Generational Rivalry: Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz head into 2026 after playing for four of five biggest titles

New faces emerge in tennis every year, but 2021 seemed to have more new faces than most years—for instance, six of the year-end Top 10 players on the WTA rankings had never even spent a week inside the Top 10 before this year, and the same goes for three of the year-end Top 10 players on the men’s side.

And a little further down the rankings, there’s a whole bunch of up-and-comers potentially headed towards the Top 10 in the next few years, too.

Below are the Top 10 biggest ranking movers into the year-end Top 100s of the ATP and WTA rankings for 2021, since the year-end rankings in 2020.

BIGGEST MOVERS INTO THE ATP YEAR-END TOP 100:
+252: Juan Manuel Cerundolo (No. 341 to No. 89)
+251: Jenson Brooksby (No. 307 to No. 56)
+225: Alex Molcan (No. 312 to No. 87)
+212: Sebastian Baez (No. 309 to No. 97)
+138: Mackenzie McDonald (No. 193 to No. 55)
+120: Arthur Rinderknech (No. 178 to No. 58)
+109: Carlos Alcaraz (No. 141 to No. 32)
+102: Benjamin Bonzi (No. 165 to No. 63)
+99: Botic van de Zandschulp (No. 156 to No. 57)
+99: Brandon Nakashima (No. 166 to No. 67)

It wasn’t by much, but Cerundolo—who just turned 20 years old a few weeks ago—made the biggest jump into this year’s year-end ATP Top 100, largely thanks to his breakthrough run on home soil in Cordoba in February. He went all the way to his first ATP title as a No. 335-ranked qualifier in what was also his first ATP main draw. The left-handed Argentine became the first player to win the title while playing their first ATP main draw since 2004 (Santiago Ventura in Casablanca).

And American men’s tennis is looking very bright with three of the 10 biggest movers: 26-year-old McDonald, 21-year-old Brooksby and 20-year-old Nakashima.

The 18-year-old Alcaraz is the youngest man to finish in the year-end Top 32 since Medvedev—no, not Daniil, Andrei—finished at No. 24 in 1992 as a younger 18-year-old.

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BIGGEST MOVERS INTO THE WTA YEAR-END TOP 100:
+472: Ana Konjuh (No. 538 to No. 66)
+324: Emma Raducanu (No. 343 to No. 19)
+276: Beatriz Haddad Maia (No. 358 to No. 92)
+183: Anna Bondar (No. 273 to No. 90)
+177: Maryna Zanevska (No. 258 to No. 81)
+167: Nuria Parrizas Diaz (No. 232 to No. 65)
+158: Clara Burel (No. 235 to No. 77)
+131: Camila Osorio (No. 186 to No. 55)
+128: Claire Liu (No. 222 to No. 94)
+110: Anhelina Kalinina (No. 162 to No. 152)

The biggest mover into this year’s year-end WTA Top 100 is still young, but certainly isn’t a new name. Ana Konjuh is a former No. 20 who reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal more than five years ago at the 2016 US Open, but she’s had an injury-marred last few years, finishing outside of the Top 400 in 2018, 2019 and 2020 after some nagging struggles with her right elbow. But this year the 23-year-old Croatian soared back into the Top 100, her best results being a WTA 250 final on clay in Belgrade in May and a WTA 500 semifinal on hard courts in San Jose in August.

Among the biggest movers on the women’s side were Emma Raducanu, who rose from No. 338 at Wimbledon to No. 19 on the year-end rankings, and one of the brightest young American prospects, 2017 Wimbledon girls’ champion Claire Liu. Her year was highlighted by winning two big ITF titles in May—a $60,000 event in Charlottesville, Va. and a $100,000 event in Charleston, S.C.

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