Jannik Sinner vs. Carlos Alcaraz at U.S. Open? Tennis' new age rivalry has a chance to be on display again

Men’s tennis has finally moved on.

The game has officially emerged from its hazy, post-Big Three hangover. There is no more hand-wringing anxiety over the fact that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are gone, and 38-year-old Novak Djokovic is clearly on the decline.

That’s because Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have seized center stage with a rivalry so promising that it has already spawned a nearly 300-page book and earned its own nickname despite the fact the two players are in their early 20s.

There is nothing tennis fans would love more than to have the No. 1 Sinner and No. 2 Alcaraz write the next chapter of their rivalry in the final of the U.S. Open, which opens Sunday in Flushing Meadows.

The pair have ruled men’s singles for nearly two years, having won seven straight Grand Slam trophies between them. If one of them wins this year’s U.S. Open, it will mark two years in a row that the duo has swept the majors. The last time two men won all eight Grand Slam titles over a two-year period? Federer and Nadal in 2006-07.

Recently dubbed “Sincaraz” in a somewhat forced riff on the “Fidel” mashup moniker that Federer and Nadal were known by, the 24-year-old Sinner and 22-year-old Alcaraz had never met in a Grand Slam tournament final before this season. They now are making up for lost time. If they end up being the last two players standing  in this U.S. Open, it would mark the third straight Grand Slam where they would meet in the finals.

Their first Grand Slam meeting will go down as one of the greatest finals ever as Alcaraz outlasted Sinner at the French Open in June in a five-hour, 29 minute five-setter that was decided in a tiebreak. The match was the longest French Open men's final in the Open era and the second-longest men's Grand Slam final. Five weeks later at Wimbledon, they met again with Sinner prevailing in four sets to win his first Wimbledon title.

“I think their rivalry is amazing,” Djokovic, a 24-time Grand Slam winner said Friday. “What they’ve done in the previous two years is remarkable for both those players. It’s just amazing for our sport.”

Rivalries are the lifeblood of sports, but tennis’ reliance on them to drive fan interest is unique because of the intimate one-on-one nature of the game. Great tennis rivals face each other over and over with only a net to divide them. Through the years, they get to know each on another as well as they know family members. They have the ability to both punish and push each other to greatness while pushing interest in the game to new heights.

Incredible players repeatedly playing memorable matches on biggest of stages are the building blocks of rivalries. Yet, the truly great rivals usually feature something more — a contrast of styles that often cause fans to identify or align themselves with one player or another. The two players have that, both on and off the court.

Alcaraz, a Spaniard who grew up idolizing Nadal, plays with an aggressive explosiveness that combines incredible speed with stunning shot-making skills. He also displays a raw emotion that sometimes gets the best of him, but has made him a favorite at the U.S. Open since he won his first Grand Slam title here as a 19-year-old in 2022.

Sinner, who grew up in a German-speaking region of Northern Italy, combines remarkable power with a stunning calm. He is known for his consistent laser-like ground strokes and his ability to stay composed under pressure. It’s rare for him to show emotion on the court.

“We have different styles, you know, game styles, but also how we are on the court and off the court,” Sinner said at media day on Friday. “We are just different, you know. But at the same time, it’s great to see because it makes it very interesting. The only thing we have in common is we practice very hard.”

Well, they both play pretty hard too, which anyone who stayed up until 2:50 a.m. to watch their epic quarterfinal in the 2022 U.S. Open can tell you. (I sort of regret that I did not.) That five-setter, won by Alcaraz, remains the latest match played at the Open and ranks as the third-longest match played at the U.S. Open clocking in at five hours and 15 minutes.

It was that match — and the fact that he regrets not staying at the USTA Center to watch it — that spurred Giri Nathan to write “Changeover,” a critically acclaimed book about the budding tennis rivalry that was released last week. It also put both players on the map with U.S. Open fans.

Suffice it to say, all eyes will be on the two 20-something players as Sinner begins his title defense Sunday against Czech player Vít Kopřiva. Sinner, who had to pull out of a finals match against Alcaraz recently in Cincinnati because of a virus, insists he will be fine to begin play on Monday. You can bet Alcaraz will be ready.

And so will U.S. Open fans, who are finally ready to move on from the Big Three.