Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner reflect on first match and rise to the top - 'A special player'

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have enjoyed a glorious 2024, largely shutting out their competition and sharing the four major honours. Speaking to CNN at the ATP Finals in Turin, which Sinner is the favourite to win, the pair reflected on their first meeting five years ago and their rise up the rankings since then to become the two dominant players in the world.

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Five years after their first meeting on the court, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have risen to the top of men's tennis and look set to continue their budding rivalry in the years to come.

The pair, who have split the four majors between them in 2024, first played each other in an ATP Challenger event in 2019, with Sinner aged 17 and Alcaraz 15.

Reflecting on their humble beginnings and stratospheric rise, the pair - speaking to CNN - suggested that they could never have imagined being where they are now.

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"The match was a rollercoaster, 6-1, 2-6, 3-6, but it was great," Alcaraz remembered of their first meeting - on the clay in Alicante - which he won in three sets. "I didn't think at the time that we were going to share a lot of tournaments or become the players we are now because it was impossible [to think so far ahead]."

Sinner, who has proved imperious on hard courts this year, winning both the Australian Open and US Open and losing just three singles matches on the surface, agreed.

"When you are this young, you don't even think that far [ahead]. All dreams," he said.

But Sinner knew from their first encounter that the Spaniard had potential.

"I saw the draw coming out and saw Carlos Alcaraz, I had no idea who he is," Sinner said. "I saw his age and said wow, he's playing a Challenger [the tier of tournaments below the ATP Tour], it's amazing. Straight away, I was impressed.

"After the match we went to the same locker room because I wanted to get to know him. He was an amazing talent already back in the day, you could see straight away he was a special player."

Five years on, the pair have proved their potential, dominating in 2024 at the expense of the 'Next Generation' - the likes of Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev, who had been among the favourites to take over the mantle from the 'Big Three' but have instead found themselves overtaken by younger talents.

With Novak Djokovic the sole remaining active member of the 'Big Three' following Roger Federer's retirement and Rafael Nadal's impending retirement at the Davis Cup, the stage is set for Alcaraz and Sinner to continue where they left off in 2025.

But both shrugged off comparisons to Djokovic, Federer and Nadal who enjoyed almost two decades of dominance at the peak of the sport.

"We're not looking too far forward," Sinner said. "It's not comparable with what the Big Three have done, and also the Big Four with Andy [Murray]. There's been this period where these four were always in the semis. Talking for my side, I made just one season like this. They made it in fifteen, twenty years, I don't think it's comparable at all."

Alcaraz agreed: "Probably for people see[ing] the results the last couple of years, they're going to think that we're going to be the next top two guys who are going to dominate the game, but I see a lot of players right now, the draws are really open."

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At the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin in Sinner's native Italy, the 23-year-old has three wins from three in the round-robin phase and is favourite to lift the title. Should he win, he would become only the third man, after Djokovic and Federer, to complete the triple of Australian Open, US Open and ATP Finals titles in the same season.

Alcaraz leads their head-to-head 6-4, including winning their last three meetings, the most recent a high-quality China Open final. But a rematch will not be on the cards after the Spaniard - suffering with illness - was knocked out in the group stages.

"We are two different kinds of players, different personalities," Sinner said. "I am the more solid player in a way, you are much better with the touch of the ball, you have very good sensibility."

Referring to Alcaraz's famous highlight-reel style of play, Sinner added: "It's nice to see you get engaged with the crowd and that's exactly what the crowd wants to see when they come to see a match."

"He's really solid, it doesn't matter what's happening on the court, in the game," Alcaraz said. "He's going to act the same and it's not going to affect anything."

Asked to compare the two to football's star strikers, Manchester City's Erling Haaland and Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe, Alcaraz said: "That's tough. He could be Haaland, a killer. Probably me, Kylian Mbappe."

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Thoughts?