Men’s tennis was dominated by Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner in 2025, with the two splitting all four Grand Slams between them for a second year in a row.
Alcaraz and Sinner, ranked first and second respectively, were head and shoulders above everyone else on the ATP Tour last year.
The Spaniard and the Italian finished with points tallies north of 11,000, over 5000 clear of Alexander Zverev in third place.
Who will join Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner in a new ‘big three’?
While Alcaraz and Sinner are clearly the best in the world, many think their success is largely due to the weak contenders ranked below them.
Serena Williams’ former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, disagrees, however, claiming it’s unfair to judge the current top ten just now.
Patrick Mouratoglou assesses the level of the current top 10
In a post on Instagram, Mouratoglou said: “Some of you have compared Wawrinka, Del Potro and Andy Murray to the current Top 10.
“But if you look at the current Top 10, most of the guys are very young. Holger Rune is 22, Musetti is 23, Draper is 24, Ben Shelton is 23.
“Probably those guys are gonna develop a lot in the future and maybe they’re gonna end up being multiple Grand Slam winners.
“So to compare those guys at 22, 23, 24 to players like Del Potro, Wawrinka and Murray who have played the whole career, it’s not very fair.
“If, when Wawrinka, Del Potro and Murray were 22 or 23 years old, you would have told them that they were not as good as the previous generation of Safin, Hewitt, Kefelnikov, Ferrero, Moya, Rafter, they would not have liked it at all.
“Maybe after 10 years, this statement would not be true anymore. The second element is some of you have also said that you would have loved to see Alcaraz or Sinner win a Grand Slam, having to beat Wawrinka, Del Potro, Murray and two members of the big three.
“Just for your information, this has never happened. Not Djokovic, not Nadal, not Federer and not any other player have won a Grand Slam, beating all those guys. Never happened.”
Patrick Mouratoglou has an ‘interesting statistic’ about the big three
Mouratoglou continued: “By the way, I have interesting statistics on that. In 15 years, only four players have won a Grand Slam beating two players out of the big three. Only four different players.
“Even Roger Federer never won a Grand Slam beating Nadal and Djokovic. This never happened.
“One time it was Novak Djokovic, one time it was Rafael Nadal. And when those two guys did it, yes they beat two members of the big three, but throughout the whole tournament, they didn’t beat a top 10 [player].
“So it was not that difficult at that time and if so many times those players, those big three won Grand Slams without having to face the top 10, it’s probably because those guys lost before playing them.
What is your boldest tennis prediction for 2026?
“So to say that those guys were so, so good, so, so much better than the current ones doesn’t really make sense.
“Throughout history, tennis has always progressed, and the current generation is always better than the generation before.
“It would be very strange to have a top 10 today that is not as good as a top 10, 10 years ago, it doesn’t really make sense, so that’s probably not true.”
The latest addition to the ATP top ten is Alexander Bublik, who reached a career-high after winning the Hong Kong Open.
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