"I love to watch tennis now; I watch a lot of tennis with Lesley. Obviously the Grand Slams but even the tournaments in between, the Italian last week. We watched all of that,” said Bowrey, who has also worked as a tennis broadcaster.
"I think we've been very lucky, because we've just come through an amazing era where we've had (the Big Four); these guys just dominated the game and they were such good people. They made speech-making an art, whether they won or lost... They were really good sportsmen and they gave tennis, I think, a really good image.
"And now, we're lucky enough, I think, to have a real group of good players coming up to take their place.
ALCARAZ v SINNER: "Their quality is just phenomenal"
“In fact, nobody talks a lot about Federer any more… Now they're talking about Alcaraz, and Rune – who's such a good player, who's matured a lot in 12 months – and Sinner, and Medvedev, who's a character.
"I think men's tennis in particular is in really good shape."