With the conquest of the Davis Cup, he concluded the year that has elevated Jannik Sinner as undisputed king of world tennis and that has turned Italy into the current great power. It is on the blue hard courts, like the color that represents his country, where the red-haired player has built his dominance. Since August, Sinner has only lost against Carlos Alcaraz in the final in Beijing and has closed the year with nine titles, including the ATP Finals and the Davis Cup, although only one of them has been achieved on another surface, the grass of Halle. In any case, that does not detract from the merit of a player who has closed the year with 73 wins and 6 losses, who has always reached the quarterfinals and in all his matches he has won at least one set, something that only Roger had achieved before. Federer in 2005, and that has amassed an advantage of almost 4,000 points at the top of the ATP classification.
The question now is whether the South Tyrolean tennis player will be able to maintain this level now that the old guard, except Novak Djokovic, is in retreat and someone must take over from an unrepeatable era. Sinner and Alcaraz have shared the four Grand Slams and they have left little room for others in important tournaments. Only Alexander Zverev, now second in the world, has been able to confront them on occasions, but the German is now 27 years old and has not yet won one of the majors, which remains the great owe of his career. Only Daniil Medvedev knows what it’s like to win a Grand Slam among the contenders to take over the Big Three, although the Russian must regain focus after a year without titles.
Faced with Sinner’s robotic style, Alcaraz has won the battle of charismaOf course, although sometimes it turns against the Murcian, who seems in need of showing off his repertoire and using genius. Furthermore, the El Palmar player carries the backpack of Rafa Nadal’s heir and he does want to get rid of that because it weighs a lot and nothing is going to be the same. After twenty years of many epic battles between Federer, Djokovic and Nadal, which left some of the best finals in history, tennis may be left orphaned of emotions, of matches that remain in memory. The big three, with the company of Andy Murray for some years, represented different styles and characters and now many players seem cut from the same cloth and, above all, lack the mental strength of the trio of legends, winners of 65 Grand Slams.
DJOKOVIC, WITH MURRAY
That’s why, There is curiosity to know which Djokovic will return to the circuit in a month when activity resumes in Australia. The Serbian has only won the Olympic gold medal this year, which was the only thing missing from his record, and his only great motivation is to try to reach 25 Grand Slams and equal the Australian Margaret Court as the most winners in the story. To this end, the one from Belgrade, on his way to 38 years old, surprised by announcing that from now on his coach will be Andy Murray, who also retired after the Paris Games.
“The perfect coach for me, at this moment, is someone who has lived the experiences that I am living: possibly a multiple Grand Slam champion, a former number 1…” explained Djokovic, who has been left without Nadal, his great always rival, and now he wants to prolong his career knowing that the spotlight is elsewhere. Now tennis has been dyed blue, the throne belongs to Jannik Sinner, a player who has shown himself to be imperturbable and almost unbeatable to open a new era.
