Carlos Alcaraz might be the most exciting young talent we've seen in the past few decades, but Goran Ivanisevic still thinks that Jannik Sinner is better.
At a time when the Big Three is slowly but surely departing, there was a big call for a player who would lead the new generation of exciting talents. Not one, but two players picked up the phone and answered.
Their names are Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. In 2024, both won two Grand Slam titles, showing their dominance. However, while in 2023, it seemed like Alcaraz was the player destined for dominance on the ATP Tour, his older rival significantly caught up with him this year.
Not only did the Italian player win the same amount of majors, he's currently the World No. 1, and that's with some margin. On top of that, Alcaraz isn't even the World No. 2, showing his struggles with consistency in 2024.
While he managed to win the Roland Garros and Wimbledon and reach the Olympic final, the Spaniard struggled to perform at almost every other tournament. He also won the Indian Wells Open and the China Open, but the rest of the events were marked with huge disappointments for the 21-year-old.
He lost in the third round of the Paris Masters to Ugo Humbert. He was eliminated in the second round of the US Open by Botic van de Zandschulp, and Gael Monfils beat him in the opening round of the Cincinnati Open.
On the other hand, Sinner reached at least the quarter-finals in every tournament that he played in 2024. That sort of consistency secured him over 10,000 points in 2024, while Alcaraz collected 'only' 6,810 up until the ATP Finals.
It's also that consistency that, according to Novak Djokovic's former coach, Goran Ivanisevic, who recently spoke to the Serbian publication SportKlub, makes Sinner the better player at the moment.
"They’re different players, but when they are both at their best, I feel that Sinner is better. He is more consistent throughout the match, whether Alcaraz can go from hitting amazing shots to some easy errors."
Ivanisevic said that Alcaraz had some losses that were difficult to explain this year, and not many would disagree with the former Wimbledon champion.
"This year, Carlos had a few losses I couldn’t explain… If we move Novak out of the equation, they will dominate, they are way above anyone else on the Tour."
While he obviously added his former pupil into the equation, Ivanisevic doesn't think that anyone else can match Sinner and Alcaraz. In his opinion, Alexander Zverev, who took the World No. 2 spot from the young Spaniard, is too inconsistent to do that.
"Nobody. Zverev has too many ups and downs. He plays great up until some point, then comes a match where he really needs to put it together, where he needs to perform at his best – that’s when he fails, and against Alcaraz and Sinner, you need to be at your best always."
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