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

This week’s China Open is among the tour-level stops back on the tennis calendar after the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation of the combined WTA and ATP tournament for three successive years.

When the event was last held, Naomi Osaka and Dominic Thiem emerged victorious at the National Tennis Center in Beijing—among other things you might not remember:

Both Thiem and Osaka are absent from Beijing this year—the Austrian opted to play in Astana and the Japanese is training for a comeback in 2024.

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These familiar faces are making their debuts at this year's event. When the tournament was last staged in 2019:

Iga Swiatek hadn’t won a tour-level title
Carlos Alcaraz was 16 and had never played a tour-level main draw
A 15-year-old Coco Gauff was ranked outside the Top 100
A 16-year-old Holger Rune was ranked outside the Top 1100
Rune and Lorenzo Musetti were reigning junior Slam champs
Mirra Andreeva was 12 and yet to play an ITF junior event
An 18-year-old Jannik Sinner was coming off his major debut at the US Open
Daniil Medvedev had reached five straight hard-court finals

A look at Alcaraz during a challenger event in September 2019.

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More passing shots from this moment in time four years ago:

Novak Djokovic stood at 16 majors in the amazing race
Karolina Pliskova was the WTA No. 2. behind Ash Barty
Felix Auger-Aliassime was the only teenager ranked inside the ATP’s Top 100
Ons Jabeur was yet to crack the Top 50
Casper Ruud hadn’t yet surpassed dad Christian as the highest-ranked Norwegian in history
Elena Rybakina was without a Grand Slam match win
Andrey Rublev hadn’t won any ATP 500 titles
Three of Aryna Sabalenka's four WTA trophies had come in China following her Wuhan title defense
Ben Shelton had never played a pro tournament at any level
Wang Qiang was the Chinese No. 1 at No. 20
Fabio Fognini and Matteo Berrettini were separated by 100 points at No. 12 and No. 13
Jessica Pegula was the No. 12-ranked American woman
The Big 3 occupied the ATP’s Top 3 (1. Djokovic; 2. Rafael Nadal; 3. Roger Federer)

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