Top tennis commentator Barry Cowan has picked Novak Djokovic to challenge Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz at Grand Slams. While Sinner and Alcaraz have shared the last seven Major titles among themselves, Cowan reckons there is no one, barring Novak Djokovic, who can spoil the duo’s party.
The Serbian has made it to the semifinals of all three Slams in the ongoing season. While Djokovic had to pull out of the Australian Open after losing the opening set against Alexander Zverev, he hasn’t been able to go past Jannik Sinner at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
Cowan reckons the other crop of young players are way below the standard of Sinner and Alcaraz and they would take some time to get to the same level.
Barry Cowan told Tennishead, “Right now, I don’t see anyone knocking off Djokovic.
“Obviously, he’s obviously not been able to win the last seven majors, because that’s been dominated by Sinner and Alcaraz, but, you know, I’m not ruling Djokovic out, because when you’ve won it 24 times, and he’s made semi-finals at all three majors this year, so, you know, he’s not far off, but, you know, as things stand at the moment, for someone to win a major, the way the rankings are, you might have to get through three of them.
“Now, one of them might lose, so you’ve got to get through two of them, and how gruelling that is, physically and mentally. So I think that the tier below, and obviously we know who they are, I still feel that they’ve got to improve their level.
“Now, the older you get, the harder it is to be able to do, because you’ve almost reached your ceiling. The exciting part for the younger players is that we don’t know what the ceiling could be.
“And Draper is definitely in that. Mensik is definitely in that. Fonseca is definitely in that. There, for me, is an absolute star for the future, but you know, that’s really further down the line.
“In terms of the majors, and that’s where, obviously, the Masters come into play, massively. And the ATP 500, and we’ve got two big tournaments coming up.
The trio of Djokovic, Sinner and Alcaraz have pulled out of the ongoing Toronto Open, which provides an opportunity to the other players to prove their mettle.
“I mean, you know, Toronto is a massive tournament for that next group, because you haven’t got Djokovic, you haven’t got Alcaraz, you haven’t got Sinner. Obviously, Draper’s not available; he’s pulled out through injury.
He concluded, “So an opportunity knocks for that next tier to get some momentum and win some matches, going into Cincinnati and then obviously the final major of the year.”
