Goran Ivanisevic would ‘always put money on’ Novak Djokovic to beat ‘humble’ Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz

Goran Ivanisevic believes Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are one step ahead of everybody else in tennis, but he would still back a fully fit Novak Djokovic to beat both youngsters if he “shows up” on the day.

Sinner and Alcaraz are the pretenders to Djokovic’s throne with both claiming big wins over the world No 1 over the past year. Sinner defeated the 24-time Grand Slam winner in the Australian Open semi-final as well as last year’s ATP Finals round-robin stage while Alcaraz beat the Serbian in the Wimbledon final.

The 24-time Grand Slam winner, though, has also gotten some big wins over the two rising stars as he defeated Alcaraz in last year’s French Open semi-final as well as the Cincinnati Open final while he beat Sinner in the final of the ATP Finals in November.

But there is no doubt the pair are set to dominate tennis in the coming years, especially when Djokovic decides to hang up his tennis racket for good.

READ MORE: Goran Ivanisevic identifies moment when he began to ‘feel that the end was near’ for Novak Djokovic partnership

Ivanisevic, who parted ways with Djokovic in March after five successful years as his coach, was asked by the Tennis Podcast who is better and who will be Djokovic’s biggest problem over the next few years, he replied: “I am a big fan of both. They are great guys first of all, very humble and very nice. I don’t know which one is better. They are [also] unbelievable tennis players.

“At the moment I have to say Sinner is the hottest tennis player in the world. He won 25 matches out of 26. He’s just unbelievable. He’s just playing great. Although, it’s interesting, they’re different kind of players. They’re both very beautiful to watch.

“They play different, these two guys, they’re going to have a lot of great matches. But if Novak shows up, I’ll always put my money on Novak.

“But we saw in Australia he was not kind of there and you cannot show up like that against Sinner, he’s too good.

“That Wimbledon final last year… one or two points and it could be a different match, but in the end, I have to say, Carlos played amazing and deserved to win.

“These two guys for me – if you put Novak aside or when Novak leaves – they are one step ahead of everybody, but now there is the Big Four – those two, Novak and [Daniil] Medvedev.”