Six players who could stop Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner dominating men's tennis

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have made a mockery of the rest of the ATP Tour since the start of 2024, sharing nine consecutive Grand Slam titles between the 2024 Australian Open and this year's edition of the same event.

That streak was finally broken at the French Open, where Alexander Zverev claimed his maiden major, but the duopoly at the top remains firmly intact: Sinner has since defended his Wimbledon crown, beating Zverev in the final.

So we've done the only sensible thing left to do. We've picked out the six men we think have the best chance of actually breaking it up long term, and ranked them.

1. Arthur Fery

We're starting at the top with the player nobody had on their radar before a fortnight ago. Ranked a modest world No.114 walking into Wimbledon, Fery proceeded to produce the single wildest run on this entire list, the lowest-ranked Wimbledon semi-finalist since Goran Ivanisevic went and won the whole thing in 2001.

He beat Zizou Bergs and Grigor Dimitrov from behind, then took French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli apart in straight sets in front of a stunned Centre Court, before Zverev finally shut the party down in the semi-final. The run shot him up 78 places to a career-high No. 36 and made him British No. 1, ahead of Cameron Norrie. Even Zverev, freshly crowned Slam champion and freshly beaten by this kid, said Fery will play on tour for years and do amazing things. Even on the evidence of a fortnight, he's already above everyone else on this list.

2. Rafael Jadar

A year ago, Jadar was rotting outside the top 600. He's now No. 26, has a 19-4 clay record that only Sinner can beat this season, and has strung together back-to-back Masters quarter-finals in Madrid and Rome, plus a Roland Garros quarter-final on debut. The one question mark was always going to be grass, so naturally he went to Wimbledon and became the only Spanish teenager in the Open Era to make the third round. The other two were named Nadal and Alcaraz, so he's in fine company.

He'd already rattled world No. 1 Sinner to two tight sets in Madrid, prompting Sinner himself to scribble "what a player" on a courtside lens like a smitten teenager passing a note in class. Every hole in his game keeps getting patched up in real time.

3. Joao Fonseca

On talent alone, Fonseca has a serious case for top spot: two ATP titles, a NextGen Finals crown, a career-high of No. 24 while still a teenager. But 2026 has been Fonseca doing his best impression of a rollercoaster, and that's why we've got him mid-table rather than top of the pile. A first-round exit at the Australian Open, losing the Buenos Aires title he was defending, a ranking that's yo-yoed between mid-20s and high-30s all year. Then, just to keep everyone guessing, a genuinely excellent run to the Roland Garros quarter-finals, only stopped by Mensik in a four-set battle. The talent isn't in question.

Whether he can turn it into the kind of relentless, boring, week-in-week-out consistency that Sinner and Alcaraz have made their trademark is the whole ballgame, and right now that's still an open question.

4. Jakub Mensik

Forget potential, Mensik already has the hardware. Masters 1000 champion at 19, and not against any old opponent: he walked into Miami and beat Novak Djokovic in the final, having already dispatched Jack Draper, Arthur Fils and Taylor Fritz along the way. Only Alcaraz was younger when he won a Masters title. That's the entire resume of this list settled in one paragraph; nobody else has been that high.

The serve is a howitzer, the game is built for hard courts, and the only thing standing between Mensik and the very top table is the C-word every big hitter eventually has to answer for: consistency.

5. Learner Tien

No 100mph serve, no clay court pedigree to lean on. Tien just quietly goes about ruining people's weeks. He's the youngest man to reach the Australian Open fourth round since Rafael Nadal did it in 2005, then rounded off last season by going on an absolute rampage through Beijing: Cerundolo, Cobolli, Musetti, Medvedev, all gone, on the way to the ATP 500 final.

That's four wins that would be the highlight of most players' entire year, and Tien collected them in a single week like he was ticking off a shopping list. He's the quietest name on this list and arguably the most underrated.

6. Ben Shelton

Ben Shelton remains very dangerous, but is still searching for the right formula, and that's why he rounds out our list rather than climbing higher. The numbers back that read up either way.

Shelton became the first American man to win a title on clay at ATP 500 level or higher since Andre Agassi did it back in 2002, then turned up in Stuttgart weeks later and bagged a maiden grass title too, making him just the fourth man this decade to win on all three surfaces in a single season. That's a genuinely serious CV, the kind that should have people nervous, even sitting at No. 6 on this list.