A lot can change in a year in tennis. While the past year has only reinforced the iron grip of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner on the men’s tour (and the immortality of Novak Djokovic), the wheel of potential challengers has spun again and landed on new names.
This time last year, it was Britain’s Jack Draper. He reached a first major semi-final at the US Open in 2024 and continued a meteoric rise from there, beating Alcaraz at Indian Wells before going on to win his first Masters title in the Californian sunshine. A run to another Masters final in Madrid followed; by the summer, he was ranked fourth in the world.
