Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are increasing the gap between themselves and the rest of the men’s field with every achievement.
Not only are the Italian and the Spaniard hoarding Grand Slam titles – they’ve combined to win the past seven between them – but they’re now clashing more regularly in those finals, doing so at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon this year.
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It’s the only stage of a major tournament at which they can meet, now they’ve risen to occupy the top two spots in the ATP rankings.
Since Alcaraz joined Sinner in the top two in May, the pair have increased their lead over their competitors; world No.2 Alcaraz is now almost 2300 points clear of third-ranked Alexander Zverev.
Former Australian pro Luke Saville believes Sinner and Alcaraz are changing the sport.
“I feel like they're clearly the two best in the men's game right now,” he said on this week’s episode of The Tennis, “and it's just great to see when they both go at it – amazing tennis.”
For all the excitement the Sinner-Alcaraz duopoly generates, one criticism to emerge is the apparent absence of a player to challenge them.
Novak Djokovic seems the likeliest figure, yet the 24-time Grand Slam champion, now 38 years old, is approaching the end of his career.
He admitted after a straight-sets loss to Sinner in the Wimbledon semifinals: “Playing best-of-five, particularly this year, has been a real struggle for me physically. The longer the tournament goes, yeah, the worse the condition gets.
“I reach the semis of every Slam this year, but I have to play Sinner or Alcaraz. These guys are fit, young, sharp. I feel like I'm going into the match with tank half empty. It's just not possible to win a match like that.”
Instead, the ultimate challenger to the ‘Sincaraz’ stranglehold over men’s tennis might logically come from a younger cohort.
And Saville has his eye on one player in particular.
"I think everyone's looking at [Joao] Fonseca to be the next challenger to those two,” he said. “It's Carlos and Jannik and then there’s daylight, at the moment.
"[I] feel like [Daniil] Medvedev, Zverev, [Stefanos] Tsitsipas a few years back, they were kind of the three everyone was looking at [to take over at the top of the sport].
“Still Zverev, he's made a bunch of finals and just hasn't quite broken through for that maiden Slam title.”
Zverev, at Australian Open 2025, is the most recent player not named Sinner or Alcaraz to appear in a Grand Slam final.
Fonseca is a long way off that mark, but the 18-year-old Brazilian has nevertheless thrilled fans with his rapid rise.
He cracked the world’s top 50 this week after a third-round finish at Wimbledon, the same stage he reached at Roland Garros.
Fonseca was outside the top 100 as recently as January but lit up Melbourne Park by making his Slam main-draw debut via qualifying, then stunning ninth seed Andrey Rublev in round one.
Just a few weeks later, he captured his first ATP title at the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires.
Whether he maintains his trajectory and ultimately challenges Sinner and Alcaraz at the very top of the game remains to be seen.
But for now, tennis observers can luxuriate in the ongoing Sinner-Alcaraz series, which continues to deliver unforgettable matches and an outstanding level of tennis.
According to another former Australian pro in Todd Woodbridge, their rivalry has taken a fascinating twist following the Wimbledon final.
"I watched this match thinking: 'I expected Sinner would win in Paris and that Alcaraz would win here’,” Woodbridge said on the same episode of The Tennis.
“But when you watch this match, we may see the reverse of that [going forward], because I think Sinner takes the racquet out of Alcaraz's hand on grass – he doesn't have as much time to be creative, to play the drop-shots, to work the point.
"I think Jannik Sinner is gonna win many more of these [Wimbledon titles].”