A roundup of the action throughout 2024, a year that clearly puts Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz as new favourites for future tournaments. As finally after many years of domination at the elite level, the grip of the big four is fading and making way for new names.
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00:00So, Puneet, obviously, the US Open marks the end of the slams on the calendar, two going
00:08to Carlos Alcaraz and two going to Yannick Sinner. I mean, when you look at the big four
00:13who dominated the sport for a number of years and they've sort of taken a back seat now,
00:18do you feel this year sort of marks a change in tides in the tennis world?
00:23Yeah, definitely. There's no doubt about that. I mean, obviously, Sinner winning two slams
00:27and Alcaraz winning two, it goes to prove that that is happening. Nadal, I do consider
00:33him to be a retired player, to be honest. He has showed up for the Olympics, showed
00:37up for Roland-Garros, and I think he was just trying his hand to see how he was going to
00:42fare on the clay. And I think he wanted to have a chance at another clay title and obviously
00:47the Olympics as well at Roland-Garros. And it didn't work out for him. As expected, he's
00:54sitting out most of the other hardcore titles like he's been doing for several years. So
00:58I don't think Nadal is really going to be competitive. Novak Djokovic, I still think
01:04he has maybe a couple of years to try getting one or two more slams. He's going to keep
01:09trying. The desire is still there. This year, he had already told everybody that Olympics
01:15is his major thing. Having the knee injury did throw him off course for the slams, but
01:20he managed to get the Olympic gold. And it remains to be seen, is he going to come back
01:25in Australia and get that title again, or is he going to be able to compete with the
01:30young guns? I mean, the thing is, there's Sinha and there's Alkaraz, but everybody else
01:34still seems a way off. We saw that with the US Open. As soon as Alkaraz and Djokovic out,
01:40I did feel that the tournament had kind of got a bit boring and not so competitive. And
01:45I think players like Tiafoe and Shelton are really exciting and there's potential there.
01:52But we saw with the likes of Zverev and Medvedev and Tsitsipas, really, really disappointing.
01:57And looking back on the year, what's been your favourite moment of 2024? Whether it's
02:03a storyline to reflect on, because there's really been some fantastic ones and some things
02:08we've seen throughout the year have been really, really enjoyable to watch in the tennis world.
02:15I mean, it has been fantastic. I think Alkaraz winning, you know, Roland Garros and Wimbledon
02:19back-to-back, I think he was fantastic in the Wimbledon final. I don't know about Boudinette's
02:23best, but Alkaraz made it look so easy, even though it's not an ATP tournament. And I know
02:29he's probably made the Olympics more important than they are, really, in the world of tennis.
02:34But he's been talking about it for years. He's won everything else. This was his last
02:37chance. He had a knee injury. It was on clay. You know, he was up against such tough opponents,
02:43Nadal. Going into that, we weren't sure if he was going to be able to beat Nadal.
02:47And the way Novak played to win that in straight sets, he put literally everything on the line.
02:53You know, mind, body, soul. It was unbelievable. That match really stands out for me. I think
02:57that was my favourite match of the year.