Much has been made over the past couple of seasons of the need for young, fresh faces to assume the mantle of challengers to the likes of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. As hardly bears repeating, the pair have swept the last nine grand slam titles between them, playing each other in three out of four finals in 2025, and almost all of the other tournaments of note too. Seemingly every mention of either name is accompanied by another history-making feat.
But those new challengers don’t seem to be emerging, leaving the pair’s grip on tennis tighter than ever. At the moment that is held down single-handedly by Sinner, with Alcaraz out of action for the entire remainder of the clay season and the grass-court swing with a troubling wrist injury.
