Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have been, by far, the two best players in the world this year and look set to dominate the ATP Tour for the foreseeable future.
For the second year in a row, each Grand Slam title was won by either Sinner or Alcaraz, with the ‘new two’ claiming their fourth and sixth major crowns, respectively.
The Spaniard and the Italian finished the year ranked first and second with point totals north of 10,000, and were both at least 5000 clear of third-placed Alexander Zverev.
Several stars have attempted to close the gap on Sinner and Alcaraz this year, including Zverev, Ben Shelton, and Taylor Fritz.
None of them really made much ground on them, however, and former world number 13 Alexandr Dolgopolov thinks the current crop of contenders for the sport’s biggest prizes is ‘much weaker’ than it used to be.
Alexandr Dolgopolov weighs in on the current landscape of tennis
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Dolgopolov said: “I hardly watch tennis these days, but [this is] how I see it compared to our age.
“Sinner and Alcaraz’s best days [are] probably equal to the big three, overall less solid than any of [the] big three.”
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Many fans have compared Sinner and Alcaraz’s dominance to that of the ‘big three’ era, when Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic were head and shoulders above the rest.
Dolgopolov continued: “The top three to 15 is much weaker than our age, 15-50 about similar, 50-100 modern players are stronger than our age.”
The Ukrainian’s ‘age’ came within the 2010s, when the likes of Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Juan Martin Del Potro were competing alongside the big three.
From 2010 to the end of 2019, only Murray, Wawrinka and Marin Cilic managed to get their hands on a Grand Slam title outside of the ‘big three’.
- Andy Murray: Won the 2012 US Open, 2013 Wimbledon, and 2016 Wimbledon
- Stan Wawrinka: Won the 2014 Australian Open, 2015 Roland Garros, and 2016 US Open
- Marin Cilic: Won the 2014 US Open
Players who beat Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz this year
Not many stars have managed to beat Sinner and Alcaraz this year, with the two stars conceding just 15 losses between them in 2025, many of which have come against each other.
Alcaraz suffered nine of those defeats, and though two of them were handed to him by Sinner, he was on the receiving end of some unexpected results.
He lost in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open to Djokovic, and then fell to Jiri Lehecka at the Qatar Open, as well as Jack Draper at the Indian Wells Open.
In Miami, Alcaraz was beaten by ATP veteran David Goffin, and during the clay swing he was overcome by Holger Rune.
Alcaraz also lost to Fritz at the Laver Cup, and Cameron Norrie in his opening match at the Paris Masters.
Sinner has only been defeated by two players outside of Alcaraz, the first of whom was Alexander Bublik, who got the better of him at the Halle Open.
His only other loss was to Tallon Griekspoor at the Shanghai Masters, where the four-time major champion retired due to injury in the third set.
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