‘Greatest Player At 20’: McEnroe Praises Alcaraz & Hints At Rivalry With Rune

| by Sebastian Dahlman

Rivalries in tennis are what drives the sport forward as the big three era proved and John McEnroe wants to see Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune in one along with others.

The Spaniard is one of the best players in the world right now, the number one player right now who started off his Roland Garros campaign on a high note. It was a superb display by him as he admitted to feeling invincible as he was crushing his opponent.

Holger Rune had a solid start of his own battling past tricky American Eubanks in four sets. He played in the quarter-final last year and is certainly expected to make his way into the second week and possibly go even further than that. John McEnroe would like to see them play each other.

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I believe you need rivalries. We haven’t seen a lot, particularly on the women’s side. You think about how much better the men have got because they’ve played each other so often. It’s insane. They were forced to get better. Now, you’re hoping, as Djokovic and Nadal wind down, you’re hoping Alcaraz and Rune in particular step up and have a great rivalry because all sports need it.

A Rune - Alcaraz rivalry would be really interesting as they grew up together on the Tour. They played in the juniors together and now both are sensational pros. We have already seen some great rivalries emerging with Alcaraz and Sinner. McEnroe just wants to see more of them in the future.

"It makes it much more fun and much more interesting. People generally pay more attention. Look at Alcaraz, the guy’s the best 20-year-old I’ve ever seen and at this point, I’d put him above Nadal, Djokovic, Federer and [Pete] Sampras as the greatest player I’ve ever seen at 20.

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