A few days ago, Novak Djokovic sat with journalist Piers Morgan in a cozy-looking television studio and reflected on the new world order in tennis. For twenty years, i.e. most of his career, he was the dominant player, said the Serb, who won more Grand Slam titles and Masters tournaments than any other man and was also number one in the world rankings for the longest time.
“Now to be dominated by Alcaraz and Sinner…” Djokovic continued when he was abruptly interrupted by the TV host. Morgan wanted to know whether the new situation wasn’t humiliating for him. Djokovic replied: “This is the natural progression and development in sport.” In the aftermath, the thirty-eight-year-old emphasized that the two currently best players by far are “great for tennis”.
Djokovic has something to say, after all, he can look back on an illustrious professional career. If Morgan were to ask the representatives of the generation of players between the old master Djokovic and the young stars Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner the same question, he would not get such a clear answer as from the Serb. Then it would sound more like Alexander Zverev recently at the tournament in Vienna. After the final there, in which the German played at a higher level than he had in a long time and still lost to Sinner, he tried a saying that was intended to seem humorous but also sounded rude: “Jannik, you’re really annoying all of us players. Let’s win something too.”
Like Zverev, most of his colleagues, who were also born in the 1990s, have to come to terms with the fact that they are constantly at the disadvantage and may be denied their crowning glory. At the beginning of their careers about a decade ago, the guard could do little to prevent the exceptional talents Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer from winning the big titles. Dominic Thiem (2020) and Daniil Medvedev (2021) are the only ones from the 1990s to win a Grand Slam tournament (US Open).
“Generation Sandwich” becomes “Generation Frustration”
Now Zverev, Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and all the others have to watch as two younger, highly gifted players play for the biggest titles in the smallest circle. The “Sandwich Generation” is gradually becoming the “Frustration Generation”. As soon as the era of the “big three” was behind us, 28-year-old American Taylor Fritz tried to make a joke at the ATP finals: “Now we only have to deal with the big two”.
The 22-year-old Alcaraz and Sinner, who is two years older, have won the last eight Grand Slam tournaments, four each. In the world rankings they are far above everyone else. It has been clear since Thursday that the Spaniard will end the tennis year as number one. The superiority of Alcaraz, who is a technically skilled all-rounder and now also delivers consistent performance, and the extremely solid, high-speed player Sinner were also evident in the past few days at the ATP Finals of the eight best of the season. Without defeat – the Italian even lost a set – the two reached the final, where they played out the last trophy of the year between them on Sunday evening.
The older colleagues have to think about how they could crack the two-man phalanx. “I know how to beat him,” claimed Australian Alex De Minaur after his 5-7, 2-6 semi-final defeat on Saturday against Sinner: hit very hard and very long, place the balls very close to the lines and serve very well. De Minaur’s record against Sinner shows that it is easier said than done: 13 games, 13 defeats.
Unlike the Australian, Fritz, sixth in the world rankings, has already beaten each of the two dominators once. It’s just a shame, says the American, that you almost always have to beat both of them to win a major title. During the winter break he wants to gather strength, train a lot and “continue to work on the necessary things to close the gap”. Fritz’s hope dies last.
The gap to number 2 is greater than the lead to number 1000
In the 2025 tennis year, Zverev was the only one to reach a Grand Slam final alongside the two top stars. At the Australian Open he had no chance against Sinner. “The tennis season is long, with a lot of ups and downs, but for me there weren’t many ups this time,” says the twenty-eight-year-old after missing out on making it to the last four at the ATP Finals.
The fact that Zverev was able to confidently hold onto third place in the world rankings is worthy of honor. However, it has not gone unnoticed by professional observers that Zverev’s point gap to second-placed Sinner is greater than his lead over the Dutchman Elgin Khoeblal as number 1000 in the world rankings.
