For much of 2023 Carlos Alcaraz was considered the best young player in the world but that's changed this year as Jannik Sinner stepped up.
Last year was a pretty fascianting season because in the first couple of months it looked fairly clear that Alcaraz was the best youngster on the ATP Tour. Out of all players, Novak Djokovic was right there as well, but nobody was even close to those two.
When Alcaraz bested Djokovic in the Wimbledon final, many were comfortable predicting the Spaniard would dominate in the second part of the session. That didn't happen because it was actually another player that stepped up and dominated.
Sinner was the one as the Italian finished the year on a high note and opened this one on an even bigger one. He won the Australian Open, and now Alcaraz and Juan Carlos Ferrero have another mystery to crack.
It's going to be a tough as the Spanish coach explained to Marca why Sinner had the dramatic rise he had in recent monhts.
"It is an example of professionalism in many aspects. He is a player who has been pursuing his goals for the last two years, whatever they were. A couple of seasons ago he played a lot cross-court, few drop shots, went up to the net less... And he has been investing to increase his repertoire of shots and at a tactical level."
Sinner was kind of a one-dimensional player when he showed up. The baseline play was tremendous but it was very hit and miss and there were ways that the top players could counter it.
That's not the case anymore, as his performance against Djokovic and many others in Melbourne recently showed. It's the result of targetted hard work which is nothing but exemplary.
"He can be seen playing more drop shots, he hits parallel shots naturally, his serve has also improved a lot: at first he supported it with both feet and now he drags it. They are signs that the team wants to see him improve and he is willing to do so."