[Editor’s note: This article is from Athlon Sports’ 2025 “Year in Review” magazine, which celebrates the year’s champions and relives the biggest moments from across the world of sports. Order your copy online today, or pick one up at retail racks and newsstands nationwide.]

Tennis fans will remember having complicated feelings at the end of the 2023 French Open — that strange awareness, to borrow a line from The Office’s Andy Bernard, that “you wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.”

Novak Djokovic was lying on the clay, hands to his face and covered in red dust as he soaked in the moment. It was Djokovic’s third Coupe des Mousquetaires but his record-setting 23rd Grand Slam title, passing Rafael Nadal, who withdrew from the tournament with a hip injury.

The tennis world celebrated Djokovic’s feat, but it also grappled with reality: Roger Federer retired years earlier, and Nadal’s exit was imminent, leaving Djokovic, who just turned 36 before the 2023 French Open, as the last of “The Big Three” standing.

What would men’s tennis look like when Father Time finally ousted Djokovic? Did we take the last 20 years — during which Federer, Nadal and Djokovic combined for 66 Grand Slam titles — for granted?

At the time, it felt as if Djokovic’s remaining competitive years would be spent swatting back Carlos Alcaraz, a buoyant teenager who had won his first Grand Slam as a 19-year-old at the 2022 U.S. Open, an event Djokovic couldn’t play in because he was unable to enter the U.S. in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eventually, Djokovic would hand the torch to Alcaraz, and the tennis world would have to hope that one of the promising young talents on the ATP Tour would emerge as the Federer to Alcaraz’s Nadal.

At times, it appeared Nick Kyrgios, Daniil Medvedev and/or Stefanos Tsitsipas were on the verge of strapping in shotgun next to Alcaraz. For one reason or another, they all fell short.

But while all of this was going on, Jannik Sinner, a string-beaned Italian, was starting to figure things out. Sinner flashed some serious potential in 2022, fighting his way to the quarterfinals at three of the four Grand Slams at age 21.

He wasn’t able to get over that hump, however, and a disappointing 2023 campaign had skeptics wondering if Sinner had the physical strength and stamina needed to endure the rigors of the tennis calendar.

We got our answer quickly in 2024, when the Italian dominated his way to his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. Seven months later, Sinner was lifting the trophy at the U.S. Open, bookending Alcaraz’s wins at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

It was clear that we were in the beginning stages of something special, but the rivalry between Sinner and Alcaraz had yet to hit a high note. Although they accounted for all four major trophies in 2024, Alcaraz and Sinner had yet to meet in a Grand Slam final.

That trend continued at the 2025 Australian Open, which the carrot-topped Italian once again dominated. Sinner hardly broke a sweat en route to his second straight triumph in Melbourne, his path made a little easier by Djokovic, who beat Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.

At that moment, it appeared as if 2025 would belong to Sinner, but weeks later, the tennis world was left stunned when the Italian was handed a three-month suspension for violating the sport’s anti-doping policy. Sinner claimed ignorance, but the ordeal had an unintended consequence: The budding rivalry between the two best players in the world now had a villain.

With Sinner wearing the black hat, Alcaraz found his form on clay and beat the reinstated Sinner in the final of the Rome Masters. It was a harbinger.

Weeks later, Sinner and Alcaraz met in the showpiece at Roland Garros, their first-ever meeting with a Grand Slam title on the line. With the crowd behind him, Alacaraz erased a two-set deficit in a match that went deep into the Parisian night.

Being on the choking side of a five-and-a-half-hour classic was all it took for the tennis world to forgive Sinner.

A month later, it was Sinner who came from behind to defeat Alcaraz in the finals at Wimbledon.

At the end of the summer, the two met in another final, this time in New York City, with the U.S. Open on the line. Sinner was the betting favorite, but it was Alcaraz who dominated the tussle to earn his sixth major title. The two rivals had now combined to win eight consecutive Grand Slams, the last three against each other.

During his on-court victory speech in Queens, Alcaraz turned to Sinner and said, grinning: “I’m seeing you more than my family.”

Alcaraz’s U.S. Open victory concluded one of the most memorable stretches in men’s tennis. Not only were we treated to seeing two of the best players in the history of the sport at their best, but this should be just the beginning of one of tennis’ greatest chapters.

Indeed, we are in the good old days.

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This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Dec 31, 2025, where it first appeared in the Tennis section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.