Mats Wilander kick-started this debate when he suggested Sinner and his young rival Carlos Alcaraz were playing tennis at a level above the ‘Big 3’ of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in their prime.
Considering those players have won a stunning 66 Grand Slam titles between them, such a claim was always likely to raise eyebrows, but now it has been backed up by a couple of current top ten players.
American Taylor Fritz suggested that Sinner and Alcaraz are playing at a level that makes them harder to play against than the ‘Big 3’ as he offered up these comments to the Tennis Channel.
“One thing both of those guys do is… their defence is incredible,” said Fritz.
“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.
“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.”
