Changeover: A Young Rivalry and New Era of Men’s Tennis

Journalist Nathan debuts with a scintillating account of the rivalry between tennis players Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. They rose to prominence from divergent backgrounds; Alcaraz grew up in southeast Spain, and his family’s storied history with the sport started him on the professional path early. Sinner, meanwhile, spent most of his childhood skiing in his home in northern Italy, and tennis was “a low priority activity in his youth.” Nathan compellingly chronicles how Alcaraz and Sinner began to flourish as the previous era of tennis’s “Big Three” (Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal) receded. The “changeover” Nathan describes began as Alcaraz and Sinner started to defeat this “geriatric elite”; 2024 was the first year since 2002 none of the three “took home a major,” Nathan writes, and “the Sincaraz era had begun.” Tracking the pair’s battles against each other across the major tournaments of that year, Nathan notes that by the time the French Open rolled around in May, “a firm consensus had solidified” that theirs “was the best rivalry on the men’s tour.” Throughout, Nathan provides exceptional commentary on how the pair operates as foils in both style of play and temperament. This gripping chronicle of a new frontier in the game aces it. (Aug.)