Rafael Nadal has claimed that Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are \u201cfar above the rest\u201d of the ATP field after being asked about Sunday\u2019s thrilling French Open final.<\/p>\n
In a contest that lasted five hours and 29 minutes, Alcaraz<\/a> rallied from two sets down to stun world No 1 Sinner<\/a> 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(2), saving three championship points in an extraordinary battle.<\/p>\n It was Alcaraz\u2019s fifth Grand Slam title from as many finals and a second straight French Open title, having previously beaten Alexander Zverev in the 2024 final.<\/p>\n He and Sinner have now combined to win the past six Grand Slam titles, with Novak Djokovic at the 2023 US Open the last player outside of those two to win a major.<\/p>\n Alcaraz has won back-to-back Roland Garros titles and the 2024 Wimbledon title, while Sinner has taken home consecutive Australian Opens and the 2024 US Open title.<\/p>\n With Nadal and Roger Federer now both retired, and Djokovic aged 38, many had wondered about whether new stars would emerge in the post-\u2018Big Three\u2019 era.<\/p>\n But Sinner and Alcaraz have both proven to be incredibly comfortable towards the top of the men\u2019s game, with no obvious challenger to their dominance outside of Djokovic.<\/p>\n And, speaking at a charity golf tournament on Thursday, 22-time Grand Slam winner Nadal hailed the \u201cnew stars\u201d who were taking charge of the men\u2019s game.<\/p>\n \u201cTennis is more important than any player,\u201d said Nadal.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will always be Grand Slam champions and each will make their way, new stars emerge and here they are.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are two players far above the rest, they are showing that they are great champions, and let them make their way. This is the reality, tennis is in good hands.\u201d<\/p>\n John McEnroe calls Novak Djokovic \u2018Lebron of tennis\u2019 as he questions retirement call<\/a><\/p>\n Jannik Sinner must overcome his Carlos Alcaraz kryptonite if tennis\u2019 next great rivalry is to survive<\/a><\/p>\n This year\u2019s French Open started with an emotional tribute to Nadal, the man who came to define the event throughout his career.<\/p>\n The 39-year-old amassed a staggering 112-4 win-loss record at the tournament and won 14 men\u2019s singles titles, eight more than Bjorn Borg\u2019s previous record of six.<\/p>\n Alcaraz is the first person since Nadal to successfully defend the title at Roland Garros and looks set to be the successor to his compatriot\u2019s clay-court dominance.<\/p>\n The world No 2 lifted the Monte Carlo and Rome titles this spring before winning his second French Open, and has now triumphed at all four of the biggest events on clay.<\/p>\n He had previously lifted the Madrid Open title in 2022 and 2023, withdrawing from this year\u2019s event due to injury.<\/p>\n Alcaraz is the first man since Nadal at the 2022 Australian Open to come from two sets down in a Grand Slam final, and revealed after the final he had taken inspiration from his idol\u2019s fighting spirit.<\/p>\n Asked about Alcaraz\u2019s comments, Nadal admitted that he was pleased to hear that his compatriot had taken such inspiration.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cIf he [Alcaraz] already has the capacity to think of me at that moment, then he\u2019s already amazing. Very happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Alcaraz is set to return to action at the Queen\u2019s Club next week, where he has played for the past two years.<\/p>\n That will build into his Wimbledon campaign, where he will look to win a third straight title.<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>:\u00a0The 10 greatest Grand Slam men\u2019s singles finals of the Open Era \u2013 ranked!<\/a><\/p>\n The post Rafael Nadal delivers Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner verdict after epic French Open final<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rafael Nadal has claimed that Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are \u201cfar above the rest\u201d of the ATP field after being asked about Sunday\u2019s thrilling French Open final. In a contest that lasted five hours and 29 minutes, Alcaraz rallied from two sets down to stun world No 1 Sinner 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(2), […]<\/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-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","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=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}ATP Tour News<\/h2>\n