Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner given pointed warning - 'Things will be made difficult'

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have been told they cannot expect to dominate men’s tennis – despite their achievements in 2024. The pair have shared the grand slams this year, with Sinner winning the Australian Open and US Open and Alcaraz taking the French Open and Wimbledon.

With a combined age of just 44, the duo have been tipped to battle for supremacy over the next decade in similar fashion to the ‘big three’ of the now-retired Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, who is nearing retirement, and Novak Djokovic, who is still going strong after winning Olympic gold last month.

However, one of Alcaraz’s David Cup teammates insists the current dominant duo cannot take continued success for granted. Pablo Carreno, 33, who has a career-high singles ranking of 10, reckons Alcaraz, 21, and Sinner, 23, could be threatened by more up-and-coming stars in the next few years.

Carreno told Puntodebreak.com: “They are still very young, both Sinner and Carlos. It's clear that they are very good, but we already take it for granted that they will reign for the next 20 years like Roger, Rafa and Novak did.

“Many things can happen, it is not easy to maintain the level of demand for so long, or the level of success to share the four grand slams, as has happened this year.

“New people can also come along, another very good player can appear who is four years younger than Carlos, for example. I don't think that the future belongs only to these two players, others will come along who will make things difficult for them, but it looks like these two will be there for many, many years.”

On the current state of play in the men’s game, Carreno said: “Sinner has improved a lot, Carlos has consolidated, Novak is finding it a little bit harder to win. But the big difference I've noticed is in the rest of the players, especially from the top 20 onwards. Players that when I left [because of injury] were good, but were top 60 and top 80, now they are top 30."

He jokingly added: “Arthur Fils, Alexei Popyrin, Jordan Thompson... I need to play against them again to see where they are, because they are not where I left them.”

After recovering from serious elbow injury, which almost forced him into retirement, Carreno is looking to climb back up the world rankings. He said: “I'm going to fight to get back to where I was, it's not enough for me to get into the top 100 and play the grand slams again.

“Maybe five months ago I would have settled for that, but seeing how I'm evolving, that's not enough for me. If that is the maximum I can reach, well, there were very difficult moments and it would also be a joy, but I want to give the maximum of what I have. Right now, I think my maximum is above that.”