New kings of tennis — Sinner, Alcaraz rivalry ushers in new era

Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner. Four words that are redefining tennis and capturing the attention of the sporting world. The pair have separated themselves from the pack and look set to shape the sport and its narrative for at least the decade, unless something dramatic happens.

Any sporting event needs rivalries – without them the idea of competitive sport becomes meaningless. It must always be a contest where an element of unpredictability exists between at least two protagonists to ensure drama and interest.

And tennis bosses are revelling in the ready-made “SinCaraz” duopoly that has stormed the ramparts of the Big Three era and created a new story to sell. And sell it they will.

The era of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic is behind us. It has been for at least two years, but the SinCaraz era needed a defining 2025 to take its place.

It has.

And stretched out before the tennis world lies the vast and fertile expanse of the SinCaraz story, which is close to mythical status already, given the quality of some of the contests these two have delivered.

The pair have won the past eight men’s Grand Slam singles titles between them, from the 2024 Australia Open (Sinner) to the 2025 US Open (Alcaraz).

Consistency

The pair have not only been brilliant over the past two years – and even longer in Alcaraz’s case, as he won the 2022 US Open as a 19-year-old – they have also been consistent.

Sinner competed in all four men’s Grand Slam singles finals in 2025 and in two of them in 2024, winning four of the six that he contested.

Alcaraz featured in three of the four finals in 2025, winning twice, and he has an impressive 6-1 win-loss record in Grand Slam finals.

Alcaraz holds a 10-5 win-loss record against Sinner, including winning six of their past seven meetings, and he has a 2-1 lead in the three Grand Slam finals they have played.

The 22-year-old Alcaraz is the third man after Björn Borg and Nadal to have won six majors before turning 23, and on his current trajectory he looks set to break all Grand Slam winning records in time.

Sinner, of course, will have something to say about that.

The 24-year-old Italian dropped to No 2 on the rankings after losing the 2025 US Open final to Alcaraz, but he held the top spot for 15 months.

What the 2025 season has shown is that the pair have now surged ahead of the chasing pack, which still includes the ageing but supremely competitive Djokovic.

Djokovic is locked in a personal battle to claim a record 25th Grand Slam singles title, which would put him ahead of Margaret Court, who shares 24 with him.

The Serb already has the most majors in the men’s game, but to be able to say he has won the most in all tennis would be some exclamation point to a superb career.

That objective looks increasingly impossible now, even though Djokovic featured in the semifinals of all four majors this year.

Pushing limits

Although players such as Jack Draper and Ben Shelton are the most likely to infiltrate the duopoly in the future, Alcaraz and Sinner are only improving. And they’re taking their games and their sport up several notches all the time because of how they feed off each other.

“I think we push each other to the limit every time. My practices are just focused to see how I can be better just to beat Jannik,” Alcaraz told The Today Show after his US Open triumph.

“I think the rivalry is special, splitting Grand Slams, fighting for the great things.”

Sinner, for his part, immediately reflected shortly after losing the US final that his game needs to evolve to match that of Alcaraz. The Spaniard won an epic French Open final against Sinner, but was well beaten by him at Wimbledon.

Alcaraz quickly made improvements to his serve, variation, aggressiveness and attitude. It didn’t go unnoticed by Sinner.

After waltzing through the early rounds at the US Open, by his own admission Sinner was not sharp enough to combat the wide array of weapons Alcaraz possessed in the final. “I was very predictable today on the court in the way that he did many things and changed up the game,” Sinner said after the US Open loss. “That’s also his style of how he plays. Now it’s going to be on me if I want to make changes or not. Definitely we are going to work on that.

“It also depends how you arrive to play against Carlos. When the scoreline of the matches before are comfortable, but you always do the same things, like I did during this tournament… then you arrive [at] a point where you play against Carlos where you have to go out of the comfort zone.

“I’m going to aim to maybe even lose some matches from now on, but try to [make] some changes and try to be a bit more unpredictable… I think that’s what I have to do in trying to become a better tennis player.”

SinCaraz pushing each other to be better and succeeding might be bad news for the chasing men’s pack. But for tennis fans specifically and sports fans in general, as well as tennis marketing people, it’s great news.

The kings of tennis are dead. Long live the new kings. DM

Alcaraz

Grand Slam singles finals: record 6-1

2022 US Open: Defeated Casper Ruud 6–4, 2–6, 7–6(1), 6–3

2023 Wimbledon: Defeated Novak Djokovic 1–6, 7–6(6), 6–1, 3–6, 6–4

2024 French Open: Defeated Alexander Zverev 6–3, 2–6, 5–7, 6–1, 6–2

2024 Wimbledon: Defeated Novak Djokovic 6–2, 6–2, 7–6(4)

2025 French Open: Defeated Jannik Sinner 4–6, 6–7(4), 6–4, 7–6(3), 7–6(2)

2025 Wimbledon: Lost to Jannik Sinner 6–4, 4–6, 4–6, 4–6

2025 US Open: Defeated Jannik Sinner 6–2, 3–6, 6–1, 6–4

Sinner

Grand Slam singles finals: record 4-2

2024 Australian Open: Defeated Daniil Medvedev 3–6, 3–6, 6–4, 6–4, 6–3

2024 US Open: Defeated Taylor Fritz 6–3, 6–4, 7–5

2025 Australian Open: Defeated Alexander Zverev 6–3, 7–6(4), 6–3

2025 French Open: Lost to Carlos Alcaraz 6–4, 7–6(4), 4–6, 6–7(3), 6–7(2)

2025 Wimbledon: Defeated Carlos Alcaraz 4–6, 6–4, 6–4, 6–4

2025 US Open: Lost to Carlos Alcaraz 2–6, 6–3, 1–6, 4–6

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.