“They are satisfied with the role of second or third” : Boris Becker calls out top ATP players for failing to challenge Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have dominated world tennis over the last two years. The duo have won four each Grand Slams in the last two seasons, and have faced against each other in each of the three Grand Slam finals. Recently, Carlos Alcaraz defeated Jannik Sinner in the finals of the 2025 US Open in four sets to extend his winning run over the Italian.

Both, Alcaraz and Sinner have asserted themselves one level above the rest of the ATP Field. However, legendary tennis player Boris Becker has called out the rest of the top 10 ranked players, and has questioned their mentality. He questioned the mentality of players like Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz, Jack Draper, Andrey Rublev, and their failure to beat the likes of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

Carlos Alcaraz has replaced Jannik Sinner as the world number one after his US Open victory. “[Alexander] Zverev, [Jack] Draper, [Taylor] Fritz, [Alex] De Minaur, [Casper] Ruud, [Holger] Rune, [Daniil] Medvedev, [Andrey] Rublev, [Karen] Khachanov, is number ten in the world. Where are the others?. That bothers me a bit. They’re always like… ‘Yes, [Jannik] Sinner and [Carlos] Alcaraz are so much better than we are. Yeah, why do you think?,” said Becker.

Boris Becker believes Felix Auger Aliassime exposed a weakness in Jannik Sinner’s game during semifinal clash

Boris Becker believes that the rest of the field are content to reach the quarterfinals and semifinals. “What bothers me about the rest is that they are satisfied with the role of second or third. Quarterfinals are ok, or semifinals are ok,” said Becker.

Boris Becker stated that Felix Auger Aliassime played a good match against Jannik Sinner in the US Open semifinals, where he was tactically on point. The former tennis player believes that the strategy to play against Sinner should be to shorten rallies, and play as flat as possible.

Boris Becker also stated that Felix Auger Aliassime forced Jannik Sinner to take a medical time-out in the semifinals, only second time he has ever done so at Grand Slams. The German stated that the four-time Grand Slam champion could be more vulnerable in extreme conditions like in Melbourne and New York.

“Now I come back to this semi-final against [Felix] Auger-Aliassime. Someone has finally thought strategically, How can I become dangerous to Sinner?” he said. “Logically, don’t get into long exchanges at the baseline, but play as flat and fast as possible. That’s not rocket science. You don’t have to study philosophy,” Becker added.

“It’s like that, just look at old matches, see what worked, what didn’t work. Auger-Aliassime played damn well and also had the chance to get to a fifth set, had a break point at the beginning of the fourth.”

“The medical time out for Sinner…that’s the second time Sinner has had a medical time out at a Grand Slam,” said Becker. This time it was the abdominal muscle, in Melbourne it was the heat, so you have to ask yourself, is he physically more vulnerable than the others?”