Stefanos Tsitsipas and his contemporaries received a brutal reality check following Jannik Sinner’s Australian Open victory.
Stefanos Tsitsipas and some of his former ‘Next Gen’ stars have received a brutal prediction from former pro Arnaud Clement following Jannik Sinner’s recent triumph at the Australian Open. Along with Alexander Zverev and Andrey Rublev, Tsitsipas was part of a group of young players that had been tipped to go on and reach the top of the sport, winning Grand Slams and climbing to No. 1 in the world. But none of the three have been able to win a Major trophy while their younger rivals Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have.
Tsitsipas, Zverev and Rublev were some of the original members of the Next Gen cohort – a group of players aged 21 and under who were expected to carry the torch from the Big Three. Between them, they have an Olympic gold medal, ATP Finals titles and Masters 1000 trophies but they have never been able to make the push at Grand Slams.
Tsitsipas has contested two finals – losing both to Novak Djokovic – while Zverev blew a championship point in the 2020 US Open final. Rublev, meanwhile, is 0-10 in Major quarter-finals. And the three 1990s-born men have since been leapfrogged by some of their younger rivals.
2000s-born Sinner and Alcaraz now have three Grand Slams between them, with Sinner becoming the latest new men’s singles champion when he won the Australian Open on Sunday. And former world No. 10 Clement believes that Tsitsipas, Zverev and Rublev have been left in the dust, missing their chance to win the biggest titles in the sport.
