{"id":1843,"date":"2026-03-08T15:00:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T15:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=1843"},"modified":"2026-03-08T15:00:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T15:00:29","slug":"how-carlos-alcaraz-and-jannik-sinner-have-left-scar-tissue-on-their-biggest-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=1843","title":{"rendered":"How Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have left \u2018scar tissue\u2019 on their biggest rivals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> and Jannik Sinner<\/a> has not just dominated the men\u2019s game over the last couple of years, but they have also inflicted mental damage on their opponents that may not heal.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s 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\u2019s tennis when the pressure is applied.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s ranks.<\/p>\n

The likes of Joao Fonseca and Jakub Mensik have confirmed they can rise to the challenge against the \u2018Big 2\u2019 in the men\u2019s game, with Salmon convinced the big challengers will emerge.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/h2>\n

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner\u2019s predicted pathways to blockbuster Indian Wells clash<\/a><\/p>\n

Juan Carlos Ferrero calls for Carlos Alcaraz meeting after \u2018separating himself\u2019 from world No 1 <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThese two have set the bar so high and I\u2019m fascinated to see who can challenge them,\u201d Salmon told Tennis365.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is going to be Jakub Mensic, who is like Dolph Lundgren in the Rocky film. He\u2019s like he is just going to storm in and do this.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe 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\u2019t believe they can beat them anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo 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\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to see Alcaraz and Sinner play in all the big finals and anyone who says it\u2019s boring is wrong. They bring such amazing tennis on court when they play each other and I just want to see more of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz and Sinner could have their first meeting of 2026 at the Indian Wells Open<\/a>, with Salmon suggesting their eagerness to improve their game is an impressive part of their make-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I love about the two of them is whenever they have a defeat, they go away and work on coming back stronger,\u201d added Salmon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember Jannik said at the back end of last year, I want to add more variety and I don\u2019t want to be so predictable. He said he was prepared to take some losses to get there.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has lost a couple of matches this year and maybe we didn\u2019t expect him to lose, but I would never worry about him. I\u2019d expect him to come back stronger and that\u2019s what we will see from him at Indian Wells.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Carlos Alcaraz gets Jannik Sinner warning as Boris Becker answers \u2018unbeatable\u2019 question<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sky Sports is the year-round home of tennis. Watch the biggest stars on the ATP and WTA Tours at the Indian Wells Open and Miami Open live this March, exclusively on Sky Sports and NOW.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post How Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have left \u2018scar tissue\u2019 on their biggest rivals<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner has not just dominated the men\u2019s game over the last couple of years, but they have also inflicted mental damage on their opponents that may not heal. That\u2019s the verdict of Sky Sports lead presenter Gigi Salmon, who believes the likes of Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev no […]<\/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-1843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843","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=1843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}