Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, Rafa Nadal’s words spark fans

The words that Rafa Nadal, interviewed by ’former soccer champion Jorge Valdano in the program that the latter curates on the Spanish broadcaster Movistar+, reserved for the two current phenomena of world tennis, the Italian Jannik Sinner and the Murcian Carlos Alcaraz.

did not go unnoticed among fans and insiders.

Inevitably, in fact, the talk came to the comparison between the current era and that of the ‘Big 3’ that is, Nadal himself, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic at the top of their game: “The fact that we were three and not two did not give us time to relax – said Nadal -. We never stopped looking for the limit, we had no margin to skip tournaments”.

“The greatness of our era is this because the game has not changed much, maybe you hit a little bit’ harder – Nadal said again -. As far as rivalry is concerned, I don&#8217t want to take anything away from Sinner and Alcaraz, they are doing well: it was the three of us, though, who made everyone understand that you could be a rival on the court without hating your opponent’s”.

The’era of the ‘Big 3’ lasted for more than three decades and saw Nadal, Federer and Djokovic leave just 14 Grand Slam tournaments on the court out of the 76 played. An era that for many was unrepeatable, at least until the’rise of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz who, in turn, sin shared all eight Slam tournaments played between 2024 and 2025 (Alcaraz also won in 2023, at Wimbledon).