Boris Becker calls out eight ATP stars in Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner put-down

After Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner contested their third Grand Slam final of the season - an Open Era record in men's tennis - Boris Becker believes the two young champions are only widening the gap with the rest of the field.

The world Nos. 1 and 2 have now shared the last eight Grand Slam titles, and the German tennis icon wants to see the rest of the tour's top young players - including the likes of British No. 1 Jack Draper - step up, otherwise "closing the gap is actually impossible."

While players like Alexander Zverev and Taylor Fritz have been able to make it to Grand Slam finals, none of them have been able to cause a huge upset and unsettle the monopoly Sinner and Alcaraz currently have on the Majors.

Aged 38, Novak Djokovic has shown that he is still the world's third-best player this year, reaching the semi-finals of all four Slams. He retired injured at the Australian Open, and his three losses on the biggest stages have come to either Alcaraz or Sinner.

And Becker believes that once Djokovic has retired, the disparity between Alcaraz and Sinner and the rest of the top 10 will only get bigger.

"The statistic for Djokovic against Fritz is 11-0. Not for the American. What kind of gap is there, sportingly speaking? How good or not good are the others? I'm talking about everyone else," Becker said on his joint podcast with Andrea Petkovic.

"It's an incredible statistic with the eighth consecutive Grand Slam victory for either Alcaraz or Sinner. But where the hell are the rest? We're talking about Zverev, Draper, Fritz, de Minaur, Ruud, Rune, Medvedev, Rublev."

The six-time Major winner was impressed with Felix Auger-Aliassime's efforts against Sinner in the US Open semi-finals, as the Canadian went toe-to-toe with the top seed for most of the match and even took a set off Sinner, though it still wasn't enough.

"Finally, someone thought strategically, 'How can I pose a threat to Sinner?' Logically, not by long rallies at the baseline. That's not rocket science. You don't have to study philosophy," Becker explained.

But he's still not happy with the eight players he named and shamed. "Something about the rest, that they're content with the second or third role. 'Quarter-finals are okay, semi-finals are okay'," he added.

"No, it's not okay if you want to become the best tennis player in the world."

It's a bruising reality check for the rest of the tour. But the sentiment remains that Alcaraz and Sinner are just a cut above the rest.

After losing to the Spaniard in the semi-finals last week, even 24-time Major winner Djokovic declared: "These two players are the best in the world right now."

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