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Alcaraz, Sinner, Djokovic or Zverev: who does the world pick?

27 October 2026 · Tennis Players

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For almost twenty years, men's tennis had one argument: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic. Federer retired at the Laver Cup in 2022 and Nadal at the Davis Cup in Málaga in 2024. The argument people search for now is a different one: can Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner ever be put next to the man who outlasted both of his great rivals? On GOATvs nobody has to wait for the careers to end. Every player is picked or passed over one face-off at a time, by everyone, and the box above shows where all three stand today in the world's list of the greatest tennis players of all time.

Djokovic's case is the record book. He has won 24 Grand Slam singles titles, more than any other man, and he has spent more weeks at world No. 1 than any player in history. He won every one of the four majors at least three times, and in 2024, at 37, he finally added the one prize he was missing: Olympic gold in Paris, beating Alcaraz in the final without dropping a set. In January 2026, at 38, he reached the Australian Open final once more. The case against him, if there is one, is only that the world often loved his rivals more than it loved him.

Alcaraz arrived faster than any of them. He won the US Open in 2022 at 19 and became the youngest man ever to finish a season at No. 1. He beat Djokovic in the Wimbledon final in 2023 and again in 2024, won the French Open in 2024 and 2025, took back the US Open in 2025, and in Melbourne in 2026 beat Djokovic in the final to become the youngest man ever to win all four majors. His tennis is the reason so many people watch: drop shots from the baseline, sprints that should not end in winners, and a habit of turning a lost point into the highlight of the night.

Sinner is the other side of the same coin. The Italian, who was a junior ski racer before he chose tennis, won his first major at the Australian Open in 2024, coming back from two sets down against Daniil Medvedev in the final. He won the US Open that year, defended his Australian title in 2025 then beat Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final, and defended that title in 2026. Where Alcaraz improvises, Sinner hits the ball earlier and harder than almost anyone, and wins long rallies by making them short.

Between the start of 2024 and the end of 2025, the two of them won all eight Grand Slam titles, four each. The best of their finals was the French Open in 2025, the longest final in the tournament's history, where Alcaraz saved three championship points and won in a fifth-set tiebreak after more than five hours. Five weeks later Sinner won their Wimbledon final, and two months after that Alcaraz won the US Open final and the No. 1 ranking back. Tennis has not had a rivalry that settled the biggest titles this evenly since Federer and Nadal.

Then 2026 added a fourth name. Alexander Zverev, the Olympic champion in Tokyo, had lost his first three Grand Slam finals. This year he won the French Open, in his fourth final, reached the Wimbledon final, and then won the US Open, beating Ben Shelton, the big-serving left-hander whose matches with Alcaraz are some of the most searched in the sport. Medvedev, the man who stopped Djokovic's calendar Grand Slam in the 2021 US Open final, is still in the conversation too.

Is the greatest the one with the most titles, the one who beat the best, or the one you would buy a ticket to watch? Pick Sinner or Alcaraz above, settle Djokovic against either of them, see where Zverev now stands, or see the whole Tennis Top 100, ranked by everyone.

Vote: Carlos Alcaraz vs Jannik Sinner

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