Fils was right there before the injury I think. Maybe not at slams yet but at 1000s, sure. Mensik has some technical and physical things that scare me; Fonseca has the most intrinsic and natural upside but think the "big breakthrough" won't happen until 2027

At the moment it feels like Sinner and Alcaraz are optimizing for each other AND getting the benefits of grinding the others even further into the dust, while the others are optimizing for Sinner and Alcaraz but not making each other change

Sorry, maybe I was unclear – that's what I want / am interested to see too. To see Fritz or de Minaur play the way they do against Alcaraz and Sinner and lose and then bring it to everybody else and win, or win differently, and make everyone else evolve. I don't see them pushing top two, agreed

I agree about the younger gen being more likely to be more disruptive. I do think that when I watch Fritz and de Minaur in particular play so differently and push Alcaraz or Sinner, that they need to keep that energy in their other matches. Because it will have more impact. Even vs. Djokovic say

We know Sinner and Alcaraz can adjust for each other's strengths. But can Alex de Minaur, Taylor Fritz, Alexander Zverev, et al take the effective, but thus far pyrrhic adjustments they make against the top guys and turn them into meaningful advantages elsewhere?

Don't think he's on Bluesky but Matt Willis (mattracquet on X) wrote a pretty definitive piece on this phenomenon theracquet.substack.com/p/the-big-3-...

One of the advantages of having a hyper-optimized tennis rival is that everything you do for and against that rival is an order of magnitude more effective against everybody else. Same dynamic in the Big Three's constant meetings

They were already absurd in 2024, but they're now taking specific strengths from each other's armoury to adapt in different settings. That Alcaraz was a few points here or there from winning that could be scary for Sinner, but then Sinner did the same on the natural surfaces...

it's pretty much what dimitrov did at wimbledon but it requires executing to a godly level for a very long time...

The forehand slice dig in this point, for example, is completely off the wall youtu.be/pKjXTOF0ShQ?...

This is a player who would probably be first to admit that his movement and defense are not at all in Alcaraz's league, and he came pretty damn close to matching him for the best part of that