Key questions of the Australian Open: Who will become a ‘disruptor’ to Carlos Alcaraz and Yannick Sinner? | Tennis News

Carlos Alcaraz and Yannick Sinner have split the last eight Grand Slams between them, so who can become the “disruptor” and break the monopoly?

After two years of total dominance by ‘Sincaraz’ Sinner and Alcaraz, we are waiting for a player to step in and win a major championship for himself.

Two big questions:

A) Will it happen?

B) If so, who is that guy?

Logic suggests that Sinner will be the one to win the Australian Open simply because Yannick has such a good record in Melbourne and Alcaraz doesn’t, so that’s one big historical difference in record between the two and I wouldn’t necessarily foresee anything happening to change that.

Alcaraz is a dominant player on clay, although it is one of the great reflections of 2025 that Sinner was repeatedly match point away in that incredible Roland Garros final, and he could have held all four major championships at the same time if he had won another point in Paris.

I think Alcaraz could win Wimbledon this year and I think Sinner could win the US Open so we could be looking at a role reversal in 2025. Again, two Grand Slams apiece. Sinner, Alcaraz, Alcaraz and Sinner in that order.

Who will be the disruptor?

Enter the jammer! If one or both slip up, who will take advantage? I think it’s totally possible this year.

You’re doing incredibly well going into a 12 month season avoiding injury and one of those grand slam failures. They happened! It happened to Roger Federer, it happened to Rafael Nadal, but less so to Novak Djokovic. We’ve seen Lucas Rossol and Sergi Stachovsky over the years create this big disruptive Grand Slam moment.

To me, there’s one guy who stands out as a guy who could be that disruptor and his name is Aleksandar Bublik.

Bublik has had this reputation over the years as a character, a performer, an underarm server, an extravagant shot maker, someone with so much natural ability but without necessarily the consistency or dedication to send him to the very top of the game. But there was a transformation in 2025 that came after a terrible start to the season where he lost so many matches in the first few months, but then everything turned around at the Phoenix Challenger and the trip to Las Vegas he talked about during the French Open.

And then in the second half of the year, if we go to the grass season, he was as good as anybody. With four titles, Bublik shows us that he can go on a tear, and when he does, it’s hard to stop him.

Bublik could meet Alcaraz in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, but could he be the disruptor?

I would reasonably say yes – I think he could be the guy! Simply because the likes of (Alexander) Zverev and (Taylor) Fritz as much as they are – the closest challengers in the ranking – have a scar from previous meetings.

Bublik will go in undeterred with this renewed confidence and with a recent history of beating Sinner in one of the great performances of 2025 in Halle. I don’t think that performance got as much credit as it deserved. It was an exceptional shot by Bublik and he can do it again.

Projecting him as the player most likely to pull off an upset and beat Alcaraz or Sinner at a Grand Slam this year is a wild prediction, as wild as some of Bublik’s tennis over the years. I feel more confident backing him in a single match like that than having one of the top eight challengers.

What about the other candidates?

As for the other men, I see Taylor Fritz struggling again. He has done extremely well the last few years and is now an established player in the top five, which I don’t see changing. I don’t see Zverev breaking the duck.

I don’t see Djokovic winning another Grand Slam, and among the others, one of the most interesting is Felix Auger-Aliassim. When he gets into it and believes in his game, plays with instinct and speed, he could potentially be the third best player in the world.

Does he believe that much? Does he believe in the way he needs to play to consistently beat the best? If he has and can have that mindset throughout the season, then he could be a big threat.

Then there are the Italians! (Lorenzo) Musetti has had a brilliant season on clay and some real career achievements have ticked away. His compatriot (Flavio) Cobolli is a very talented young player and he is on the rise. I expect him to have his best season yet.

As for Radučan…

Emma Raducanu leads the way for the British, and as I said at the end of 2025, the fact that she has gone from outside the top 300 to the edge of the top 50 over two years is incredible progress. If you were starting your career and had that trajectory, you’d get all the praise and be labeled as one to watch, so I see no reason why that trend wouldn’t continue for Radučana.

It’s great that he has that consistency with coach Francisco Roig by his side – he’s obviously a very good person to have in your corner and hopefully that relationship lasts and lasts, great things could still happen for him. She is still so young! We hope that this is a fully prepared, exciting year for Radučan.

Will Sabalenka be the favorite again?

The established top two were (Aryna) Sabalenka and (Iga) Sviatek, but that does not appear to be the case this season as Sviatek suffered unexpected defeats to her closest rivals, including (Koko) Gauff at the United Cup in early 2026 and (Amanda) Anisimova in Riyadh.

These are troubling results for Sviatek, who has long been a consistent player on the WTA Tour.

She was a player who backed up to avoid unexpected losses, and now that definitely seems to have changed, creating an interesting balance of power as Sabalenka has a firm grip on the top of the rankings.

Sabalenka has started the season strongly with another title (in Brisbane) so she will be a firm, firm favorite going into the Australian Open.

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