Dominic Thiem has argued Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are as difficult to beat as Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were in the Big Three era.<\/p>\n
Sinner<\/a> and Alcaraz, who currently sit first and third respectively in the ATP Rankings, have won the last five Grand Slam titles between them.<\/p>\n Alcaraz, 21, did the French Open-Wimbledon double in 2024, having also won Wimbledon in 2023 and the US Open in 2022.<\/p>\n Sinner, 23, secured his maiden major crown at the 2024 Australian Open and added his second at last year\u2019s US Open. The Italian made it three consecutive hard-court Grand Slam triumphs by defending his Australian Open title in January.<\/p>\n The duo are the only players from their generation to win majors, with 29-year-old Daniil Medvedev the next-youngest men\u2019s Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n The Big Three, meanwhile, won an astonishing 66 majors between them. Djokovic<\/a> has secured a record 24, while Nadal and Federer retired on 22 on 20 respectively.<\/p>\n In an interview with Tennis Magazin<\/a>, Thiem spoke about the difficulty of winning a Grand Slam title in the current era when asked about Alexander Zverev\u2019s prospects.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope Sascha wins a Grand Slam. I think his career is far too good without one,\u201d the 2020 US Open champion and former world No 3 said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut even if he doesn\u2019t make it, it\u2019s still absolutely sensational. If he wins a Grand Slam, he\u2019ll pretty much automatically become number one because he\u2019s playing so consistently and so well.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone said that when the Big Three or the Big Four are gone, it will be easier because no one will come up. Now we have Sinner and Alcaraz. If they\u2019re not injured or out for some other reason, you usually have to beat one or even both of them, and that\u2019s really hard.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Sinner and Alcaraz are probably just as hard to beat today as Federer or Djokovic were back then.<\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz opens up on his tennis philosophy and reveals one thing that is \u2018not good\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Exclusive: Novak Djokovic\u2019s former rival reveals \u2018logical way\u2019 tennis legend has evolved his game<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAnd there are some other really good players like Taylor Fritz when he\u2019s playing at a really high level, like at the US Open. Winning a Grand Slam isn\u2019t any easier than it was five or ten years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Thiem, who called time on his illustrious career in October last year, also revealed he remains happy with his decision to retire at the age of 31.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, definitely. On paper it says I had a career from 2011 to 2024, but that\u2019s not true,\u201d the Austrian explained.<\/p>\n \u201cYour career starts when you\u2019re eleven or twelve. Then you start to base your whole life around the sport. Before you even start playing professionally, eight or nine years have already passed, and they\u2019re very exhausting.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to put all your energy into it every day, train for hours. For me, that\u2019s just as much a part of a career as the years when you\u2019re famous and playing on the real tour.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why, at 31, I\u2019ve probably had 20 years and achieved more than I ever expected. So, for me, it\u2019s a very complete story.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT:\u00a0<\/strong>Boris Becker identifies worrying Alexander Zverev trend amid rumoured coach-player partnership<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The post \u2018Winning a Grand Slam isn\u2019t any easier now than it was in Djokovic, Nadal, Federer era\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dominic Thiem has argued Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are as difficult to beat as Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were in the Big Three era. Sinner and Alcaraz, who currently sit first and third respectively in the ATP Rankings, have won the last five Grand Slam titles between them. Alcaraz, 21, did […]<\/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-261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261","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=261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}ATP Tour News<\/h2>\n