This season has already issued some important verdicts. Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have taken over the men’s tour, splitting up the four Grand Slam tournaments played this year. The Italian ace was literally dominant on the hard court, having won the Australian Open and the US Open with full merit. The world number 1 has also triumphed in the Masters 1000 in Miami and Cincinnati, legitimizing its first position in the ATP ranking.
The Spanish – on the other hand – was less continuous than the Italian, but he showed to play well on all surfaces winning the French Open and the Wimbledon Championships. The 21-year-old from Murcia also won the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells for the second consecutive time and won the silver medal at the Paris Olympics, losing in the final against a great Novak Djokovic. The Serbian legend did not win a single Major in 2024, for the second time since 2011. The 37-year-old from Belgrade was defeated by Sinner in the semi-final of the Australian Open and Alcaraz in the final of the Wimbledon Championships.
Two new dominators
Fans and insiders are convinced that Jannik and Carlitos will be the new dominators of the ATP tour in the next 10-15 years. In fact, the Italian ace and the Spanish champion seem to be way ahead of young talents like Holger Rune, Ben Shelton, Jack Draper and Sebastian Korda.
Without injuries or shocking results, Sinner will close 2024 at the top of the ATP ranking with a wide margin over all his opponents. Jannik and Carlitos have given birth to a rivalry that ignites the enthusiasm of any enthusiast, who sees in them the duels enjoyed in the last decade between Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
The world number one and number three have already collected a total of 6 Grand Slam titles, despite being only 23 and 21 years old. If the Italian at the moment has managed to win ‘only’ those on hard court (Australian Open and US Open), the 4-time Grand Slam champion can say that he won one for each surface.
Many would bet that both will be able to compete at these levels throughout their career, but Spanish ace Pablo Carreno Busta has a different opinion: “They are still very young, both Sinner and Carlos. They are obviously very good, but we are already assuming that they will reign for the next 20 years as Roger, Rafa and Novak have done”, said the Spanish tennis player, expressing some small concerns.
The former Cincinnati champion then went into detail: “There are many things that can happen, it’s not easy to maintain this level for so long, or the level of success to share the four Grand Slams, as happened this year. New figures may also emerge, for example another excellent player four years younger than Carlos,” he explained. “I don’t think the future belongs to these two players alone, others will come and make their task more difficult, but it seems that these two will be around for many, many years”, he concluded.
A new bright era
Alcaraz and Sinner – who faced each other at Indian Wells and the French Open this year (with two wins from the Spaniard) – will face each other again at the ‘Six Kings Slam’ in Saudi Arabia next month. In his latest piece on ‘El Pais’, Toni Nadal commented on the rivalry between these two young champions: “Today Sinner has become an almost unbeatable player for the vast majority of his opponents.
He is capable of playing each of his strokes at a very high speed and making very few unforced errors. Overcoming him from the back of the court is almost impossible and this is, precisely and in my opinion, the mistake that Fritz made in the first two sets: making the wrong decision to play very fast rallies from the back of the court and try to surprise him or connect a winning shot. But causing the Italian to make a mistake was, as we saw, practically impossible.
With the victory of Sinner on the men’s side, we can also credit more than ever what was already an obvious rivalry with our great champion, Carlos Alcaraz. If I may go back to Alcaraz since he is the one we care about, I must say that I still enjoy his game more. I like him even more, but also admit and fear that the notorious improvement of the current leader, especially at a mental level, will make things really difficult for him.” The upcoming season will provide fans with more information about this promising rivalry.
