Marat Safin Believes the Declining Level of Tennis Led to Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s Dominance

Former World No.1 Marat Safin has criticized the current average level of the ATP Tour, revealing that it has led to the easy dominance of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Safin, who is the coach of Andrey Rublev, argued that there are rarely upsets in tournaments as Alcaraz and Sinner easily beat their opponents.

Sinner and Alcaraz have been the dominant force on the ATP Tour since 2024. They have won nine of the last 10 Grand Slams between them, while consistently challenging for the biggest titles on tour and winning many of them. In every tournament they feature in, they are always the favorites to reach the final.

This year alone, Alcaraz claimed the Australian Open for the first time in his career after beating Novak Djokovic in four sets in the final. He won the Qatar Open before Sinner dominated the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, winning five consecutive tournaments. The only time Sinner suffered an upset on the court was at the French Open.

He lost to Juan Manuel Cerundolo in five sets in the second round of Roland Garros. Meanwhile, Alcaraz lost to Sebastian Korda in the third round of the Miami Open in March. The Spaniard is currently out of the tour due to a wrist injury he suffered at the Barcelona Open in April, while playing against Otto Virtanen.

However, Alexander Zverev and Djokovic are the only players who are closest to challenging Sinner and Alcaraz on the court, especially at Grand Slam tournaments. Zverev won the French Open last month, and he’s into the final of the Wimbledon Championships. Marat Safin analyzed in his interview with Puntodebreak that the level of competition in men’s tennis has dropped and it is easy to predict who will win a tournament:

The level of tennis has dropped. I don’t know why it’s happened, but the level isn’t the same anymore. Before, there were thirty or fifty players capable of playing extraordinary tennis. Now, at most, there are ten. They [Alcaraz and Sinner] reach the semifinals or finals without losing a single set, and I find that almost laughable.

Aside from Djokovic and Zverev, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Alex de Minaur, Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz, and Daniil Medvedev have struggled to be at a consistent high level of performance on the court even though they have displayed tremendous talent. That has somehow made the gap between the top 4 players and other stars enormous.

Marat Safin believes Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner wouldn’t have challenged the Big 3

There has been a debate on whether Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner would have challenged the Big 3 (Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal) during their two decades of dominance on tour. Legendary coach Patrick Mouratoglou has argued that the Big 3 would struggle with the pace of the current men’s tennis.

Former French player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who reached a career-high ranking of World No. 5, pointed out that Alcaraz and Sinner dominate the ATP because the competitive level is lower than in the era of the Big 3. During the aforementioned interview, Marat Safin revealed that Sinner and Alcaraz would not have been World No.1 and No.2 during the time of Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal’s dominance:

No, they are not at all at Federer’s level. That’s a whole different level. To reach Federer’s level, they still need a lot of improvement. I don’t want to belittle anyone. That’s just my point of view. If Sinner and Alcaraz had played in the era of Nadal and Djokovic, or even in the early 2000s, they would not have been world number one or two. I don’t think they would have gone that far. I think I would probably have lost to them, but I don’t find them intimidating.

Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal were challenged by Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray, Marin Cilic, and Juan Martin Del Potro on tour. Despite their competitive level, they were sometimes defeated by lower-ranked players on tour.

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