Pete Sampras will likely be pleased about how Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have changed tennis.
Alcaraz and Sinner have dominated tennis in recent years, and have finished the season as the top two ranked players once again.
This has included winning all of the major titles this year, with Alcaraz even matching a Pete Sampras record after winning the US Open.
Sampras was often outspoken about how he felt about modern tennis, but he may have changed his mind this year after seeing Alcaraz and Sinner’s dominance.
The complaint that Pete Sampras once had about modern tennis
Sampras officially retired from tennis in 2003, but he had spoken about the dropping popularity in men’s tennis even before he stopped competing.
The reason that Sampras believed men’s tennis was struggling was due to the strength in depth on the ATP Tour, preventing tennis fans from getting invested in rivalries.
“What has hurt the men’s game is there are too many good players,” Sampras once told media at the time. “What sells sport today? I don’t think it’s personalities. It’s more matchups. It’s the consistent rivalries. In the men’s game there are so many good players that there are a lot of different winners. There’s not much of a men’s rivalry.”
Is another Carlos Alcaraz vs Jannik Sinner final good for men’s tennis?
When speaking in 2000, there were suggestions that perhaps women’s tennis was gaining more popularity than men’s, but Sampras thought he knew the real reason.
“Instead of the media taking the easy way out and saying the ladies’ game is more popular, they should put their brains together and note why this is happening,” responded Sampras. “It’s because the men’s game is as strong today as it has ever been. It’s gotten stronger in the past five years.
“When the men’s game was very popular – [Bjorn] Borg, [John] McEnroe, [Jimmy] Connors, and [Ivan] Lendl were much better than everyone else. Tim [Gullikson] told me that when he was ranked 15 in the world, he had no chance of beating those guys.
“You had the rivalries then, the consistent matchups. That’s what fans and the media cling to. Now you have lots of different guys in finals. This is no disrespect to Alex Corretja or Thomas Enqvist, but when they play a final (they did at 2000 Indian Wells), they’re not going to generate the interest in this country like Andre and I would, or any top rivalry.”
Alcaraz and Sinner’s rivalry has notably increased interest in tennis over the past year, with their thrilling five set French Open final particularly catching attention.
This was also evident from their most recent encounter, with Sinner and Alcaraz’s ATP Finals match breaking Italian TV records.
However, Sampras could be concerned about one statistic concerning Alcaraz and Sinner, as they have a huge gap to world number three Alexander Zverev.
How many different finalists have there been at Grand Slams and Masters 1000 tournaments compared to 2024?
Alcaraz and Sinner dominated the ATP Tour in 2024, but they have taken this to another level this year.
This is evident in the number of Grand Slam finalists this year, with Zverev the only other player to reach a major final other than Alcaraz and Sinner.
When this is compared to last year, there were double the number of Grand Slam finalists, with Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz and Daniil Medvedev also reaching the championship matches of major tournaments in 2024.
| Number of 2024 Finalists | Number of 2025 Finalists | |
| Grand Slams | 6 | 3 |
| Masters 1000 | 14 | 13 |
There is less difference in the number of Masters 1000 finalists, but Alcaraz and Sinner have not played all these events in 2025.
After Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal retired from tennis, there was much concern about how men’s tennis would be able to transition, but it seems to be in safe hands with Alcaraz and Sinner at the top.
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