Olympic champion Marc Rosset has warned there is an “abysmal void” of players behind Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, claiming their ATP rivals quickly need to find solutions so they can challenge them.
Alcaraz won his fourth Grand Slam title at the weekend, successfully defending his Wimbledon title by beating Novak Djokovic in straight sets.
That was a second straight title at SW19 for the Spaniard but he has also won back-to-back majors, after his triumph at Roland Garros last month.
Alcaraz is currently the world No 3 but has already spent 36 weeks as the world No 1 throughout his career – the ranking currently occupied by Sinner.
The Italian has held the top spot since the conclusion of the French Open and won his maiden major at the Australian Open, losing just four times in 2024.
The 22-year-old and Alcaraz, who turned 21 in May, are clear in the ATP Finals race and look like the next leading players on the tour.
With Djokovic aged 37 and Rafael Nadal, who could be retiring this season, now 38, the ATP may become more open than it was during the ‘Big Three’ era.
But Rosset, a former world No 9 and Grand Slam semi-finalist, believes there is limited talent behind Alcaraz and Sinner, and that the two “could have a boulevard” ahead of them.
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Speaking to L’Equipe, he said: “For him [Alcaraz] to reach 30 Grand Slams, that would mean almost three titles per season for nine to ten years, without injury, without the arrival of very big rivals.
“Afterwards, behind Sinner, I find that there is an abysmal void, with players who are too stereotypical.
“Alcaraz is today the only one who really does lots of different things, and I tell myself that he and Sinner could have a boulevard ahead of them.
“If the others do not ask themselves very quickly the right questions about what to add to their game, we should not then come and say: ‘We were unlucky, we fell at the same time as them.’”
All eyes will be on who could potentially rival Alcaraz and Sinner over the next few seasons.
One obvious candidate is Holger Rune who, at 21, will likely have the best years of his career to come across the next decade.
However, the Dane has fallen dramatically behind his two contemporaries over the past years, falling to world No 17 after reaching a career-high of fourth – and not yet reaching a Grand Slam semi-final.
Elsewhere, Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud, and Stefanos Tsitsipas have all reached multiple Grand Slam finals, but are yet to win one – or put themselves consistently in the position to do so.
In fact, only two male players born in the 1990s have ever lifted a Grand Slam singles title, one of them being the retiring Dominic Thiem, and the other being Daniil Medvedev – the current world No 5.
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