{"id":416985,"date":"2026-01-19T16:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T16:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/416985\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T16:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T16:45:12","slug":"how-tennis-stars-find-hope-in-the-hopelessness-of-chasing-carlos-alcaraz-and-jannik-sinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/416985\/","title":{"rendered":"How tennis stars find hope in the hopelessness of chasing Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the summer of 2024, Taylor Fritz<\/a> expressed a new hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in an era where if anyone has a good week, then it could happen,\u201d the U.S. tennis<\/a> star said during an interview at Queen\u2019s Club in London.<\/p>\n

Two months ago in Turin, Italy, Fritz was asked again whether men\u2019s tennis is more open than it was during the Big Three era of the late 2000s and the 2010s, when Roger Federer<\/a>, Rafael Nadal<\/a> and Novak Djokovic<\/a> ruled the sport.<\/p>\n

Fritz tilted his head to the side and smiled ruefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen did I say that? Three years, four years ago? Now we\u2019re just in the Big Two,\u201d Fritz said.<\/p>\n

The two are Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> and Jannik Sinner<\/a>, the world No. 1 and No. 2, who have split the past eight Grand Slams between them. They are the overwhelming favorites to contest the final of the Australian Open<\/a>, which began Sunday in Melbourne. Should they meet two weeks later, it will be the fourth straight major final between the same two men, equalling a men\u2019s record set by Nadal and Djokovic in 2011 and 2012.<\/p>\n

Fritz, who has come as close to winning a major in the past two years as anyone else in the chasing pack, gave that rueful smile at the ATP Tour Finals, the season-ending tournament for the best eight men\u2019s players in the world. At last year\u2019s edition, Alexander Zverev<\/a> (world No. 3), Alex de Minaur<\/a> (No. 6), F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime<\/a> (No. 7), Ben Shelton<\/a> (No. 8) and Fritz (No. 9) all put up decent showings against one of Sinner or Alcaraz. Neither of them won any of those matches, however. Fritz played one of the best of his career against Alcaraz<\/a> and only picked up a set.<\/p>\n

Still, realism is tinged with optimism. They know Sinner and Alcaraz are in a different league over an extended period, but in a one-off match, there is always a chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you play 10 matches, you\u2019re probably not going to get a lot of wins, but you can always beat them in one match,\u201d former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev<\/a>, who lost to either Sinner or Alcaraz in three of the four Grand Slams in 2024, said during a news conference earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Paul Annacone, who is part of Fritz\u2019s coaching team and who worked with Pete Sampras and Federer, agreed during a recent phone interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because those guys are better than everybody over 12 months, and I\u2019ve said this to Taylor, that doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t beat them at a tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean that in the Australian Open quarterfinals, Taylor can\u2019t play better and win. He has a relentless desire to see how good he can be. He\u2019s so earnest for how good those guys are, but also in his desire to figure out how to improve himself so that he can compete with them. He\u2019s very inspired by it, with the desire not to use it as a reason to be insecure or frustrated, but as an \u2018OK: What do I do now?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

\n Alex de Minaur is 0-13 against Jannik Sinner. (Marco Bertorello \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Fritz is managing ongoing knee issues, but believes he is a far better player than when he was up against the Big Three. De Minaur, whose loss against Sinner in Turin was his 13th out of 13 tries, insisted he was \u201con the right track,\u201d having said earlier in the tournament that he and his peers are \u201cgoing to be knocking on the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even Djokovic, the winner of 24 Grand Slam singles titles who turns 39 in May, was less positive than those two after he lost to Alcaraz in last year\u2019s U.S. Open semifinals. Djokovic, who lost to Sinner at the same stage of the French Open and Wimbledon, said that winning another major could be beyond him because of the difficulty of beating either Alcaraz or Sinner over five sets.<\/p>\n

Sports psychologist Marc Sagal, who has worked with tennis players, said that Fritz\u2019s approach to climbing the mountain is the right one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would be trying to encourage them to look at the challenge as an opportunity,\u201d Sagal said in a voice message.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these athletes are so competitive that in some ways they relish the opportunity to go for the jugular. If two players seem to be unbeatable, then the opportunity is: Can you rise to the occasion?\u201d<\/p>\n

Time can erode that mindset. Zverev, 28, has been living it for the better part of a decade. He has lost three Grand Slam finals, and after the most recent \u2014 at the Australian Open to Sinner 12 months ago \u2014 he struggled for motivation, eventually seeking professional psychological help. Zverev, who echoed Federer\u2019s debunked claim that tournament organizers are changing court conditions to suit Alcaraz and Sinner<\/a>, has at times felt worn down by the pursuit.<\/p>\n

Speaking after a 6-3, 7-6(3) defeat against Sinner in Turin, Shelton said in a news conference that it was important not to lose sight of his own strengths: \u201cI have a very specific style that I like playing. That helps me play my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Minaur, also in a news conference there, acknowledged the importance of not destroying himself in chasing the pack leaders: \u201cI\u2019ve also got to be careful with how much I push myself and how much pressure I put on myself because that\u2019s what gets me into dark places. I\u2019ve got to find a healthy balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are cautionary tales in this regard. During an interview in 2024, Dominic Thiem<\/a> said that trying to keep pace with the Big Three contributed to his injury-enforced early retirement. In a recent interview with The Tennis Podcast<\/a>, Andy Murray said that only in retirement did he take much pride in his career and stop comparing himself to that gilded trio.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important, Sagal said, to not define success just by results. For Fritz and his peers, there may be many more rueful smiles this season, but even in hopeless situations, the hope matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the summer of 2024, Taylor Fritz expressed a new hope. \u201cWe\u2019re in an era where if anyone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[6228,99,428],"class_list":["post-416985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-peak","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416985","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=416985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}