The only players to challenge Novak Djokovic for Grand Slam championships in the last eighteen months are Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, who represent the tennis world’s emerging generation.
However, Juan Carlos Ferrero, the coach of Alcaraz, thinks that in order for the two to become the world’s best, they still need to train like animals.
Before Sinner won the Australian Open, he claimed to have known that his time was going to come.
Australian Open: Jannik Sinner on becoming a star alongside Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune: “We believe in ourselves
Juan Carlos Ferrero, the coach of Carlos Alcaraz, says he knew Jannik Sinner’s day would come and thinks the two young players will need to work like animals in order to perform at the same level as Novak Djokovic.
Two years ago, Alcaraz made his grand slam debut at the US Open in 2022, and he then turned heads by winning the Wimbledon championship in 2023.
Sinner, though, has already surpassed the Spaniard, winning the Davis Cup with Italy and going on to win his first major championship at the Australian Open in 2024.
Even though Sinner, 22, is two years older than Alcaraz, the two are expected to rule the sport in the years to come, and Ferrero says it was no surprise that the Italian took a little longer to take off.
Ferrero told La Nacion, We already saw Sinner working extremely well two years ago and we knew that this day was going to come.
We witnessed him playing tennis to win Grand Slams, and he has been pounding on our door for a while now.
Given that he was a very skinny player, there may have been some physical uncertainty at first, but as he developed and trained, he succeeded. Like Carlos, he is a player to watch in every competition and a serious contender for victory.
Even though Alcaraz and Sinner have emerged as the new generation’s leaders, record 24-time Grand Slam victor Novak Djokovic remains the man to beat.
The Serbian is currently ranked No. 1 in the world and won three of the four majors in 2018. However, his January Australian Open campaign ended in a loss to Sinner in the semi-finals.
After triumphing at the ATP Finals and Davis Cup towards the close of the previous year, Sinner’s third win in four encounters with Djokovic helped the Italian capture the Melbourne title.
I believe that Sinner’s appearance resembled that of Rafa [Nadal] and Roger [Federer], who together were pushing the automobile, until Novak entered the picture and is now sort of pushing Carlos and Sinner, Ferrero remarked.
I asked Carlos if he had witnessed that when Novak used that level to win the Masters [ATP Finals] last year.
To get to Novak’s level, we now need to train like animals. We have to do it, and Jannik will do it. Yes, yes, yes, let’s go with everything, was his response to me.Put differently, it serves as inspiration. It spreads like wildfire.
They have to feed each other between the three of them before moving on to the others, including [Alexander] Zverev, [Stefanos] Tsitsipas, and [Holger] Rune.
This week, Alcaraz is competing at the Rio Open. On Tuesday, he takes on Thiago Monteiro in the second round.
After defeating Alex De Minaur in the final, Sinner lifted the Rotterdam Open trophy on Sunday, capping off an incredible 2024 season.
