Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are playing the best tennis we’ve ever seen

Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Men’s tennis’ new stars are pushing the game to the greatest heights we’ve ever seen.

For 20 years, professional men’s tennis was a relatively simple calculation. Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, or Rafael Nadal would win every major tournament with the occasional random interloper. But characterizing the next era has been an open question… until now.

The French Open men’s final treated us to the pinnacle of the sport. While Carlos Alcaraz triumphed over Jannik Sinner in five absolutely brilliant sets and five-and-a-half hours and (it was in fact one of the great tennis matches ever as far as I’m concerned), their final taught me more about men’s tennis broadly than about the Italian machine or the Spanish wunderkind.

It’s a crazy conclusion, but it’s undeniable: these two — only 23 and 22, respectively — are already the two best human beings ever to play their sport. They aren’t the “greatest,” since that word carries the weight of a career, but no one has come close to this level of play in men’s tennis’ entire history. And no one today is even close to them.

These two aim for the lines and actually hit them. When a defensive slice flies towards them, they see winners that will only work if they hit a perfect 105 mph forehand down the line — and then they do it. They hit drop shot winners; they return overheads; they hit 140 mph serves. They’ve won the last six majors. They do everything better than anyone ever, and the only ones who can stop them are each other.

This is out-of-control awesome. We dream of rivalries like this, let alone ones between players so young who can’t even be touched by old legends like Djokovic or by their peers like Alexander Zverev or Daniil Medvedev. The rest of men’s tennis should be horrified, but I’m loving every second of this new era.

What’s different from the old days? The Big Three were dominant in part because they were all the same. They each played all-around styles with absurd court coverage mixed with unfathomable precision. They embodied that, in five-set matches, being better at every aspect of tennis would defeat mastering only a single part.

But there were moments when it appeared the next era may be different. Akin to the velocity revolution in baseball, it seemed like big servers might take over. I was at the 2014 US Open men’s semifinals, and I watched Federer get obliterated by the massive serves of the 6’6” Marin Cilic. I saw the giant Canadian Milos Raonic do the same thing to the Swiss maestro at the 2016 Wimbledon semifinals. Why even waste time if you can find a 6’11” robot who can hit a serve 150 miles per hour and win every point before it starts?

Alcaraz and Sinner say to hell with all that. They’ll hit massive serves and perfect every other aspect of their craft. They’ll crank what the Big Three did up to 11, blow right past 12 and rock out all the way up to 13. The perfection is staggering, and they’re unlike anyone else on tour.

Alcaraz is an emotive, fist-pumping flamethrower who will hit the greatest forehand you’ve ever seen… and then hit a better one two points later. Conversely, Sinner is a machine who never makes mistakes, never gets flustered, and basically never loses a set. They bring out the best in each other, and whoever thought they were going to have a chance to win majors as Djokovic hits his twilight will have to go back to the drawing board. It’s a Big Two.

That’s not to say no one can join them. Before they were unkillable titans, they were just a couple of kids who no one had ever heard of — there’s no reason someone else can’t come out of the woodwork. I had never heard of Alcaraz before I saw him beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the 2021 US Open by hitting forehands harder than I thought possible. It took me a while to recognize just how good Sinner was, and that he might even be better than the Spaniard. And there are plenty of 16-year-olds out there watching these two and trying to do even better.

Big picture, Sinner and Alcaraz are the harbingers of tennis’ physical revolution, something that has come for all sports recently; whereas the most skilled players used to be able to hang with the best athletes, now the best athletes are also the most skilled. Being a genetic outlier is no longer an excuse not to be the most precise.

But their physical gifts have also allowed them to hit shots that John McEnroe simply doesn’t understand while he’s commentating these matches. They’ve figured out to muscle passing shots from every angle to the point where they practically never lob anymore. And they’ve largely abandoned the overwhelming topspin that made guys like Nadal great; they can hit it flat, way faster, and somehow keep it in.

I didn’t think this was possible after the 20 years we just saw, but Sinner and Alcaraz have managed to become even better than the three best we’ve ever seen. It’s ridiculous, and spectacular. And even if we have it for another 15 years, I’m going to enjoy every point.