US Open finalist Taylor Fritz has created a social media frenzy by sharing a technical point in which he finds Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner superior to the Big 3 ( Roger Federer , Rafael Nadal , and Novak Djokovic ). The debate about tennis quality between these two eras has now started to divide opinion.
Fritz, who recently lost to Sinner in the US Open final, claims that the defensive skills of Alcaraz and the Italian are incredible. The American believes that the shots coming off their rackets are faster than those struck by the Big 3 members.
One thing both of those guys do is… their defence is incredible. They don’t really play that much defence. When they are full on the run out in the corners, they just crush the ball. I can be in a backhand cross (court) rally with either one of them and if I hit a forehand, it’s got to be so good or else that next ball is getting just drilled huge cross court.
Taylor Fritz in an interview on Tennis Channel.
Fritz went on to chime in on the difference in ball-hitting speed between the Big 3 and the current gen – Sinner and Alcaraz. To say the least, Fritz’s take does seem astonishing.
They just play these lateral baseline points… like we used to see Nadal and Fed and most you saw Nadal and Novak have these long points, corner to corner. When Sinner and Alcaraz do it corner to corner, they have these same rallies but I swear they are hitting the ball ten miles an hour faster. It’s just crazy.
Taylor Fritz added.
Novak Djokovic has decided not to compete in the 2024 Paris Masters, marking the end of a remarkable era. For the first time in over 20 years, none of the Big 3—Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, or Roger Federer—have won an ATP Masters 1000 title in a season. This also means Djokovic will finish the year without a Masters title for the first time since 2017.
This is only the third time Djokovic has ended a season without a Masters trophy since he won his first in 2007. The other two instances were in 2010, when he did not reach any finals, and in 2017 when he was injured for much of the season. In both cases, either Nadal or Federer still managed to win a Masters title that year.
The Big 3’s streak of winning at least one ATP Masters 1000 title every year since 2004 has now come to an end. The run began when Federer won three Masters events that year. Since then, at least one of them had captured a Masters title annually until this season.
