{"id":143599,"date":"2025-09-09T08:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T08:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/143599\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T08:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T08:09:07","slug":"jimmy-connors-suggests-what-jannik-sinner-and-carlos-alcaraz-would-have-done-even-if-roger-federer-was-still-playing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/143599\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Connors suggests what Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz would have done even if Roger Federer was still playing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz continued their dominance of men\u2019s tennis by reaching the US Open final, which the latter won.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/carlos-alcaraz\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alcaraz<\/a> is number one in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/news\/how-the-new-atp-top-10-looks-after-the-us-open-final-with-new-spots-for-novak-djokovic-and-jack-draper\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ATP rankings<\/a> following his success in New York, returning to the summit immediately after his victory.<\/p>\n<p>He defeated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/jannik-sinner\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sinner<\/a> 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the top seed fell just short of defending his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/us-open\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">US Open<\/a> title.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian has now lost his 65-week reign as world number one, along with his 27-match winning streak at hard-court Grand Slams.<\/p>\n<p>Sinner did, however, manage to defend his Australian Open title earlier this season, while he also won the title at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"646\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2224906911-1024x646.jpg\" alt=\"Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner pose for a photo together before the 2025 Wimbledon final\" class=\"wp-image-123353\" \/>Photo by Julian Finney\/Getty ImagesWhat Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz may have done if Roger Federer was still playing<\/p>\n<p>He defeated two-time defending champion Alcaraz in London, although the Spaniard was successful in their French Open final this season.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ve now met in three successive Grand Slam finals, with their latest efforts leaving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/jimmy-connors\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jimmy Connors<\/a> really impressed.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/features\/how-much-prize-money-carlos-alcaraz-has-now-earned-in-his-career-compared-to-jannik-sinner-after-their-us-open-final\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">How much prize money Carlos Alcaraz has now earned in his career compared to Jannik Sinner after their US Open final<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He said on the Advantage Connors podcast: \u201cWhat I like about these two guys, Sinner and Alcaraz, is that they know it\u2019s their time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven if [Rafael] Nadal and [Roger] Federer were still around too, they would want to say move over boys. I like that. They have raised their game to that level. The other guys out there playing did not do that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were waiting around for them to retire or something to happen and say it\u2019s my turn now. Well, maybe it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2217076738-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Rafael Nadal with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic during his presentation ceremony paying tribute to his career.\" class=\"wp-image-102000\" \/>Photo by Tim Clayton via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut these two guys, they are head and shoulders now above everybody else and they play like it every time they go out there. That\u2019s not to say they will win every time they walk on the court, if they do that would be incredible!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut what I am saying is that when it comes down to the big matches and the big tournaments they are in different parts of the draw and this is what you are looking for, that final which is Sinner versus Alcaraz.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Where do Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz rank among greats for ATP titles?<\/p>\n<p>Tennis fans will unfortunately never know what would happen if the likes of Sinner and Alcaraz met the likes of Federer and Nadal in their prime.<\/p>\n<p>The latter duo, along with Novak Djokovic, dominated men\u2019s tennis for a lengthy period, with very few players able to knock them off their perch over the years.<\/p>\n<p>PlayerTitlesJimmy Connors 109\u00a0Roger Federer 103\u00a0Novak Djokovic 100\u00a0Ivan Lendl 94\u00a0Rafael Nadal 92Carlos Alcaraz23Jannik Sinner20ATP title leaders plus Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz<\/p>\n<p>It would, of course, also have been very interesting to see such players compete against American icon Connors.<\/p>\n<p>It is indeed Connors who tops the pile for the most-ever ATP titles, with Federer and Nadal joining him in the top five.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz continued their dominance of men\u2019s tennis by reaching the US Open final, which&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[430,2073,432,12685,4037,99,428,11883],"class_list":{"0":"post-143599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","10":"tag-jannik-sinner","11":"tag-jimmy-connors","12":"tag-roger-federer","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tennis","15":"tag-us-open"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}