LONDON — Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have achieved something remarkable: they captivate their rivals. They inspire them, and they frustrate them. It’s a huge paradox.
‘There were several of us watching the Roland Garros final and we were saying, “This isn’t tennis. It’s like Wii tennis,”’ Australian Li Tu explained to CLAY. At the Stuttgart tournament, just days before the start of the grass court season, many players, several of them top 50, were left speechless in front of the TV: ‘They’re not human!’
The current world number 166 had his moment of fame when he faced Alcaraz in the first round of the last US Open. In New York, the Australian gave a fascinating description of the Spaniard.
‘I’m not going to lie. He takes off his jacket and I’m like, OK, he’s a specimen. He’s a beast, I couldn’t stop looking at the definition of his shoulders, the veins. And his forehand speaks for itself,’ he said at the time in the ESPN studio after losing to the Spaniard in four sets.
If Taylor Fritz admits that he is surprised that the five-time Grand Slam champion is capable of winning in so many ways, Shelton says that Sinner plays in fast forward.
Who else could be in the 2025 Wimbledon final?
Chile’s Cristián Garin will surely be glued to the television this Sunday to see if Alcaraz wins his third title or if Sinner lifts his first trophy at the All England Club. Interviewed by CLAY, the 2022 quarter-finalist revealed that it had been a long time since he had been nervous about a tennis match that wasn’t his own. It happened when he tuned in to the action in Paris.
If they continue at this pace and injuries don’t hamper them, Alcaraz and Sinner could extend their duopoly for several years and leave their long list of rivals with no choice but to watch the most important decisive matches on television.
And if Nadal and Federer were challenged by Djokovic when everyone thought it would be all about the Spaniard and the Swiss, a new talent could explode onto the scene in this era.
What is becoming clearer is that tennis’ ‘lost generation’ now sees the possibility of winning Grand Slam titles much further away than before.
The group of players born in the 1990s burst onto the circuit with Nadal, Djokovic and Murray in their prime. They also had to contend with a couple of spectacular years from Roger Federer. And just as the flame of the most successful tennis players of all time was beginning to fade, Sinner and Alcaraz exploded onto the scene.
The exceptions are Dominic Thiem and Daniil Medvedev.
The Austrian took advantage at the 2020 US Open. Djokovic was disqualified for hitting a line judge with a ball; Nadal was absent due to fears of COVID and because Roland Garros was to be played shortly afterwards, exceptionally in September due to the pandemic. Federer was undergoing knee surgery.
For his part, Medvedev beat the Serbian a year later in New York. Djokovic couldn’t handle the nerves in that 2021 final, where he could have won the Grand Slam.
Others will have their chances, but they will be few and far between. Players such as Jack Draper, Holger Rune, Ben Shelton and Lorenzo Musetti will surely add more Masters 1000 titles to their tally, but the last 24 months have shown that in the biggest events they will have to squeeze through tiny windows that will open for only a short time.
Goran Ivanisevic analysed in detail and with harshness the big problem facing those elite players who will see their dreams dashed by the two great tennis players of the current era.
“It’s a bit sad, really — they all work hard, but they are light years away from Alcaraz and Sinner. And Novak is still there, even though he is at the end of his career.
It’s tough — you play, you train, and you know you’re not going to win a Slam — one or the other is going to beat you,‘ said the Croatian in an interview with CLAY.
’Look at the Australian Open final — there was Zverev, world number 3, a phenomenal player, and it was a joke of a final — Sascha didn’t stand a chance. Then you see the Roland Garros final — it was tennis from another planet.”
The 2001 Wimbledon champion jokes that the only way they won’t win is if they get beaten up the night before.
