How tennis stars find hope in the hopelessness of chasing Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner

In the summer of 2024, Taylor Fritz expressed a new hope.

“We’re in an era where if anyone has a good week, then it could happen,” the U.S. tennis star said during an interview at Queen’s Club in London.

Two months ago in Turin, Italy, Fritz was asked again whether men’s tennis is more open than it was during the Big Three era of the late 2000s and the 2010s, when Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic ruled the sport.

Fritz tilted his head to the side and smiled ruefully.

“When did I say that? Three years, four years ago? Now we’re just in the Big Two,” Fritz said.

The two are Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, the world No. 1 and No. 2, who have split the past eight Grand Slams between them. They are the overwhelming favorites to contest the final of the Australian Open, which began Sunday in Melbourne. Should they meet two weeks later, it will be the fourth straight major final between the same two men, equalling a men’s record set by Nadal and Djokovic in 2011 and 2012.

Fritz, who has come as close to winning a major in the past two years as anyone else in the chasing pack, gave that rueful smile at the ATP Tour Finals, the season-ending tournament for the best eight men’s players in the world. At last year’s edition, Alexander Zverev (world No. 3), Alex de Minaur (No. 6), Félix Auger-Aliassime (No. 7), Ben Shelton (No. 8) and Fritz (No. 9) all put up decent showings against one of Sinner or Alcaraz. Neither of them won any of those matches, however. Fritz played one of the best of his career against Alcaraz and only picked up a set.

Still, realism is tinged with optimism. They know Sinner and Alcaraz are in a different league over an extended period, but in a one-off match, there is always a chance.

“If you play 10 matches, you’re probably not going to get a lot of wins, but you can always beat them in one match,” former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev, who lost to either Sinner or Alcaraz in three of the four Grand Slams in 2024, said during a news conference earlier this month.

Paul Annacone, who is part of Fritz’s coaching team and who worked with Pete Sampras and Federer, agreed during a recent phone interview.

“Just because those guys are better than everybody over 12 months, and I’ve said this to Taylor, that doesn’t mean you can’t beat them at a tournament.

“It doesn’t mean that in the Australian Open quarterfinals, Taylor can’t play better and win. He has a relentless desire to see how good he can be. He’s so earnest for how good those guys are, but also in his desire to figure out how to improve himself so that he can compete with them. He’s very inspired by it, with the desire not to use it as a reason to be insecure or frustrated, but as an ‘OK: What do I do now?’”

Fritz is managing ongoing knee issues, but believes he is a far better player than when he was up against the Big Three. De Minaur, whose loss against Sinner in Turin was his 13th out of 13 tries, insisted he was “on the right track,” having said earlier in the tournament that he and his peers are “going to be knocking on the door.”

Even Djokovic, the winner of 24 Grand Slam singles titles who turns 39 in May, was less positive than those two after he lost to Alcaraz in last year’s U.S. Open semifinals. Djokovic, who lost to Sinner at the same stage of the French Open and Wimbledon, said that winning another major could be beyond him because of the difficulty of beating either Alcaraz or Sinner over five sets.

Sports psychologist Marc Sagal, who has worked with tennis players, said that Fritz’s approach to climbing the mountain is the right one.

“I would be trying to encourage them to look at the challenge as an opportunity,” Sagal said in a voice message.

“A lot of these athletes are so competitive that in some ways they relish the opportunity to go for the jugular. If two players seem to be unbeatable, then the opportunity is: Can you rise to the occasion?”

Time can erode that mindset. Zverev, 28, has been living it for the better part of a decade. He has lost three Grand Slam finals, and after the most recent — at the Australian Open to Sinner 12 months ago — he struggled for motivation, eventually seeking professional psychological help. Zverev, who echoed Federer’s debunked claim that tournament organizers are changing court conditions to suit Alcaraz and Sinner, has at times felt worn down by the pursuit.

Speaking after a 6-3, 7-6(3) defeat against Sinner in Turin, Shelton said in a news conference that it was important not to lose sight of his own strengths: “I have a very specific style that I like playing. That helps me play my best.”

De Minaur, also in a news conference there, acknowledged the importance of not destroying himself in chasing the pack leaders: “I’ve also got to be careful with how much I push myself and how much pressure I put on myself because that’s what gets me into dark places. I’ve got to find a healthy balance.”

There are cautionary tales in this regard. During an interview in 2024, Dominic Thiem said that trying to keep pace with the Big Three contributed to his injury-enforced early retirement. In a recent interview with The Tennis Podcast, Andy Murray said that only in retirement did he take much pride in his career and stop comparing himself to that gilded trio.

It’s important, Sagal said, to not define success just by results. For Fritz and his peers, there may be many more rueful smiles this season, but even in hopeless situations, the hope matters.

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