Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are being allowed to boss their rivals into submission too easily, according to former British No 1 Greg Rusedski.
The top two players in men’s tennis have dominated the Grand Slam events in recent years, with Alcaraz winning five of the last nine major tournaments and Sinner claiming the other four.
Their aura has grown in that period and left many of their rivals fearing the worst before the step on court, but Rusedski believes the lack of variety coming at them is helping their cause.
Too many players are losing against Alcaraz and Sinner without coming up with a Plan B and Rusedski suggests the approach taken by Grigor Dimitrov at Wimbledon last July was evidence of what can be done.
The experienced Dimitrov was two sets ahead and bossing his match against Sinner until he was struck down by injury, with Rusedski arguing that match should have alerted the rest of the tour to what is possible.
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“I think Grigor Dimitrov played the perfect match [against Sinner] at Wimbledon,” said Rusedski on the latest edition of Off Court with Greg, released on Monday.
“He was up two sets to love and Roger Federer himself said, I know how to play Sinner now after watching that Wimbledon match.
“Sinner wouldn’t have won Wimbledon without that injury and I think he would probably be talking about Alcaraz winning another Wimbledon title.
“You have to have that slice, keep the ball low, quick into the forehand coming forward. And I’d like to see somebody like Ben Shelton, who’s improving, get that backhand better, take the ball earlier.
“I was a little disappointed in Australia because he tried a tactic that didn’t work because he [Shelton] didn’t come out guns blazing and he let Sinner settle.
“And once they’re settled and feel comfortable, those top two guys, they get the job done. We saw that in the final with Djokovic and Alcaraz.
“Djokovic got off to a flyer, but Alcaraz didn’t panic because the fact that he knew Djokovic was a little bit tired.
“We saw Novak going for the forehand more, going for the serve, willing to come forward and people will start to see that and they’ll start to change because they have to if they want to beat the top two players on the planet.
“The other players have to look at how Djokovic played in that first set against Alcaraz and they have to change their approach if they want to beat the top two players on the planet.
“Once those two players are comfortable, you’re almost 99 per-cent of the time coming out second best.”
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Djokovic’s tactic of hitting the ball down the middle of the court and limiting the angles Sinner had to work with in his magnificent semi-final win against the world No 2 was evidence that a change of approach can work.
He successfully executed a similar plan as he beat Alcaraz at last year’s Australian Open, with the rest of the men’s tour needing to come up with similar solutions to try and end the stranglehold Alcaraz and Sinner have on the men’s game.
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