Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have split the four Grand Slam tournaments played this year. The Spanish ace confirmed that he is very competitive on all surfaces thanks to his full-court tennis, which allowed him to become the youngest player ever to win the French Open and the Wimbledon Championships in the same year.
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The 23-year-old Italian - on the other hand - has proven to be the most consistent player during the season and the best on the hard court. The current world number 1 has won the Australian Open and the US Open, with a whopping 55 wins and only 5 losses in 2024. Jannik also won the Masters 1000 in Miami and Cincinnati, while Carlitos prevailed at Indian Wells for the second time in a row. Fans and experts are convinced that these two players will dominate the ATP tour in the next decade.
Rafael Nadal seems very close to retirement, while Serbian legendNovak Djokovic has shown some signs of decline despite winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics during the summer. The feeling is that the Serbian legend struggles in the best of five sets against opponents much younger than him. Sinner defeated Nole in the Australian Open semi-final earlier this year, while Alcaraz beat him in the Wimbledon Championships final for the second time in a row.
An amazing rivalry
Alcaraz and Sinner are highly expected in this last part of the season. Both will play the ATP 500 in Beijing and can only face each other in the final. During the Laver Cup - in which the Spanish champion was decisive for the triumph of Team Europe over Team World in Berlin - the Italian ace Flavio Cobolli encouraged him by telling him that he is the best tennis player in the world. The Italian fans did not like those words, accusing Cobolli of being an enemy of Sinner.
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Cobolli is one of the most fit tennis players of this 2024, a young man on launch ramp who has had a great growth this season that has allowed him to enter the top 30 in the world in no time. A very interesting young player who we saw - although as reserve - also in the last Laver Cup. Flavio has had a great growth in recent months and many have spoken positively. His gesture at the Laver Cup has unleashed social anger, certainly excessive, by some Italian fans.
Speaking on YouTube channel Georgy, Cobolli spoke about this media storm unleashed in these hours and appeared rather surprised about it: "Im the first fan of Jannik, hes a wonderful guy and certainly not send him scolding or offended him", the Italian tennis player then continued for this situation in some absurd ways: "What to say about this is absurd, what happens in Italy. Of course I dont care anymore but it bothers me to have to explain and tell every reason.
All intelligent people have taken it the right way, then there are those who say things at random they take it differently," he concluded. The words of Cobolli are yet another exaggeration by social media that tend to take everything too seriously and unleash controversy about everything. The support for number one sometimes risks to overdrive and some tennis fans seem to take it personally.
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Two different styles
The rivalry between Carlitos and Jannik is certainly very heated and the two young champions have already played some epic matches, such as the quarter-final of the 2022 US Open. In a recent interview, the 4-time Grand Slam champion opened up on his rivalry with Sinner: Many people talk about it and I hear it. Im not going to lie, I hope. I hope our rivalry will be almost like the Big Three throughout their careers. This is the first year we shared all the Grand Slam tournaments with Jannik. I hope it will continue like this, sharing great moments, fighting for the big tournaments, the Grand Slam tournaments, the Masters 1000. Lets see how it will go in the future, in the next few years, if were going to stay that way.
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The feeling is that Carlitos has higher peaks than Sinner, but the Italian is more consistent over the course of the season. It is no coincidence that Jannik has more than 4000 points of advantage over Carlos in the ATP ranking. 2025 will be useful to understand even more the status of these two players, who according to many have the right credentials to take the place of the Big 3 and bring tennis to a new dimension.
