Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have truly cemented themselves as the two best male players in the world this year, typified by how they have shared the four Grand Slams, two apiece.
It’s a testament to their brilliance, and Novak Djokovic’s steady decline, that the 37-year-old is actually without an ATP title in 2024 either, having won three of the four majors the year prior.
How these young superstars have stepped their games up is remarkable, but the gulf between even them, in the world rankings, is stark.
Carlos Alcaraz reviews Jannik Sinner’s year
With the Paris Masters now underway, the Spaniard is due to kickstart his campaign back in the French capital later today.
And with Alcaraz dropping a fitness update first, the youngster would then move on to assess the wider state of the sport; namely, those rankings.
Currently second behind Jannik Sinner, he outlined how the Italian’s unrelenting consistency has forged a new goal for him in 2025.
Carlos Alcaraz revealed: ‘Yeah, for sure. I mean, doesn’t matter that I have beaten Jannik three times.
‘Probably I didn’t play good tennis in some tournaments. You know, my percentage of wins this year is really, really high, but Jannik is another level this year (smiling), so over the 91% of wins this year. So just a few players have done this before.
‘But yeah, I mean, I think every player are looking for being more consistent during the year. You know, in every tournament that you’re going to play, you want to go far or as farther as you can. That’s my goal the next year. You know, in the tournaments that I didn’t play well or I didn’t go as far as I wanted, just try to do it.’
Carlos Alcaraz needs consistency to be the world number-one
It’s clear that, out of the two best male players in the world, it is only consistency that is keeping Alcaraz behind Sinner.
After all, their head-to-head record for 2024 speaks volumes, with the former having beaten the Italian all three times they have faced this year.
However, shockingly poor performances in big events like the Cincinnati Masters and the US Open have seen his points tally diminish where it otherwise could have been given a boost.
Meanwhile, Sinner has reached 14 quarter-finals in 2024, thus explaining the 4300-point gap between him and the second in the world.
2025 represents a huge opportunity for Alcaraz to start cutting down that lead, but he will have a huge task on his hands should his adversary maintain his current form.
With Sinner pulling out of the Paris Masters, that road to recovery could start today.
Alas, Andy Roddick predicted how long Sinner’s drug ban might be after WADA reopened the case, which could completely skew results.
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