The ease with which Carlos Alcaraz bested Novak Djokovic in the 2024 Wimbledon Championships final tells Toni Nadal that Jannik Sinner will be his true rival in the coming months.
The Spanish coach has been very complimentary to Djokovic at times, but for the most part, he wasn't his greatest fan. For much of his coaching career, Toni Nadal was heavily biased as Rafael Nadal's coach, but his latest opinion was based on the way the Wimbledon final shaped up.
It was probably heavily influenced by how Djokovic's 2024 campaign has looked so far, as he hasn't reached a single ATP Tour-level final until he challenged the 21-year-old Spaniard at SW19.
In his column for El Pais, Nadal noted that on equal terms, Djokovic simply had no shot against Alcaraz, who is younger and quicker. In fact, the only option Djokovic had, per the coach, was to try and slow down the game, hoping that his opponent would have a bad day.
That didn't happen as Alcaraz won the match in three simple sets to lift his second Wimbledon title and fourth major overall.
"In my opinion, the only option the Serbian had was to try to slow down the game. To hope that he was completely right and to trust that Carlos was not having his best day."
"Trying to beat the player from Murcia by speed is practically impossible nowadays. Perhaps only Jannik Sinner can play the Spaniard on equal terms."
Alcaraz looks ahead of everybody else right now, and it's not an exaggeration. What seems to be certain, according to Nadal, is that Jannik Sinner will be his main rival moving forward.
"And, in fact, this Sunday's final confirms that the real rivalry in the next tournaments and, probably, in the next few years will be between these two: the Italian and our great Spanish champion."