{"id":414504,"date":"2025-09-11T00:50:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T00:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/414504\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T00:50:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T00:50:14","slug":"boris-becker-calls-out-nine-atp-tour-players-for-their-attitude-towards-jannik-sinner-and-carlos-alcaraz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/414504\/","title":{"rendered":"Boris Becker calls out nine ATP Tour players for their attitude towards Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have been a class above on the ATP Tour recently, dominating their rivals.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The world number one and two have shared the previous eight Grand Slam titles between themselves, winning four each.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Sinner won the Australian Open and Wimbledon, while Alcaraz won Roland Garros<\/a> and the US Open.<\/p>\n

\"CarlosPhoto by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ranked one and two in the world, the gap to their closest challenger, Alexander Zverev<\/a>, is currently 4,850 points.<\/p>\n

Weighing in with his thoughts on the pair\u2019s dominance, tennis legend Boris Becker<\/a> has criticized their rivals for having the wrong attitude.<\/p>\n

Boris Becker is starting to get \u2018bothered\u2019 by players\u2019 attitudes towards Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner<\/p>\n

During the latest edition of the \u2018Becker Petkovic\u2019 podcast, the six-time Slam winner called out nine players on the ATP Tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Alexander] Zverev, [Jack] Draper, [Taylor] Fritz<\/a>, [Alex] De Minaur, [Casper] Ruud, [Holger] Rune, [Daniil] Medvedev, [Andrey] Rublev, [Karen] Khachanov, is number ten in the world. Where are the others?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat bothers me a bit. They\u2019re always like\u2026 \u2018Yes, [Jannik] Sinner and [Carlos] Alcaraz are so much better than we are.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, why do you think?<\/p>\n

\"BorisPhoto by Gisela Schober\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat bothers me about the rest is that they are satisfied with the role of second or third. Quarterfinals are ok, or semifinals are ok.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, it\u2019s not ok if you want to be the best tennis player in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

All but one of the nine players Becker mentioned have a combined losing head-to-head record against Alcaraz and Sinner.<\/p>\n\nPlayer<\/strong><\/td>\nATP Rank<\/strong><\/td>\nHead-to-head record v Carlos Alcaraz<\/strong><\/td>\nHead-to-head record v Jannik Sinner<\/strong><\/td>\nCombined head-to-head record<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAlexander Zverev<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n6-6<\/td>\n4-3<\/td>\n10-9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nTaylor Fritz<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n0-3<\/td>\n1-4<\/td>\n1-7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nJack Draper<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n2-4<\/td>\n1-1<\/td>\n3-5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAlex de Minaur<\/td>\n8<\/td>\n0-4<\/td>\n0-10<\/td>\n0-14<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nKaren Khachanov<\/td>\n10<\/td>\n0-5<\/td>\n1-4<\/td>\n1-9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nHolger Rune<\/td>\n11<\/td>\n2-2<\/td>\n2-3<\/td>\n4-5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nCasper Ruud<\/td>\n12<\/td>\n1-4<\/td>\n0-4<\/td>\n1-8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAndrey Rublev<\/td>\n14<\/td>\n1-4<\/td>\n3-7<\/td>\n4-11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nDaniil Medvedev<\/td>\n18<\/td>\n2-6<\/td>\n7-8<\/td>\n9-14<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Players Boris Becker mentioned and their H2H record v Jannik Sinner\/Carlos Alcaraz<\/p>\n

Becker doesn\u2019t believe it\u2019s as difficult to beat the world number one and two as their rivals are making it seem, and used Felix Auger-Aliassime\u2019s performance against Sinner<\/a> in New York as evidence for his point.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I come back to this semi-final against [Felix] Auger-Aliassime<\/a>. Someone has finally thought strategically, How can I become dangerous to Sinner?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLogically, don\u2019t get into long exchanges at the baseline, but play as flat and fast as possible. That\u2019s not rocket science. You don\u2019t have to study philosophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like that, just look at old matches, see what worked, what didn\u2019t work. Auger-Aliassime played damn well and also had the chance to get to a fifth set, had a break point at the beginning of the fourth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 57-year-old proceeded to suggest that Auger-Aliassime had exposed a key weakness in Sinner\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe medical time out for Sinner\u2026that\u2019s the second time Sinner has had a medical time out at a Grand Slam,\u201d said Becker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time it was the abdominal muscle, in Melbourne it was the heat, so you have to ask yourself, is he physically more vulnerable than the others?\u201d<\/p>\n

Only time will tell if Sinner\u2019s rivals can take advantage of any physical vulnerabilities when Grand Slam tennis returns at the Australian Open<\/a> in 2026.<\/p>\n

Andrea Petkovic says tennis \u2018needs\u2019 Holger Rune to play well again<\/p>\n

Once tipped for Grand Slam greatness just like Alcaraz and Sinner, Denmark\u2019s Holger Rune<\/a> hasn\u2019t quite been able to keep up with them over the past few years.<\/p>\n

He does, however, have a respectable head-to-head record against the pair (4-5), proving he has what it takes to compete.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the consistency that lets Rune down, often losing in the early rounds of tournaments to lower-ranked players.<\/p>\n

Becker\u2019s co-host, Andrea Petkovic<\/a>, wants to see Rune return to the top of the men\u2019s game and begin challenging the dominant duo.<\/p>\n

\"HolgerPhoto by Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I need a [Holger] Rune. Boris [Becker]. I heard Taylor Fritz, someone asked him before his match against Novak [Djokovic], is Novak the favorite today? He said, Yes, of course, he\u2019s the favorite. You can\u2019t say that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaylor Fritz is a good guy; he really did think Djokovic was the favorite that day. But that\u2019s why he lost for the 11th time to Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have the feeling that Holger Rune wouldn\u2019t have said that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would go what favorite? That\u2019s why I need Holger Rune to play well again.\u201d<\/p>\n

After losing in the second round of the US Open, Rune will make his return to tennis at the Davis Cup, when Denmark play Spain this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have been a class above on the ATP Tour recently, dominating their rivals.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[4294,41535,6359,4718,79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-414504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-boris-becker","10":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","11":"tag-jannik-sinner","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115182923094728001","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}