Throughout 2025, the two current titans of the court, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, have shared the four Grand Slams between them. The Italian started the rout by knocking out Alexander Zverev to claim his second straight Australian Open in January. However, Alcaraz would strike first in the battles between the planet’s top two, rallying from two sets down and two championship points behind his great rival to pull off the comeback of all comebacks at Roland Garros.
Sinner hit back at Wimbledon to overturn a one-set deficit of his own, ending Alcaraz’s two-year reign at the All England Club. At Flushing Meadows the pair would meet in a third straight slam final, this time with the Spaniard came out on top and underlined his status as the best player in the world in 2025, ending Sinner’s streak of hard-court Slam victories at three.
Alcaraz and Sinner are at the top of the rankings
After their rivalry played out in three of the four major finals, the aftershocks landed in the ATP rankings, with Alcaraz at the top and Sinner not far behind. The chase package? A million miles away, in second place, Sinner has more than double the points of Alexander Zverev, firmly planted at number three. In pure arithmetic terms, the German is statistically closer to world number 150 than number two – a ranking gap that defies belief.
Take a look at the betting odds for next year’s slam and you’ll see the huge difference between the top two and the chasing pack in real time. Take the Australian Open next January, for example. The ones who betting on sports at Bovada can see Sinner priced as the 19/20 favourite, with Alcaraz just behind at 6/4. Then comes Novak Djokovic at no less than 14/1, followed by Zverev at 20/1. That’s quite a bit for those looking to place a bet to absorb, but it’s important to recognize what exactly is going on here.
Pause for a moment. When have we ever seen such separation at the top of tennis? Well, here are four such occasions when two players – sometimes just one – stood head and shoulders above the rest of their contemporaries.
2017: Nadal and Federer’s last hurray
Rewind to 2017, when the tennis world was in the grip of the renaissance of two legends. Rafael Nadal, reborn after injury, reached No. 1 at the end of the year with 10,645 points and 10 titles, culminating in reclaiming his throne as King of Clay in Paris after a three-year absence, as well as his third victory at the US Open. Roger Federer, meanwhile, was the ageless wonder of the script: at the age of 36, he turned back the years and achieved 9,605 points, as well as two Grand Slams in Melbourne, and a record-breaking eighth crown at Wimbledon – beating away Father Time en route to a 19th major.
What about the rest? Grigor Dimitrov, talented but inconsistent, finished with just 5,150 points – more than 5,000 points behind second-place Federer. Stop and do the math: that’s a void so big it’s reminiscent of the classic Federer vs. Nadal duels of the 1990s, when the two superstars ruled the court with an iron fist. That’s perhaps the most surprising statistic of all: 2017 wasn’t even a banner year for Rafa and Roger, and they were still miles away from the rest.
2016: Murray’s brutal march, Djokovic’s reluctant surrender
In 2016, Andy Murray unleashed a season for the ages: with nine titles – including a heroic Wimbledon defense and a second consecutive Olympic gold – the Scottish superstar saw his way to 12,410 points and his first No. 1 title at the end of the year. Still dazzling, Novak Djokovic finished with 11,780 points after his 122-week stay at the top of the rankings was finally broken.
But zoom out and you’ll see how good the top two were that year. Milos Raonic’s 5,450 points barely registered in comparison, while the gap between second and third place was almost 6,500 points. Fourth-place Stan Wawrinka was another 1,000 points behind, while Rafa Nadal finished in ninth place, and Federer didn’t even crack the top fifteen. If that doesn’t tell you how dominant Murray and Nole were, nothing will.
2015: Djokovic’s Masterclass
Pull back the curtain on 2015 and the statistics become simply staggering. Novak Djokovic orchestrated pure numerical brilliance to finish with 16,585 points: a tour record. His three Grand Slams and five Masters 1000 crowns were more than just a sign of dominance; every trophy was an exclamation point in an 82-6 campaign rarely seen in the Open Era.
The numbers are unchanged: Andy Murray, second, achieved just 8,945 points; Federer, third, finished with 8,265. That gap of 7,640 points between Djokovic and Murray – almost doubling – is considered one of the largest gaps ever for the ATP. What caused it? Djokovic’s play in all areas had become a fortress: ruthless defense, surgical precision and a psychological advantage that not only outplayed rivals, but outwitted them.
2013: Nadal’s resurrection
And what about 2013? After an orthopedic heartbreak and months under the medical spotlight, Rafael Nadal returned with thunder and fire. He collected 13,030 points and dissected surfaces for 10 titles, including the French and US Opens. Djokovic finished with 12,260 despite his entire fight. But the telling number lies just below: David Ferrer’s 5,800 points at number 3.
The gap between Nadal and Ferrer was no less than 7,230 points. Was it Nadal’s superhuman ability to dominate on both clay and hard courts? Or perhaps a mental edge honed by adversity? Whatever the answer, analysts and fans alike saw an epic comeback turn into a statistical landslide.
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