Why Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner made tennis history together

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have made history in the 2024 season. There is nothing more beautiful for tennis players than winning Grand Slam tournaments. You might think it has happened countless times because we are used to seeing Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic lifting the trophies, but this is only the third time that a men’s player duo has shared two of four Grand Slam titles in the same year. Article written by Victor LF (TenisAlDia).

Sinner won the Australian Open and the US Open on hard court, while Alcaraz won the other two, Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Since the Open era, the sport of professional tennis, began in 1968, this remarkable fact never occurred in history until 2017, when Nadal and Federer each won a pair. The other time happened in 2019, again with Rafael Nadal, this time alongside Novak Djokovic.

Let’s start at the beginning. In 2017, 35-year-old Roger Federer won the Australian Open after an epic five-set final against Rafael Nadal in a match widely considered one of the greatest in tennis history. A few months later, the Swiss won the trophy at Wimbledon without dropping a single set. Nadal did the same at Roland Garros, where he took the tournament by storm without dropping a set and at the end of the year managed to win the US Open while eliminating the surprising Kevin Anderson in the final. The Spaniard is the first tennis player in professional history to have managed to share two Grand Slam trophies in the same year with just one other player.

In 2019, the Spaniard again achieved the Roland Garros/US Open double. In Paris, he defeated Dominic Thiem in the final for the second time in a row, and in New York he prevented an incredible comeback by Daniil Medvedev. The Australian Open and Wimbledon went to Novak Djokovic this year, who overtook Nadal in Melbourne and played one of the greatest matches in the history of the sport against Federer in London.

Before the Open Era, in the amateur era, this had only happened once. That was in 1967, a few months before tennis became professional. It was achieved by Australians Roy Emerson and John Newcombe. The former won the Australian Open and Roland Garros, the latter Wimbledon and the US Open. It is the only time that these title combinations have been achieved in the same year, similar to Alcaraz and Sinner with the doubles titles achieved that season.

This has happened just as often in women’s tennis. Once in the amateur era, in 1964, when Margaret Court won in Australia and Roland Garros and Maria Bueno won Wimbledon and the US Open. But it has also happened three times in the Open era, although all of them were before the first time in the men’s tennis: 1982, 2001 and 2003.

In 1982, good friends Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova dominated the Grand Slam season, with the Australian Open and US Open for the former and Roland Garros and Wimbledon for the latter, just as Alcaraz and Sinner did this year. In 2001, Jennifer Capriati won the first two and Venus Williams the last two. In 2003, Serena Williams did the classic Australian Open/Wimbledon double and Justine Henin the Roland Garros/US Open double, as did Rafael Nadal with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

Regarding Alcaraz and Sinner, it should be noted that the Big 3 achieved this feat when they were each over 30 years old, while the Spaniard and the Italian are just 21 and 23 years old.