The past eight Grand Slam titles have been shared between Carlos Alcaraz and Yannick Sinner.
They’ve played in the last three finals and we’ve been excited – especially last June’s French Open, when Alcaraz saved three championship points en route to a stunning victory.
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But during that time, their top ten opponents have barely attacked them.
“Two horses racing is not a healthy situation,” 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash told BBC 5 Live’s Australian Open preview show.
“First those two, then the others.”
The fear is that, despite the excitement of the final, the men’s draw could become too predictable if they continue to dominate.
So far in Melbourne, Alcaraz has won his first three matches in straight sets – Sinner dropped just 10 games in the first two rounds, but by his own admission he was “lucky” to force a break in the third round, which allowed him to recover from cramps and defeat Elliot Spiceri in four sets.
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“Anything can happen in a long match, but a two-horse match is not necessarily healthy for Grand Slam tennis or the Tour,” Cash added.
“If there are only two players everyone is talking about, that’s a problem.”
Not everything that happened in the first week of the last major, last September’s U.S. Open, was predictable.
Benjamin Bonzi beat Daniil Medvedev in five sets, but it wasn’t until the Frenchman had match point in the third set that a photographer walked onto the court and Medvedev blamed the referee for giving Bonzi another first serve in the hope he would go home sooner.
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In the women’s draw, defeated Jelena Ostapenko accused Taylor Townsend of being uneducated for not apologizing for the net rope winner and not daring to start pre-match warmups by going to the net.
But for the first time in a Grand Slam since Sinner and Alcaraz became the sport’s dominant duo, they felt little danger in the run-up to the New York final.
The only set Alcaraz lost came in the final, and although Sinner lost two sets in the final, he never looked in danger.
Expectations for the pair to meet in a Grand Slam final remain high, but most majors now last 15 days. It takes a long time to get to what some might consider a foregone conclusion.
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Comparing their respective forms, or wondering how much the first four hours of action will diminish their performance in the final, can get tedious quickly.
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Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have dominated the men’s game for the better part of two decades. Three isn’t always more compelling than two, and many French Open and Wimbledon draws felt highly predictable when Nadal and Federer were in their prime.
But Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka also pose a threat, having won three Grand Slam titles each, with Murray in particular having a lot of success against the “Big Three”.
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Recent evidence suggests that Alcaraz and Sinner’s main rivals have had little success anywhere.
Novak Djokovic famously defeated Alcaraz at last year’s Australian Open, but world No. 3 Alexander Zverev and No. 5 Lorenzo Musetti have lost all five of their matches against the pair in 2025.
Meanwhile, world number six Alex De Minaur has lost seven of seven matches and has never beaten anyone in 18 matches.
Billie Jean King hopes an opponent emerges, but she doesn’t think the men’s Grand Slam draw will get boring.
“There’s something about sport – you never know,” the 39-time Grand Slam champion told BBC Sport before the start of the season.
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“You think it’s a sure win, but the human element is really great.”
Britain’s Davis Cup captain Leon Smith isn’t worried about the first six rounds getting boring either.
“Other stories came out — something happened,” Smith said.
“You see Alexander Bublik come up with a surprise, you go to America and suddenly Taylor Fritz or Ben Shelton lights it up.
“Tennis moves. People have said before that there can’t be any other players who can do what the ‘Big Three’ do, and suddenly there are two guys showing signs that they can do it.
“Tennis is constantly evolving and who knows what Joao Fonseca or others will do in the future.”
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It’s tempting to predict that Sinner and Alcaraz will win all four majors for the third year in a row. But let’s not forget that Grigor Dimitrov was two sets ahead of Sinner in the fourth round at Wimbledon before tearing his right pectoral muscle while serving his 14th ace. He admitted it a few minutes later with tears in his eyes.
One of them will lose at a Grand Slam again. The question is when will they both fail next?