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Carlos Alcaraz has made no secret of his desire to try and catch the ‘Big 3’ in the chase to win Grand Slam titles and now his ambitious target has been given an endorsement by Toni Nadal.

Alcaraz won his fifth Grand Slam title at the tender age of 22 after a sensational win against Jannik Sinner in the French Open final.

The recent Netflix documentary on Alcaraz’s story so far revealed the drive from both him and the people around him to reach for the stars and try to match the remarkable records of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

The iconic trio are the only players to win 20 or more Grand Slam titles and while that target seems impossible to image for most, Alcaraz has made it clear that he has those numbers in his sights.

“Obviously, I keep thinking about Nole’s 24 Grand Slams, that’s clear,” said Alcaraz.

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“I’m a very ambitious guy and I always want to think big, and I dream big — obviously Djokovic’s 24 is a goal at the end of my career.

“It is something that is inevitable to think about. I am very competitive and that is also what drives me to the highest level to try to be at the same level as the Big Three. The truth is that I dream big.”

The notion that the records set by the ‘Big 3’ may be matched or bettered any time soon is hard to imagine, but Alcaraz’s ambitions have been given support by Rafael Nadal’s uncle Toni.

Nadal’s record-breaking career was shaped by his uncle Toni, who was his long-time coach and mentor, and he has given his verdict on whether Alcaraz could match or even better the achievements of his nephew Rafael. Sinner will be a massive obstacle for Alcaraz to get through on Grand Slam stages for the next decade, but the rest of the leading players in the men’s game appear to be lagging behind the new ‘Big 2’.

“He is the tennis player with the best conditions in the world,” said Toni, as quoted by Marca.

“He is fast, he hits very hard with his forehand and backhand and then he has the advantage of not having coincided with the best Federer, the best Djokovic. He has a great rival who is Sinner, but the rest are very affordable.”

“Equal Rafa? Or maybe he will surpass him. I’m not a fortune teller. But he has the conditions.”

Alcaraz will get a chance to win a sixth Grand Slam title when he defends his Wimbledon title in a tournament that gets underway on June 30.

READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic sends Carlos Alcaraz warning as he addresses prospect of Spaniard breaking his records

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World No 1 Jannik Sinner has been handed a pretty straightforward path for his title defence at the Halle Open with several players struggling for form in his bracket.

The ATP 500 event will be Sinner’s first tournament since his devastating French Open final defeat to Carlos Alcaraz and he will start his campaign in Germany against a yet-to-be-decided qualifier.

He will then face either Alexandre Muller or Alexander Bublik – the man he demolished 6-1, 7-5, 6-0 in the Roland Garros quarter-final – in the second round before a potential meeting with seventh seed Tomas Machac or Hubert Hurkacz.

Machac exited the French Open in the first round after retiring with a back injury while he also retired from his opener at the Geneva Open before the clay-court Grand Slam.

Hurkacz lost in the first round in Paris and then won his opener at the Libema Open this week, but then also pulled out ahead of his second-round clash due to injury.

Sinner is projected to meet fourth seed Andrey Rublev in the semi-final and the Russian is another who lost in straight sets against the Italian in Paris.

Three-time Grand Slam winner Sinner won the title last year when he beat Hurkacz in straight sets.

Rublev also starts against a qualifier, but he will likely have to get past Tomas Etcheverry in the second round and possibly sixth seed Karen Khachanov in the last eight.

World No 3 Alexander Zverev is seeded second and leads the bottom half of the draw with his first match against American Marcos Giron before a possible clash against Jan-Lennard Struff or Lorenzo Sonego.

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The German is projected to meet sixth seed Ugo Humbert in the quarter-final, but the Frenchman faces Denis Shapovalov in the first round and one of Joao Fonseca and Flavio Cobolli in the second round.

Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas are also in the bottom half and the pair have struggled for form this year as the latter has slipped to No 11 in the ATP Rankings while Tsitispas is outside of the top 20.

Third seed Medvedev starts against Daniel Altmaier while Tsitsipas faces Luciano Darderi before a possible encounter against Francisco Cerundolo.

Projected Quarter-Finals

Sinner v Machac
Rublev v Khachanov
Cerundolo v Medvedev
Humbert v Zverev

The Halle Open is the final warm-up event for most top players before Wimbledon and Sinner has already assured of not only being the top seed at the grass-court Grand Slam, but he will remain at No 1 in the ATP Rankings after the tournament while Zverev will be seeded third.

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Aryna Sabalenka will face a qualifier in her opening match at the Berlin Tennis Open, but her path will get a lot more difficult after that while Elena Rybakina and Madison Keys have been handed a difficult first-round match.

World No 1 Sabalenka headlines the top half of the draw and she has a bye into the second round along with Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Jasmine Paolini while she will start her campaign against a qualifier.

Rybakina and Zheng, who competed at the Queen’s Club Championship this week, will square off in the first round and the winner is projected to face Sabalenka in the quarter-final.

World No 4 Paolini and Grand Slam winners Keys and Marketa Vondrousova are also in the top half, but they are in the bottom bracket and the latter two will meet first up and the winner will take on either Diana Schnaider or Donna Vekic in the second round.

Fourth seed Paolini has a bye followed by a second-round clash against a qualifier before she meets the winner of the Keys/Vondrousova/Schnaider/Vekic encounter.

Zheng and Keys, though, are still alive at the Queen’s Club Championship as they will feature in the semi-finals on Saturday so don’t be too surprised if either or both withdraw from the Berlin event.

Zheng defeated Emma Raducanu in the quarter-final in London and the latter was also due to play in Berlin next week after receiving a wildcard, but withdrew as her back injury flared up again.

Former world No 4 Belinda Bencic was also due to feature at the WTA 500 tournament as she used her protected ranking to enter, but she was also a last-minute withdrawal.

Newly-crowned French Open champion Coco Gauff leads the bottom half and she faces either world No 16 Daria Kataskina or a qualifier in the round of 32 while eighth seed Paola Badosa is her projected quarter-final opponent.

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Badosa, though, has to get past highly-rated German wildcard Eva Lys in the first round and either Emma Navarro or Marta Kostyuk in the second round.

Third seed Pegula and sixth seed Mirra Andreeva are big names in the top half of the bottom bracket and the former will start her campaign against either Naomi Osaka or Liudmila Samsonova.

Teenager Andreeva starts against Magdalena Frech before meeting either Amanda Anisimova or Bianca Andreesca.

Of course, with Sabalenka in the top half and Gauff in the bottom half, there can only be a rematch of the recent French Open final between the pair in the final in Berlin.

Projected Quarter-Finals Based On Seeds:

Sabalenka v Zheng
Paolini v Keys
Andreeva v Pegula
Badosa v Gauff

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Carlos Alcaraz will look to make a swift transition to grass courts after his heroics at the French Open and he will face a familiar face when he arrives at the Queen’s Club in London.

Alcaraz’s remarkable five-set win against Jannik Sinner at Roland Garros has been hailed as one of the greatest tennis matches ever played.

The Spaniard’s fifth Grand Slam title was an emotionally and physically draining experience, so the 22-year-old decided to take some time away from the game before he turns his attention to the defence of his Wimbledon title.

So he will be short of grass court practice heading into the ATP 500 event at the Queen’s Club, where he won the title in 2023.

That could give his first couple of opponents a chance to cause an upset to match Jack Draper’s win against Alcaraz in this tournament last year.

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The draw has been made for the 2025 HSBC Championships at the Queen’s Club and No 1 seed Alcaraz will play Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in his opening match on Tuesday.

He will fancy his chances of getting through against an opponent who is better suited to clay courts, but the challenge is likely to be stepped up after that.

Big-serving Ben Shelton has a game that should be perfect for grass and he could be firing balls in Alcaraz’s direction in the second round at Queen’s Club.

The world No 2 also has the dangerous Holger Rune in his section of the draw, as well as former Queen’s Club champion Grigor Dimitrov.

Alcaraz was criticised by his own coach and manager in the recent Netflix documentary focused on his story so far after he opted to go on a break to Ibiza after he won the 2024 French Open.

He silenced those doubts by winning Wimbledon last summer, so coach Juan Carlos Ferrero appears to be more relaxed about his decision to go back to Ibiza in recent days.

“He’s switching off. Yesterday I told him to have a good time, that he deserved it, but to remember that he’s a tennis player at all times,” said Ferrero.

“We already know what he’s like. He’s doing well and when he comes back, he comes back in a good place, refreshed.

“It’s not the word party anymore, it’s the disconnection from being with his friends, from not thinking about tennis and from being a normal 22-year-old.

“He does go on vacation, but only occasionally. He’s not there every day, as people think.”

Draper is the No 2 seed at Queen’s and will take on American Jenson Brooksby in his opening match, with Frances Tiafoe in the same section of the draw as the Brit.

Taylor Fritz is also lurking in Draper’s section, with the Brit set to come under the spotlight in his homeland like never before this summer.

Draper’s impressive rise up the ATP Rankings will hype up the speculation around Draper and he will be the focus of huge media attention.

READ NEXT: Location of Carlos Alcaraz’s French Open party is revealed as coach gives his reaction

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Novak Djokovic has opened up about never being “as loved as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal” as he was seen as “the third guy” who broke the pair’s dominance in men’s tennis.

Federer and Nadal initially formed the Big Two as they swept all before them and when Djokovic emerged as a challenger, Fedal fans did not take too kindly to him.

But even the Serbian’s harshest critics were forced to accept that the Big Two have turned into the Big Three as the trio ruled the ATP Tour for more than two decades.

Djokovic, though, has won the race to be the greatest tennis player of all time as he holds most of the major records in tennis, including most Grand Slams won by a man (24), most ATP 1000 titles won (40) and and most weeks spent at No 1 in the ATP Rankings (428).

Despite his fierce battles with Federer and Nadal – who have retired – there has always been a mutual respect as he told former Croatian footballer and coach Slaven Bilic on Failure of Champions: “Just because someone is my biggest rival doesn’t mean I wish them harm, hate them, or want to do anything else on the court to defeat them. We fought for the win, and the better player won.”

He added: “I’ve never said a single bad word about them and never will. I looked up to them and still do, but I’ve always gotten along better with Nadal.”

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But the “hurt” of not being accepted early on in his career is something that he didn’t shake off easily, as he revealed that “people didn’t like” the way he acted and the fact that he ended the Federer and Nadal era.

“I acted and still felt like an unwanted child,” the former world No 1 said. “I asked myself why that was. It hurt me. Then I thought the fans would accept me if I acted differently, but that wasn’t the case either.

“I was never as loved as Federer and Nadal because I wasn’t supposed to be there. I was the little guy, the third guy who came along and said: ‘I’m going to be No 1’. Many people didn’t like that.”

But staying true to his values paid off in the end as he added: “I am a man with many flaws, of course. Nevertheless, I have always tried to live with heart and good intentions and, ultimately, to be myself.”

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The Queen’s Club ATP 500 tournament has suffered a triple blow as three big-name players have withdrawn, but their absence is good news for Novak Djokovic and Jack Draper in their bid to be seeded fourth at Wimbledon.

2024 finalists Tommy Paul and Lorenzo Musetti will not return to the grass-court tournament this with two-time former champion Matteo Berrettini also withdrawing.

American Paul won the biggest title of his career last year when he defeated Musetti in straight sets in the final while Berrettini lifted back-to-back trophies in 2021 and 2022.

But the trio will be absent when the main draw is made on Saturday with defending champion Paul confirming he is struggling with an injury.

“I’m crushed I will not play Queen’s next week. I sadly am still recovering from my abdominal strain and need some more time to get fully fit. I look forward to getting back on the grass,” he wrote on Instagram.

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Musetti was one of the form players during the grass-court season as he finished runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz at the Monte Carlo Masters and also made the semi-finals at the Madrid Open, Italian Open and Roland Garros.

But his French Open last-four match against Alcaraz was cut short by a thigh injury and now that same problem has forced him out of the Queen’s Club tournament.

Berrettini, meanwhile, missed Roland Garros due to a right oblique injury.

ATP Rankings implications

Musetti’s inability to play will have an impact on the ATP Rankings positions and Wimbledon seedings.

The Italian is currently ranked seventh in the Live Rankings with Paul sitting one place below them, but Musetti was in with a chance of being seeded fourth at Wimbledon.

Djokovic has moved up to fourth place in the live standings as he doesn’t have any points to defend ahead of the grass Grand Slam as he sits on 4,630 points with Draper on 4,550, Taylor Fritz on 4,535, Musetti on 4,470 and Paul a distant eighth with 3,470.

Musetti won’t play the week after Queen’s Club so he is out of the running to be seeded fourth while Draper has 100 points to defend from 2024 before he can add to his current rankings tally.

Fritz now appears to be the man to beat as he is currently in action at the Stuttgart Open while he will also play in London next week where he will only drop 100 points.

The top-three seeds for Wimbledon have already been confirmed Jannik Sinner the No 1 seed for the second consecutive year and he will be followed by defending champion Carlos Alcaraz will Alexander Zverev third.

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The 2025 grass-court swing is in full flow and all the top players will be heading to Germany for week two as they have signed up for the Berlin Tennis Open.

The tournament in the German capital is a WTA 500 event so there will be plenty of points up for grabs during the main draw with organisers also confirming a total financial commitment of €949,000 (just over $1m).

And the best in women’s tennis will compete in Berlin as nine of the top 10 in WTA Rankings have signed up while a total of seven Grand Slam winners will feature.

World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka leads the list of seeds while world No 3 Jessica Pegula will be back to defend her title.

Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini, Zheng Qinwen, Mirra Andreeva, Madison Keys and Paula Badosa are the top eight seeds.

The only top-10 player missing from the field is five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek.

Besides reigning major winners Sabalenka, Gauff and Keys, former Slam champions Elena Rybakina, Marketa Vondrousva, Emma Raducanu and Naomi Osaka will also play in Berlin.

The Berlin event is the only Wimbledon warm-up tournament for the likes of Sabalenka and Gauff while Pegula, Keys, Zheng, Rybakina and Raducanu have signed up for other events ahead of the grass-court Grand Slam.

Points on offer 2025 Berlin Ladies Open

It is a WTA 500 event so a handy haul of points are on offer for those who make it past the first round.

First round: 1 point
Second round: 60 points
Quarter-finals: 108 points
Semi-finals: 195 points
Finalist: 325 points
Champion: 500 points

Of course, the WTA Rankings uses a rolling 52-week, cumulative system so players will drop/defend points they earned during the corresponding period in 2024.

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Pegula stands to lose a lot as she is the defending champion so will defend 500 points while Gauff lost in the semi-final so will drop 195 points. Sabalenka and Rybakina retired in the quarter-final so will drop 108 points.

2025 Prize money on offer…

Gauff earned €2,550,000 (about $2,9m) after winning the French Open last week while Sabalenka went home with a cheque of €1,275,000 ($1,4m) after finishing runner-up at Roland Garros.

The prize money is a lot lower at WTA 500 events, but there is a nice increase from 2024 as Pegula won €123,480 for her title while the runner-up received €76,225.

This year it is up by 15% as the champion will boost her bank account by €142,610.

First round: €9,829
Second round: €13,651
Quarter-finals: €24,950
Semi-finals: €51,305
Finalist: €87,825
Champion: €142,610

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The British No 1 ranking will change hands when the WTA Rankings is updated next week as Emma Raducanu will replace Katie Boulter at the top.

But despite the fight, the competition between Britain’s top two women’s players remains healthy and they have vowed to continue to support each other, although Boulter has told Raducanu “it’s kind of my turn” to turn up the heat.

Boulter had been Great Britain’s top-ranked woman in the rankings since June 2023 when she took over from Raducanu following the 2021 US Open winner’s two-year spell as No 1.

But Boulter’s early loss at the Queen’s Club event, coupled with Raducanu’s run to the quarter-final will result in them swapping places.

Raducanu, who is projected to rise to No 36 after the tournament, stated: “I wouldn’t say it’s the most important thing for me. I think having Katie in front, it was nice for me to have something to chase.

“Now I’m sure she’s going to enjoy that with me. The grass season is still young, and so is the rest of the season.

“But regardless, we have a healthy competition between us two. I want to see her do well; she wants to see me do well.”

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Boulter, meanwhile, will is expected to slip five spots to No 39 as she was also defending 250 points from her title run at the Nottingham Open a year ago.

“Tennis is a funny one,” the three-time WTA Tour singles title winner said. “Some people lose 250 points one week, some people lose zero, some people lose 100. It’s something that happens every single week.

“I’m very well aware that I lost 250 this week, because Nottingham is next week and the scheduling’s been different. Of course I personally want to be getting my ranking moving in the right direction.

“I’m very happy for her to be British No 1. But at the same time, it’s going to be fun for me to chase her now, and I think she’s been doing that for a while. Now it’s kind of my turn.”

Raducanu, of course, will move even further ahead of Boulter in the rankings if she reaches the semi-final at Queen’s Club.

But it won’t be easy as she will face top seed Zheng Qinwen in the quarter-final.

The world No 5 overcame a second-set slump to beat American Mccartney Kessler in the second round.

“Qinwen’s obviously top 10 in the world, had an amazing year, great last couple of tournaments last few months on the tour, and I think she’s very dangerous, top seed, definitely the favourite,” Raducanu said.

“But I think I have had two good matches here, and looking forward … I’m just trying to stay as focused as I possibly can.”

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Rafael Nadal has claimed that Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are “far above the rest” of the ATP field after being asked about Sunday’s thrilling French Open final.

In a contest that lasted five hours and 29 minutes, Alcaraz rallied from two sets down to stun world No 1 Sinner 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(2), saving three championship points in an extraordinary battle.

It was Alcaraz’s fifth Grand Slam title from as many finals and a second straight French Open title, having previously beaten Alexander Zverev in the 2024 final.

He and Sinner have now combined to win the past six Grand Slam titles, with Novak Djokovic at the 2023 US Open the last player outside of those two to win a major.

Alcaraz has won back-to-back Roland Garros titles and the 2024 Wimbledon title, while Sinner has taken home consecutive Australian Opens and the 2024 US Open title.

With Nadal and Roger Federer now both retired, and Djokovic aged 38, many had wondered about whether new stars would emerge in the post-‘Big Three’ era.

But Sinner and Alcaraz have both proven to be incredibly comfortable towards the top of the men’s game, with no obvious challenger to their dominance outside of Djokovic.

And, speaking at a charity golf tournament on Thursday, 22-time Grand Slam winner Nadal hailed the “new stars” who were taking charge of the men’s game.

“Tennis is more important than any player,” said Nadal.

“There will always be Grand Slam champions and each will make their way, new stars emerge and here they are.

“There are two players far above the rest, they are showing that they are great champions, and let them make their way. This is the reality, tennis is in good hands.”

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This year’s French Open started with an emotional tribute to Nadal, the man who came to define the event throughout his career.

The 39-year-old amassed a staggering 112-4 win-loss record at the tournament and won 14 men’s singles titles, eight more than Bjorn Borg’s previous record of six.

Alcaraz is the first person since Nadal to successfully defend the title at Roland Garros and looks set to be the successor to his compatriot’s clay-court dominance.

The world No 2 lifted the Monte Carlo and Rome titles this spring before winning his second French Open, and has now triumphed at all four of the biggest events on clay.

He had previously lifted the Madrid Open title in 2022 and 2023, withdrawing from this year’s event due to injury.

Alcaraz is the first man since Nadal at the 2022 Australian Open to come from two sets down in a Grand Slam final, and revealed after the final he had taken inspiration from his idol’s fighting spirit.

Asked about Alcaraz’s comments, Nadal admitted that he was pleased to hear that his compatriot had taken such inspiration.

He added: “If he [Alcaraz] already has the capacity to think of me at that moment, then he’s already amazing. Very happy for him.”

Alcaraz is set to return to action at the Queen’s Club next week, where he has played for the past two years.

That will build into his Wimbledon campaign, where he will look to win a third straight title.

Read Next: The 10 greatest Grand Slam men’s singles finals of the Open Era – ranked!

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Emma Raducanu stormed into the quarter-finals of the WTA 500 tournament at the Queen’s Club with a thrilling win against Rebecca Sramkova in front of a big London crowd.

The 2021 US Open champion produced a classy display to see off a rival who was hitting the ball with more venom for much of the match, yet Raducanu found a way to repel the firepower coming at her and get over the line.

“I am really pleased to get through that,” said Raducanu.

“I don’t think it was my cleanest performance but I am really pleased to push through in the tight moments. I really appreciate the support in that spell when she was coming back.

“I came out ready, expecting everything I am just happy I was able to get off to a good start and build a lead.”

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This was a strange match that saw Raducanu storm into a 5-0 lead in the first set before being pegged back in what turned out to be a nervous conclusion that saw her take the set 6-4.

She then wrapped up the second set 6-1 to seal a big haul of ranking points as she made another quarter-final at WTA 500 level and cemented her status as British No 1 once again.

Yet from Tennis365’s perch high in the stands at the Queen’s Club, a clear issue was evident to witness that will continue to undermine Raducanu.

While she has made notable improvements on her serve in the last few months under the watch of coach Mark Petchey, the power in her ground shots does not appear to have enough potency to challenge the best players in women’s tennis.

When Raducanu won the US Open almost four years ago, she appeared to be capable of striking her opponents off the court, but that pace and venom in her shots is lacking right now.

She can generate good pace as she constantly attacks the second serve of her opponents, but Sramkova had more firepower throughout this match and the primary reason why Raducanu sealed what appeared to be a comfortable win was the waywardness of her opponent from the back of the court.

Sramkova’s frustrations were evident as she constantly overhit her shots from the back of the court, with the played ranked just below Raducanu in the live WTA Rankings prior to this match beating herself as she handed Raducanu too many free points.

Raducanu’s coach Mark Petchey highlighted this issue after Raducanu was blown away by Iga Swiatek in the second round of the French Open, as he suggested the balls are impacting her striking power.

“From my point of view, it’s tough on Emma as I still feel everyone is living in 2021,” said Petchey, who has been coaching Raducanu in an “informal” arrangement since March.

“The games have changed massively. The balls are four times heavier than back in 2021 and Emma isn’t the biggest hitter out there.

“If you can’t put the ball through the court on a windy, heavy clay court day against someone like Iga, you’re going to get into all sorts of trouble.”

The game’s biggest hitters are not playing at the Queen’s Club this week and that is giving Raducanu a real chance to push to be part of the action over the weekend.

She is also closing in on a position in the top 32 of the WTA Rankings, which would be enough to secure her a seeding for Wimbledon later this month.

READ NEXT: Why Katie Boulter’s Queen’s loss spells good news for Emma Raducanu

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