Can anyone consistently challenge Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner next season?

As we make our way toward the 2026 season—which begins Friday, January 2 on Tennis Channel with the United Cup—our Tennis Channel analysts and editors tackle the most important questions of the new year.

Next up: Can anyone consistently challenge Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner next season?

VICTORIA DUVAL: Players like Taylor Fritz, Jack Draper, and Novak Djokovic are more than capable of sneaking occasional wins, but I don’t see anyone able to consistently challenge Alcaraz and Sinner. We are currently in a two-man era at the top.

COCO VANDEWEGHE: For there to be someone consistently challenging Alcaraz and Sinner, I think it might not happen in the next five years. Of the field that currently exists, I would predict it would be a player who is still working on a complete game and isn’t fully formed.

DAVID KANE: If you asked me to list a group of players most likely to challenge Alcaraz and Sinner in 2026, you’d notice that most of them are either injured or recovering from injury. Holger Rune was teed up to be that third guy—winning a Masters 1000 title before even Sinner—but inconsistencies and now a catastrophic ACL tear will see him sidelined for at least the first half of next season. Jack Draper scored a win over Alcaraz last spring but has dealt with physical issues since. Tommy Paul effectively shut down his season after getting a head of steam on clay.

It might take until at least the summer before we get a hint of who that “third guy” can be, though with Alcaraz’s shocking coaching change, there could be someone taking advantage of that upheaval sooner rather than later.

BRETT HABER: It depends on your definition of “challenge”. Various guys can play them though and even beat them on a given day, but at the moment, neither one of them appears to have a serious “rival” outside of each other.

PAUL ANNACONE: At the moment, no. They are just better than the rest, and we’ve now seen that play out over multiple seasons. Sure, they will have losses and at times show some vulnerability, but right now there is work to be done to catch them in the consistency department.