Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner has not just dominated the men’s game over the last couple of years, but they have also inflicted mental damage on their opponents that may not heal.
That’s the verdict of Sky Sports lead presenter Gigi Salmon, who believes the likes of Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev no longer believe they can beat the two top ranked players in men’s tennis when the pressure is applied.
Alcaraz and Sinner have won all nine of the last Grand Slam tournaments, with the trail of destruction they have left among their rivals ensuring they have a psychological advantage over them when they take to the court.
That has inspired Salmon to suggest the players who may eventually challenge Alcaraz and Sinner may come from the next generation of stars emerging through the men’s ranks.
The likes of Joao Fonseca and Jakub Mensik have confirmed they can rise to the challenge against the ‘Big 2’ in the men’s game, with Salmon convinced the big challengers will emerge.
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“These two have set the bar so high and I’m fascinated to see who can challenge them,” Salmon told Tennis365.
“There is so much scar tissue for the players ranked three and below that I think it may be one of the next generation that coms through and challenges Alcaraz and Sinner.
“It is going to be Jakub Mensic, who is like Dolph Lundgren in the Rocky film. He’s like he is just going to storm in and do this.
“Then I look at Jack Draper and he seemed to be getting close to that level to challenge Alcaraz and Sinner until he got his injury problems.
“Maybe there will be more young players coming through because I just feel the Zverevs, the Medvedevs the Rublevs, they have been beaten so often by Alcaraz and Sinner that maybe they don’t believe they can beat them anymore.
“So I think it needs to be one of the young guys to come through and steamroller them and in a way, I hope that doesn’t happen.
“I’m happy to see Alcaraz and Sinner play in all the big finals and anyone who says it’s boring is wrong. They bring such amazing tennis on court when they play each other and I just want to see more of it.”
Alcaraz and Sinner could have their first meeting of 2026 at the Indian Wells Open, with Salmon suggesting their eagerness to improve their game is an impressive part of their make-up.
“What I love about the two of them is whenever they have a defeat, they go away and work on coming back stronger,” added Salmon.
“I remember Jannik said at the back end of last year, I want to add more variety and I don’t want to be so predictable. He said he was prepared to take some losses to get there.
“He has lost a couple of matches this year and maybe we didn’t expect him to lose, but I would never worry about him. I’d expect him to come back stronger and that’s what we will see from him at Indian Wells.”
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