Carlos Alcaraz’s rapid ascent was built on natural talent and a family environment rooted in tennis. Tipped from a young age to be a special player, he made his ATP Tour main draw debut at 16 in February 2020 and captured his maiden singles title the following year. The 2022 campaign announced him to the world: four titles in the first half of the season, including two ATP Masters 1000 trophies, and a first Grand Slam at the US Open in September. On the back of that success he became the first teenager to top the ATP Rankings and the youngest player to finish the year as world No 1.

Born on 5 May 2003 in El Palmar, Murcia, Spain, Alcaraz is the son of Carlos Alcaraz Gonzalez and Virginia Garfia Escandon and has three brothers: an older brother, Alvaro, and two younger brothers, Sergio and Jaime. His father is a former professional player who reached a career-high of No 963 in 1990 and later worked as a tennis academy director at the Real Sociedad Club de Campo de Murcia. Young Carlos began playing at that same club “as soon as he could hold a racket.” One of his early coaches recalled that even at four or five years old he showed extraordinary promise: “He began to play with his dad, and one day [his father] asked me to watch him. This kid, at four, five years old, was spectacular,” Kiko Navarro, one of Alcaraz Jr’s early coaches, told the Guardian. “I knew from very young that he was incredible. I’m not going to say that I was thinking he was going to be world No 1 but I knew that I had a really good and different player on my hands.”

Carlos Alcaraz Gonzalez has run the Carlos Alcaraz Tennis Academy by Reina at the Tiro de Pichón for nearly three decades and has become a major sponsor since his son’s rise. Virginia Garfia has generally kept a low profile but has attended several high-profile matches, including the 2024 US Open final win over Casper Ruud, the 2024 French Open victory over Alexander Zverev and the Wimbledon title runs in 2023 and 2024; she was notably seen celebrating after the 2023 semi-final win over Daniil Medvedev. In a 2022 interview Carlos said: “Obviously, my parents control the money for me. To buy some golf clubs, which I love; I don’t ask permission, but for a good car, yes. I’m still fighting it.
“My father is tougher and my mother less, so to go out and those things I tell my mother. I don’t have time as such, but they always tell me ‘don’t be late’. As much as I try not to make any noise when I get home, they always wake up and catch me.” In the Netflix documentary Carlos Alcaraz: My Way, released in early 2025, he revealed he still lives with his parents and that his mother’s cooking is “another reason why I like to be at home”. His brother Alcaro added: “He really is a family guy. he loved being with his childhood friends at the party because it’s when he’s the most relaxed and can really be himself.
“Please know that no matter how famous you decide you want to be, that you’ll always be my little brother and I’ll slap you over the head if you get all full of yourself.”

Jannik Sinner’s ascent to the top of men’s tennis is as much a story of family as it is of talent. The player grew up in a sporting household in South Tyrol and, by his own account, was given room to explore multiple interests before settling on tennis.

Sinner won his first Grand Slam at the 2024 Australian Open, recovering from two sets down to beat Daniil Medvedev 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3. That victory made him the first Italian man to win a major since Adriano Panatta’s 1976 French Open and only the third Italian man to win a Slam after Panatta and Nicola Pietrangeli. A few months later he climbed to No 1 in the ATP Rankings and later in the same year added the US Open to his résumé. In January 2025 he successfully defended the Australian Open and finished runner-up at the 2025 French Open.

Sinner has been open about the role his parents played in that journey. “I wish everyone could have my parents because they always let me choose whatever I wanted to, even when I was younger,” he said. “I made also some other sports and they never put pressure on me, and I wish this freedom is possible for as many young kids as possible. Thank you so much to my parents.”

Born on August 16, 2001 in the San Candido region, Jannik is the son of Johann and Siglinde Sinner and has a younger brother, Marc. The family comes from South Tyrol, the northern Italian region that borders Austria and the Swiss canton of Graubünden. Johann and Siglinde worked at a ski lodge after an earlier spell in a restaurant; Siglinde later taught skiing while Johann worked as a lumberjack. Jannik’s early success in alpine sports prompted speculation he might pursue skiing, but he ultimately chose tennis.

Sinner also highlighted words from his coach after the 2024 US Open run. “The best compliment I got was from Darren before the final,” Sinner revealed. “He said: ‘Do you know who the two people who are most proud of you are? Your parents.’ That gave me chills. Him being a father, it had a special effect on me because he knows exactly what I’ve been through.”

Johann and Siglinde do not often travel to tournaments, though they were in Turin when Jannik won the 2024 ATP Finals. Their hands-off approach remains central to the narrative of his rise.

Novak Djokovic appears set to qualify for the 2025 ATP Finals, a tournament he and others see as his clearest opportunity to gain the upper hand on Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz and add another major trophy to his collection of big titles. His bid for a first Grand Slam since the 2023 US Open ended in the US Open quarter-final, where he was beaten in straight sets by Alcaraz.

That loss extended a pattern: it is the third consecutive major in which Djokovic’s run has been ended by either Alcaraz or Sinner. He lost to Sinner in the semi-finals at both the French Open and Wimbledon, and earlier in the season he retired with an injury during his semi-final against Alexander Zverev at the Australian Open.

Last year, Sinner denied Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-final while Alcaraz beat him in the Wimbledon final. Djokovic did, however, record wins over Alcaraz this year in the Melbourne quarter-final and in the gold medal match at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Head-to-head records remain close: Djokovic leads Alcaraz 5-3, while Sinner holds a 6-4 advantage over Djokovic and has won their last five meetings.

Age is an acknowledged factor for the 38-year-old. “It will be very difficult for me in the future to overcome the hurdle of Sinner and Alcaraz in the best-of-five in the Grand Slams. I think I have a better chance [in] best of three, but best of five, it’s tough,” Djokovic said.

He added: “I’m, you know, not giving up on Grand Slams in that regard. Having said that, I’m going to continue fighting and trying to, you know, trying to get to the. To the finals and fight for another trophy at least, but, you know, it’s going to be a very, very difficult task.”

Djokovic has climbed two places in the ATP Race to Turin and sits third as Alcaraz and Sinner are already qualified. He currently has 4,180 points and needs roughly 1,000 more to reach the apparent cut-off of 5,395 points. The top five in the race read: 1. Carlos Alcaraz – 9,840 (Q) 2. Jannik Sinner – 7,950 (Q) 3. Novak Djokovic – 4,180 4. Alexander Zverev – 4,130 5. Ben Shelton – 3,710.

Having skipped the ATP Finals last year despite qualifying, Djokovic could reconsider; the season-ending event is best-of-three and runs for one week. He beat Sinner in the 2023 ATP Finals final to claim a record seventh title and also beat Alcaraz in that tournament’s semi-final.

“That’s a sentiment definitely after the Grand Slam season this year that, you know, not to say that I will skip Grand Slams. I mean, I still want to play Grand Slams, Grand Slam season, full Grand Slam season next year,” the tennis legend said.

“Well, let’s see whether that’s going to happen or not. But, you know, because Slams are Slams, you know, they are just different from any other tournament. They are the pillars of our sport, the most important tournaments we have.

“But yeah, I do fancy my chances a bit more in best of three, you know, I guess one-week tournaments or the Masters tournaments where you have almost two weeks with quite a few days between matches. So, you know, that could, that could serve me better in the matchups against them.”