Melbourne: Men’s tennis appears to be leaning on a pair of 38-year-old legs to preserve its competitive balance, hoping they can slow the Sincaraz era — Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz — before it runs away with the sport for a second straight season.Novak Djokovic, the 24-time major champion, is doing everything in his power to keep the race real. On a cold, windy day at the Australian Open, he ripped apart the challenge of Italian Francesco Maestrelli 6-3, 6-2, 6-2. The Serb, who still possesses a level of control and competitive clarity that separates him from almost everyone not named Sinner or Alcaraz, will play Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp in the third round.
As things stand, the 38-year-old may be the only player in the men’s draw who could stop a fourth successive Alcaraz–Sinner Grand Slam final from playing out.The world no. 4 lost twice to the 24-year-old Italian at Grand Slam level last season, in Paris and again at Wimbledon, and was beaten by the 22-year-old Alcaraz at the US Open. Yet Djokovic, drawn in the same half of the draw as the Spaniard at Melbourne Park, remains the most reliable presence among the chasing pack, the only player outside the Sinner–Alcaraz axis with the mentality to disrupt the duopoly.For the rest of the men’s top 10, the contrast is stark and best expressed in numbers. Alcaraz sits on 12,050 points at the top of the ATP Rankings, holding a 550-point advantage over No. 2 Jannik Sinner. From there, the gap yawns open. World no. 3 Alexander Zverev is a kingdom apart, trailing Alcaraz by almost 7,000 points.The picture on the WTA Tour is notably different. World no. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 2 Iga Świętek have effectively locked down the top position between them since April 2022. As things stand, the Pole is roughly a couple of thousand points clear of No. 3 Coco Gauff and No. 4 Amanda Anisimova, with Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina occupying fifth place.Gauff said, “I feel like we’re all very close (on the women’s side) and anybody can win on any given day. I have noticed among the men there seems to be Carlos and Jannik, who are doing really well. A couple of other guys have a really good chance of breaking that rhythm up, they just need to develop a little bit more.”Djokovic, the ten-time Australian Open champion looking for a historic 25th major title, put the challenge down to age.“I’m missing a little bit of juice in my legs to be able to compete with these guys at the later stages of a Grand Slam,” he said.Ben Shelton, the world no. 7, who is in the same half of the draw as Sinner and will face Valentin Vacherot in the third round, noted that moving from the quarter-finals to the semi-finals at a Grand Slam, from playing one top professional to facing Sinner or Alcaraz, is different.“It’s a little bit different feel when you are playing the two-time defending champ or No. 1 player in the world,” the American said.Daniil Medvedev, a former world No. 1 now ranked no. 12 and a three-time Australian Open finalist, acknowledged that the top two are operating on a different level.“I’m not shy to say that if we play like 20 matches against Carlos and Jannik, let’s say 10 matches against each of them, I’ll probably lose a lot of them, but I’m going to try my best in every one of them to win. And again, out of 10 matches, you can win some, I’m not going to say a number, but you can win,” said the 29-year-old, who went to school at the Physics and Mathematics Lyceum in Moscow. “They can have a bit of an off day. I did beat both of them in Grand Slams in different tournaments.“Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, added: “They are the best two players in the world. Probably no one right now to challenge them on a consistent basis, but one match, they can always lose.”For now, that is the fragile hope holding the men’s game together, that brilliance remains vulnerable, that even the sport’s new standard-bearers can falter on a given day.
