Australian tennis great Pat Cash believes men’s tennis is at an awkward spot, thanks to the dominance of Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz.
The pair will enter this year’s Australian Open as the top two seeds, and have won the last eight grand slams between them.
Given their complete dominance, Cash worries about interest in the tournament, should one drop out early.
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This happened at last year’s Australian Open, with Novak Djokovic knocking out Alcaraz.
Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Getty
Sinner went on to take out the tournament in an anticlimactic win over Alexander Zverev.
“I don’t think anyone can match it with those two, Alcaraz and Sinner, let’s put them aside,” Cash told 3AW when asked if Aussie Alex de Minaur could beat them.
“They’ve almost perfected the baseline game. How to beat that? I don’t know.
“This is the problem with the men’s tour at the moment. It’s a little unhealthy to have a two-horse race. If the two horses aren’t in the final, is there going to be interest?
“We saw that last year with Sinner and Zverev in the final. It was a one-sided final and people went ‘ugh’.
“We want that French Open final. That five hour epic. We can’t expect that all the time.
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“So, if one of them has a bad day and goes out, will somebody else step up and really challenge the other one.
“I’d have to say probably not. That aside, there are a whole bunch of players who can start getting to a semi final and there’s a really good crop of young players coming.
“But they’re still maybe three years away. For the next three years, I think it is going to be predominantly those two guys.
“Jack Draper from the U.K, I thought he was the man, but he’s had more injuries. He’s got the power and the game.”
Cash reiterated his thought that de Minaur, who enters the tournament as the No.6 seed, simply can’t match the power of the top two.
Alex de Minaur of Australia. Getty
“You’re looking at who can bring excitement to the tour and Alex de Minaur is one of those guys. He’s just not the biggest, strongest guy and he’s going to struggle with some of those big hitters, but he’s right up there. It’s fantastic effort to be ranked sixth in the world,” he said.
“And there are some others. Djokovic will win some matches, Zverev, others. Alex is in that discussion. Will he get to one or two in the world, no, but he’s in that semi final discussion, definitely.”
The Australian Open main draw gets underway on Sunday in Melbourne.