Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are already well on their way towards creating a legacy like few others within tennis.
After all, they boast six and five Grand Slam titles respectively already, at the ages of just 22 and 23, and show no signs of slowing down.
Crucially, there is virtually no one to oppose them at the moment either, thus explaining how they have hoovered up all of the last seven majors.
If nobody emerges to challenge this duopoly, they will stroll to the kind of numbers only ever seen from the Big Three.
However, they are doing so in a way that makes them completely different from that legendary trio, particularly Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.
What Roger Federer said after losing the 2011 US Open to Novak Djokovic
There are many iterations of the Big Three’s rivalries that can be compared to Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz’s; however, Novak Djokovic’s with Roger Federer is not one of them.
After all, whilst they may have engaged in legendary battles and consistently fought for the sport’s most illustrious prizes, their off-court relationship left little to be desired.
They were not friends, and did not root for one another. It was war, and they were in direct competition with one another so often that their opponent’s downfall often meant they were succeeding instead.
One press conference in particular sums up just how different their rivalry was from Alcaraz and Sinner’s now, as Federer spoke after losing to Djokovic in the 2011 US Open.
The Swiss superstar stated, after his semi-final exit: “It’s disappointing because you feel like he was mentally out of it already, you know? And just gets the lucky shot in and off you go.”
Then asked about the now-iconic forehand winner that the Serbian hit on match point, and if it was a result of confidence or luck, Federer continued: “Confidence? Are you kidding me?
“Look, some players go up and play like that. I remember losing junior matches and they just being down 5-2 in the third, and they all just started slapping shots, and it all goes in for some reason because that’s kind of the way they grew up playing when they were down.
“I never played that way, and I believe in hard work’s going to pay off kind of thing, you know, because early on, maybe I didn’t always work at my hardest.
“So, for me, this is very hard to understand how you can play a shot like that on match point. But look, maybe he’s been doing it for 20 years, so for him, he was very normal, you got to ask him.”
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s rivalry is so refreshing
It is here where the clear distinction between the two rivalries emerges, as Alcaraz or Sinner would never speak in such a way about one another after a match.
After all, they have had nothing but praise for their opponent even in the face of crushing losses, most notably in last month’s French Open final.
There, Sinner squandered three championship points and lost despite being two sets to love up on Alcaraz, and yet in his post-match comments stated: “It’s good to see that we can produce also tennis like this, because I think it’s good for the whole movement of tennis and the crowd. It was a good atmosphere today, no, and also to be part of it, it’s very special.
“Of course, I’m happy to be part of this. I would be even more happy if I would have here the big trophy. But, yeah, as I said, you can’t change it now.”
Both rivalries likely commanded great mutual respect, but the new generation seems far more forgiving and uplifting with one another.
If the other succeeds whilst they fail, then so be it. It’s refreshing to see such camraderie after two decades of tense, lethal competition between the three greatest male tennis players ever.
