The emergence of a third young star to challenge the supremacy of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner would push the duo’s scintillating rivalry to new heights, according to tennis great John McEnroe.
Alcaraz and Sinner are coming off a French Open final for the ages and head into next week’s Wimbledon having evenly split the past six majors between them.
It is reminiscent of the stranglehold Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer had on men’s tennis for two decades, an era of dominance made even richer by the three-sided nature of the rivalry.
“It’s going to be an interesting time to see if there’s another player or two who can break in with those two the way Novak did when he was trying to get to the same level as Roger and Rafa,” McEnroe said.
“It shows you what type of a player he was that he was able to do that. But right now, there’s a void.”
In a Roland Garros showdown of unsurpassed quality, 22-year-old Alcaraz of Spain saved three successive match points to battle back from two sets down and beat the Italian in the longest French Open final in history.
Miami Open champion Jakub Menšík, 19, and 18-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca are two teenagers McEnroe could envision breaking into the Alcaraz-Sinner rivalry, as well as big-serving American Ben Shelton.
“One of those two guys or Ben would be my choice right now,” seven-time grand slam champion McEnroe said.
“I think it would be important to get another guy or two to add to the mix. That would be really helpful.”
McEnroe said the future of men’s tennis was in great hands provided Alcaraz, who is seeking a hat-trick of Wimbledon titles next month, and world number one Sinner stayed healthy.
“It was unheard of what we watched over the last 20 years and you can make the argument that what we’re seeing now is even faster and different from what we saw even five years ago,” he said.
“I can’t wait to see what it’s going to be like in 10 years, or five years even.”
Reuters
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