His two-week journey in New York saw him collide with a host of other rising stars, offering the promise of exciting rivalries for fans to enjoy for many years to come. He battled 21-year-old Italian Jannik Sinner in a thrilling five-set quarter-final before surviving another fivesetter against Frances Tiafoe, who became the first Black American man to make the semis of the tournament since Arthur Ashe in 1972.
On Sunday “Carlitos” avoided another punishing fiveset match but still had to be at his athletic best to score a 6-4 2-6 7-6(1) 6-3 victory o v e r 2 3 – y e a r – o l d Norwegian Ruud, who rises to number two. The Spaniard’s coach, former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero, said there is no shortage of talent on the men’s Tour but he came away from Alcaraz’s quarter-final match against Sinner thinking the pair could dominate for the next decade.
“The other day I said that maybe Sinner and Carlos could dominate the Tour for maybe the next 10 years, from what I saw, the level that I saw the other day,” he said. “Of course, there’s another players like Zverev, Thiem, Casper, Tsitsipas, they going to be there, they going to have opportunities to win Grand Slams for sure.”
Also making headlines was fiery 27-year-old Australian Nick Kyrgios, who had reached the Wimbledon final and knocked then world number one Daniil Medvedev out in the fourth round in New York. But while the rising stars command more and more of the spotlight and help attract a younger and more diverse fan base to the sport, it would be premature to say the landscape has shifted. The ‘Big Three’ had won 20 of the last 23 majors coming into Sunday’s final and finished top of the world rankings in 17 of the last 18 years
