World number one Jannik Sinner has revealed that he has known about Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz’s special talent since they faced each other at an ATP Challengers tournament five years ago. Both players are already considered two of the best currently playing in the singles category of men’s tennis.
Sinner and Alcaraz recently met with CNN during the 2024 ATP Finals in Turin, Eurosport reports. They talked about their journey since they first met each other five years ago. The reigning world number one explained that he knew of Alcaraz’s special talent since he first faced him: “I saw the draw and saw Carlos Alcaraz. I had no idea who he was. I saw his age and said to myself, ‘ Wow, he’s playing a Challenger tournament [die Turnierstufe unterhalb der ATP Tour]’That’s amazing’. I was immediately impressed. After the match we went to the lounge because I wanted to get to know him. He was an incredible talent even back then, you could see straight away that he was a special player.”
Both players are already considered heirs to the original “Big Four” in men’s tennis, where four players – Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, Spain’s Rafael Nadal, Switzerland’s Roger Federer and Britain’s Andy Murray – led men’s tennis for much of the last two decades. In the conversation, both Sinner and Alcaraz explained that they are not thinking too far ahead in their professional careers:
“It doesn’t compare to what the big three did, nor what the big four did with Andy [Murray]. There was a time when these four were always in the semi-finals. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve only had one season like that. They did it in fifteen, twenty years, I don’t think it’s comparable,” said Alcaraz, who agrees with Sinner: “When people see the results of the last few years, they will probably think that we are the next two top players will be leading the game, but I see a lot of players at the moment, the draw is really wide open.”
