{"id":309964,"date":"2025-10-17T05:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T05:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/309964\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T05:45:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T05:45:14","slug":"tim-henman-names-the-player-he-thinks-is-the-most-likely-to-close-the-gap-on-carlos-alcaraz-and-jannik-sinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/309964\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Henman names the player he thinks is the most likely to close the gap on Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have proven themselves to be streets ahead of everyone else on tour this year. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The top two-ranked players in the world have collected a combined 11 titles in 2025 and have split all four Grand Slams between themselves for the second consecutive season. <\/p>\n

Alcaraz went back-to-back at Roland Garros<\/a> and clinched his second US Open title, while Sinner defended his Australian Open crown<\/a> and secured a maiden Wimbledon championship. <\/p>\n

In the ATP<\/a> rankings, both the Spaniard and the Italian are at least 4000 points clear of world number three Alexander Zverev<\/a>, and they are the only two players to qualify for the year-end ATP Finals so far. <\/p>\n

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

With no sign of a rising star capable of reaching their level anytime soon, Alcaraz<\/a> and Sinner<\/a> look set to dominate men\u2019s tennis for the foreseeable future. <\/p>\n

There is one player, however, who British tennis legend Tim Henman<\/a> thinks has the best chance of closing the gap on the \u2018new two\u2019. <\/p>\n

Tim Henman names the closest ATP player to the \u2018new two\u2019<\/p>\n

Speaking on Netflix ahead of the semifinals at the Six Kings Slam<\/a> in Saudi Arabia, Henman said Taylor Fritz<\/a> is the next best outside of Sinner and Alcaraz.<\/p>\n

He said of the American: \u201cHe works with Paul Annacone and Mike Russell. Paul Annacone was an old coach of mine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just about trying to bring that extra string to his bow. He\u2019s so efficient on serve and at the back of the court, both forehand and backhand, but [now he needs to] try to finish a few points at the net when he\u2019s so aggressive from those ground strokes.<\/p>\n

\"TaylorPhoto by Hu Chengwei\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s brought in the drop shot a little bit, which I think again is good to get the opponents moving forward to backwards, not just side to side.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think he\u2019s one of these players who\u2019s always looking to improve. That has been reflected in his results, and I think he\u2019s the one who\u2019s most likely to close the gap between the top two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor Fritz\u2019s record against Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner<\/p>\n

Fritz ultimately lost his semifinal against Alcaraz at the Six Kings Slam, but he has picked up victories against both the world number one and Sinner in the past. <\/p>\n

At the Laver Cup, he claimed his first win over the six-time major champion to clinch two points for Andre Agassi<\/a>-led Team World. <\/p>\n

His sole win against Sinner came at the 2021 Indian Wells Open, where he triumphed in straight sets at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament. <\/p>\n

Since then, however, Fritz has lost all four of his meetings with Sinner, the most recent of which was the final of the 2024 ATP Finals.<\/p>\n

He also trails Alcaraz 3-1 in the ATP head-to-head and has lost to him twice this year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have proven themselves to be streets ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":309965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[1479,1466,1824,62,12335,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-309964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","10":"tag-jannik-sinner","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-taylor-fritz","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115387926121193119","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}