Rafael Nadal has heaped praise on Jannik Sinner for being able to stay focused during his \u201cvery tough process the last year\u201d, while he also offered his views on fellow youngsters Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek.<\/p>\n
Sinner<\/a> currently sits at No 1 in the ATP Rankings on the back of his stunning form the past 18 months that saw him win three Grand Slam titles and the ATP Finals while four-time major champion Alcaraz is at No 3 and five-time Slam winner Swiatek is at No 2 in the women\u2019s rankings.<\/p>\n The trio are expected to dominate tennis in the next few years \u2013 taking over from legends Nadal<\/a>, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Serena Williams \u2013 and 22-time major winner Nadal was asked about the rising stars of the game during an extensive interview on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cCarlos is a great kid. Great guy with a very good family behind him, with positive values. Humble. They\u2019re good people. That\u2019s true,\u201d the former world No 1 stated.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why I think Carlos is how he is. Because in the end, the values you receive at home, the way you\u2019re educated is the way that you show up. I see the same with Iga.\u201d<\/p>\n There is no doubt that Sinner is currently the best men\u2019s player, but he has had some problems away from the court.<\/p>\n The Italian failed two drug tests in March 2024 and, although he was initially cleared of any wrongdoing after he tested positive for the banned substance clostebol with the International Tennis Integrity Agency stating he bore \u201cno fault or negligence\u201d, the World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA] appealed against the decision to clear the 23-year-old.<\/p>\n After initially stating they would ask for a ban between 12 months and 24 months, WADA later reached an agreement with Sinner\u2019s legal representatives that resulted in him accepting a three-month ban, which runs from 9 February until 4 May.<\/p>\n The ruling has caused a lot of controversy as some believe he should have been banned for longer while others feel he has done nothing wrong.<\/p>\n Rafael Nadal reveals when Roger Federer was at his very best in surprise revelation<\/a><\/p>\n Rafael Nadal hails Novak Djokovic as \u2018the best I ever played and ever saw\u2019 in one key area<\/a><\/p>\n Despite the doping cloud hanging over his head, Sinner won the US Open and ATP Finals last year and also successfully defended his Australian Open trophy at the start of 2025.<\/p>\n Nadal added: \u201cJannik is another good guy. Not much of a show off. He\u2019s focused on what he\u2019s doing. Of course, he went through a very tough process the last year. It\u2019s amazing the way he was able to keep being focused on what he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a new generation of great tennis players. I think they\u2019re going to keep helping this beautiful sport to grow and to engage fans.\u201d<\/p>\n The post What Rafael Nadal had to say about Carlos Alcaraz, Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rafael Nadal has heaped praise on Jannik Sinner for being able to stay focused during his \u201cvery tough process the last year\u201d, while he also offered his views on fellow youngsters Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek. Sinner currently sits at No 1 in the ATP Rankings on the back of his stunning form the past […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Rafael Nadal\u2019s Big Interview<\/h3>\n