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Is Sinner-Alcaraz in danger of making majors boring?
The past eight Grand Slam titles have been shared between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
They have contested the past three finals, and thrilled us - especially at Roland Garros last June, when Alcaraz saved three championship points on his way to a stunning win.
But in that time their top 10 rivals have barely laid a glove on them.
“It's not a healthy situation to have a two-horse race,” Pat Cash, the 1987 Wimbledon champion, said on BBC 5 Live's Australian Open preview show.
“There's those two guys, and then there's the others.”
The fear is that, for all the excitement generated by their finals, the men's draw could become too predictable if their domination continues.
So far in Melbourne, Alcaraz has won his first three matches in straight sets and Sinner has dropped just 10 games in his opening two rounds.
“Anything can happen in a long tournament, but a two-horse race is not necessarily healthy for Grand Slam tennis or the tour,” Cash added.
“If there's only two players that everybody's talking about, that's a problem."
Not everything that happened in the first week of the previous Grand Slam - last September's US Open - was predictable.
Benjamin Bonzi beat Daniil Medvedev in five sets, but only after a photographer walked on to court when the Frenchman had a third-set match point and Medvedev had accused the umpire of granting Bonzi another first serve in the hope he could go home early.
In the women's draw, a defeated Jelena Ostapenko accused Taylor Townsend of having no class or education for failing to apologise for a net-cord winner and daring to start the pre-match warm up by coming to the net.
But, for the first time at a Grand Slam since Sinner and Alcaraz became the sport's dominant duo, there felt little jeopardy in their matches before the final in New York.
The only set Alcaraz dropped was in the final itself, and even though Sinner lost two sets en route to the final, he never looked in danger.
The anticipation of seeing the pair meet in a Grand Slam final remains high, but most majors now last 15 days. That is a long time to build up to what some may consider a foregone conclusion.
Comparing their respective form, or wondering to what extent a four-hour first-week match may diminish one of them in the final, could quickly become tedious.
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic dominated the men's game for the best part of two decades. Three is not always more compelling than two, and many French Open and Wimbledon draws felt highly predictable when Nadal and Federer were in their prime.
But there was also the threat of Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka, who won three Grand Slam titles each, with Murray in particular racking up a significant number of wins against the 'Big Three'.
Recent evidence shows that Alcaraz and Sinner's chief rivals enjoy little success against them anywhere.
Novak Djokovic had a famous win over Alcaraz at last year's Australian Open, but both world number three Alexander Zverev and fifth-ranked Lorenzo Musetti lost all five matches they played against the pair in 2025.
World number six Alex de Minaur, meanwhile, lost seven of seven, and has never beaten either man in 18 meetings.
Billie Jean King would love a rival to emerge but does not think the men's major draws will become boring.
"There's something about sport - you never really know,” the 39-time Grand Slam champion told BBC Sport before the season began.
“You think it's a shoo-in, but the human element is really wonderful.”
Britain's Davis Cup captain Leon Smith also does not worry about the first six rounds becoming tedious.
"Other stories appear - something happens," Smith said.
"You see an Alexander Bublik throw a surprise, you go to the States and suddenly Taylor Fritz or Ben Shelton light it up.
"Tennis moves. People beforehand said there is no way there are going to be other players who can do what the 'Big Three' did, and all of a sudden there are two that are showing signs they can do it.
Tennis evolves and who knows what a Joao Fonseca or someone else is going to do in the future.
Predicting Sinner and Alcaraz to win all four Grand Slams for the third year in a row is very tempting. But let's not forget Grigor Dimitrov led Sinner by two sets to love in the Wimbledon fourth round before tearing his right pectoral muscle as he sent down a 14th ace. He conceded, with tears in his eyes, just minutes later.
One of them will lose in a Grand Slam again. The question is when will both of them next slip up?
Source: BBC
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