The 2024 season has already issued some verdicts, when there are still some tournaments before the players can go on holiday. The main protagonist of this year was undoubtedly Jannik Sinner, who will close 2024 at the top of the ATP ranking with seven titles won from January until today. The 23-year-old from Sesto Pusteria was really impressive, only losing six times and winning two Grand Slam titles.
Carlos Alcaraz & Jannik Sinner, Beijing Open 2024© Stream screenshot
As if that were not enough, the Italian ace also won three Masters 1000 and two ATP 500 titles, extending the gap between him and his main pursuer Carlos Alcaraz. The 23-year-old from Murcia has again seen his season’s record highs, becoming the youngest player to win both the French Open and Wimbledon Championships in the same season. Carlitos also won the Indian Wells Masters 1000 for the second time in a row, the ATP 500 in Beijing beating Sinner in a beautiful final and silver medal at the Paris Olympics.
The four-time Grand Slam champion also had some ups and down during the year, a normal phenomenon considering his young age. The Spaniard suffered especially for his defeat against Novak Djokovic in the final of the Olympic tournament, which did not allow him to win the gold medal for his country.
Who will be the third?
The rivalry between Sinner and Alcaraz is destined to dominate the world scene for the next decade, following in the footsteps of what was done by the Big 3 in the previous era. Fans and insiders are wondering if another player will be able to raise his level to compete against Italian and Spanish.
Many believed that the third name could be Holger Rune, but the young Dane has had so many problems in the last year and a half and his progress has stopped. Another player who could do great things in the next few years is Ben Shelton, who is very young and has the right weapons to do good things in modern tennis.
Shelton© Shelton Facebook/Fair Use
Certainly, it will not be easy for anyone – not even for Alcaraz – to maintain the consistency that the Italian ace has shown in 2024. Sinner continues to win and convince and these days he won his seventh title in 2024, beating Djokovic in the final in Shanghai. This season, Jannik has literally dominated and the almost 5000 points in the ranking show that he is ahead of his current main rival, Carlos Alcaraz.
An incredible number and very few defeats, Sinner is this and nothing seems to stop him. Neither does the case Clostebol that seems – despite waiting for the judgment of TAS – forgotten and Jannik thinks only to play and win and the Italian fans are pampering him. Blue is popular in Italy and all over the world, and there are fewer people who do not like it.
An imperious rise
About Jannik and the growth of blue tennis also spoke Diego Nargiso, the former tennis player intervened at the microphones of Radio Crc and stressed this regarding the phenomenon of Sesto Pusteria: “He is a mix between Novak Djokovic and Bjorn Borg. He is more serene but also ruthless as them, has a unique philosophy of work. He is also from South Tyrol, it’s a philosophy of life and resilience is a characteristic of his people”.
Jannik Sinner, Shanghai Masters 2024© Stream screenshot
Sinner and Alcaraz have shared the 4 Grand Slam titles this season and it seems to be just the beginning of a great rivalry. Alcaraz won Beijing, Sinner Shanghai and every week their credibility grows. On the dualism between the two Nargiso emphasizes: “Sinner-Alcaraz as Borg-McEnroe? We can’t predict the future but it’s a fair parallelism and these two champions seem to have a great advantage and talent over all other rivals. We will see how he continues in the future”. There was a joke about Novak Djokovic that despite the age he advances continues to be competitive and in this regard Nargiso points out: “In important races he raises the level again, against Sinner he lost the match in the first set tiebreak”.
Meanwhile, FITP president Angelo Binaghi has returned to talk about the Clostebol case that involved Jannik in recent months in an interview with ‘Politics in the ball’ on Radio Rai Gr Parlamento, reported by Eurosport. “We have great confidence in TAS. Even the WADA thinks that it should requalify what happened, his appeal is on the correct application of the rules currently in place on this accidental accident. It was a challenge for Jannik to keep everything hidden and then manage the media avalanche, now in my opinion the most acute phases of the storm have passed. When will the judgment come? Probably will be decisive the first months of 2025” are the statements made by the president of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation.