US Open
The forces of nature strike again
05.09.2025 – 9:36 p.m.Reading time: 4 min.
At the US Open Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, once again through the field. The competition desperately. An old acquaintance now wants to stop her.
“You are so good, that’s crazy. I am not bad what hell?”: When Alexander Bustries Jannik Sinner congratulated his victory in the round of 16 of the US Open, he tried to put in words almost desperately what he had just experienced. 1: 6, 1: 6, 1: 6 sent Sinner number 24 in the world rankings home and did not give him a chance. A “AI-generated player” later called the Italian.
Just two days later it was Sinner’s compatriot Lorenzo Musetti, at least number ten in the world, who caught a 1: 6, 4: 6, 2: 6 clap in the quarterfinals. “Jannik was at a different level in many, many situations,” he said afterwards. “To be honest, I never played against someone who put me under so much pressure.”
For the Czechen Jiří Lehečka, a similar picture was made. He played great at the US Open, made it to the quarter -finals. There he also showed an enthusiastic offensive tennis – Carlos Alcaraz had to give up 4: 6, 2: 6, 4: 6. The tennis elite desperately on two forces of nature, which even make one of the largest despair.
For decades, tennis in the hands of the so -called “Big Three”, consisting of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djoković. Between 2003, when Federer won his first Grand Slam title, and the US Open 2023, where Djoković cleared his last major title so far, the three dominated the tennis scene. During this period, they won 66 of the 81 possible Grand Slam tournaments and together were at the top of the world rankings for 947 weeks.
At the latest with the resignation of Federers in 2022, however, the “golden era” of the best three players the sport had ever seen ended. The question marks among fans and observers were great: who would follow the superstars? Would the sport get a viewer problem if the stars no longer exist? After all, the successor generation around Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas or Daniil Medvedev (despite a Grand Slam title) had missed the big breakthrough.
Only a few suspected that two “early ripening” were up to fill the big gap. Just a few days before Federer finished his career in September 2022, a 19-year-old Alcaraz had won his first Grand Slam title at the US Open. On the way there, he had also conquered Sinner in the quarter -finals in a gripping five -set match – it was not yet certain that it would be the start of a great rivalry.