Coach gamble underlines duopoly of Alcaraz-Sinner

The battle for supremacy took a twist with the news of Carlos Alcaraz's split from his coach. Ahead of the Australian Open, Jamie Braidwood ponders what it means for their rivalry

- Jamie Braidwood

"I'm seeing you more than my family," Carlos Alcaraz joked as he turned to Jannik Sinner during the US Open trophy presentation in September, after the two players who are dominating men's tennis played in their third consecutive grand slam final.

At the start of 2026, neither Alcaraz nor Sinner is tired of the other yet. Instead, the closeness of their rivalry has illustrated how irrelevant everyone else is becoming. On Sunday, Alcaraz and Sinner arrived in Australia together, stepping off the plane to be photographed and interviewed after sharing the same private jet with their teams. A choreographed entrance in Melbourne signified that the main event had landed.

Rather than entering a warm-up tournament before the Australian Open, Alcaraz and Sinner headed to South Korea to play a lightly contested exhibition, featuring some pretend rallies and Sinner handing his racket to a child in the front row for a point. It was a bit of fun - which earned both players £1.7m for turning up, according to Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport - before the real business begins. Both Alcaraz and Sinner stressed their exhibition would not reveal anything ahead of the Australian Open. After all, for all of the friendliness between Alcaraz and Sinner, there is too much on the line for them not to be guarded, too.

A year ago, the big question facing men’s tennis was which of the four grand slam tournaments would stage the first Alcaraz vs Sinner final. Now, the Australian Open is the only one to be missing from the list, and a fourth in a row between the two best players in the world feels inevitable.