Alcaraz and Sinner split the slams in 2025. Can anyone stop them this year?
Can anyone challenge the dominance of the top two in men’s tennis this year? And are we about to see the emergence of a “big three” in the women’s game?
Can anyone beat Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner?
That’s the question on everyone’s lips heading into 2026 after the top two players in men’s tennis swept the grand slams in 2025 and finished more than 5000 points ahead of their nearest challenger, No.3 Alexander Zverev, in the world rankings.
Carlos Alcaraz (right) and Jannik Sinner.Credit: AP
Alcaraz, ranked No.1, and Sinner are in a league of their own leading into the Australian Open later this month. Sinner is aiming to win a third consecutive singles title in Melbourne, while Alcaraz will be attempting to complete the career slam – winning all four majors – with victory down under.
Iga Swiatek, too, needs only an Australian Open to complete a career slam, but the women’s competition is more even, with four different champions – Madison Keys, Coco Gauff, Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka – in the four slams last year.
As the Australian summer of tennis gets under way, we look back at the year that was, and predict the players and the storylines that will define 2026.
Year in review: the talking points from 2025
There are many promising stars in the men’s game, but in 2025 Alcaraz and Sinner were the only ones to deliver.
If the 2025 season confirmed one thing, it’s that there’s a missing middle layer in men’s tennis. There is the best, and the rest.
The likes of Taylor Fritz, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur, Andrey Rublev and Zverev have been tipped as major winners, but between them have just one grand slam title (Medvedev’s 2021 US Open).
Now Sinner and Alcaraz appear almost untouchable, in the same way the “big three” of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic dominated the slams from the early 2000s to 2023.
Alex de Minaur talking ahead of the 2026 United Cup.Credit: Oscar Colman
As de Minaur has pointed out, the biggest question for himself and the rest of men’s tennis is: how do you bridge the gap to the “big two”?
