Tour veterans offer timely challenge to big two era of Sinner and Alcaraz | Tumaini Carayol
In the uncertain early stages of his Indian Wells semi-final contest with Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev swiftly made his intentions clear,Having established a 3-1 lead, he chased down a trademark Alcaraz drop shot, then a lob, before slamming the door shut on the point by firing an ultra-flat inside-out backhand winner on to the edge of the line,This was a statement point and it formed part of the most startling performance of the year so far,Few gave Medvedev a serious chance against Alcaraz, who had won their four previous meetings, conceding just one set,It took one of the best matches of Medvedev’s distinguished career to turn the tables on Alcaraz in only two sets.
The defining question of men’s tennis this season remains whether any player can consistently put Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner under real pressure.Rather than a new emerging talent, a third man, the first steps have actually been made by the two veterans who preceded Alcaraz and Sinner as the world No 1, with Novak Djokovic producing an incredible performance in the Australian Open semi-finals to topple Sinner in five sets.Medvedev’s performances in California marked a significant moment in his career.He is the best men’s tennis player born in the 1990s, a former No 1 and grand slam champion, but the 30-year-old is coming off his most painful season.He won just one grand slam match in the entirety of 2025, falling out of the top 15 for the first time since 2019.
He finished with more rants and emotional crashouts than match wins,For all the significant strides Medvedev took last week, though, the final result merely served as a reminder of just how incredibly difficult this task is,Beating both players will often be a requirement in order to win most big tournaments for the foreseeable future,A day later, Medvedev played another strong match and he pushed Sinner in two tight tie-breaks, but it was just a step too far,Sinner dominated in the decisive points, capturing the 25th title of his career.
Sinner is now the youngest man in history to win every major hard-court title, at 24 years old.Perhaps an even greater measure of his brilliance, however, is the discourse that preceded it.He failed to reach the final of his first two tournaments of the year, following up his loss against Djokovic in Melbourne with a quarter-final defeat by Jakub Mensik at the Qatar Open.Those two losses were enough to invite a wave of discussion about whether Sinner was on the verge of a slump.Such kneejerk reactions serve only to underline the astounding level and consistency Sinner has established over the past few years.
He has been second-best to Alcaraz in their personal rivalry, but he has otherwise been ruthless against the field, particularly on hard courts.He has set the bar so high that just one or two defeats are enough to raise eyebrows.No matter, Sinner closed out the Indian Wells title without dropping a set.There will be more to come.Rather than Alcaraz and Sinner, the most important tennis rivalry of the first months of the 2026 season has been between Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina.
The two destructive shotmakers more than matched their excellent Australian Open final with a spectacular contest in the California desert.This time, Sabalenka held her nerve to win 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6), saving a match point deep in the tie-break.This was Sabalenka’s first tournament since the Australian Open, having backed up her criticisms of the congested schedule by opting not to compete in either of the February WTA 1000 tournaments in Doha and Dubai.Her decision paid off in full.The WTA top 10 is stronger than it has been for more than a decade.
Nine of the top 10 have won at least one grand slam title or WTA 1000 in the past 52 weeks and the one anomaly, Elina Svitolina, is playing some of the best tennis of her career,Rybakina’s incredible past six months, which have included titles at the WTA Finals and the Australian Open, have afforded her a new career-high ranking of No 2,Sabalenka’s consistent brilliance, however, remains the focal point of her sport this year,Although his reign at Indian Wells came to an end, and in controversial circumstances after he was penalised for hindrance deep in the second set of his quarter-final defeat by Medvedev, Jack Draper departed the site of his first Masters 1000 title as one of the happiest players of all,The past seven months have marked the toughest challenge of the 24-year-old’s career after a bone bruise to his left arm meant he has played only one match since Wimbledon in July.
Having been ranked No 4 at Wimbledon, positioning himself as one of the few younger players capable of pushing Alcaraz and Sinner, Draper has now fallen out of the top 25.After an excellent week from Cameron Norrie, who dismantled Alex de Minaur en route to the quarter-finals, Draper has also lost his British No 1 ranking to his old friend.However, in just his second tournament since returning, Draper offered up an unforgettable reminder of his talent and quality, triumphing in the best men’s match of the season so far as he defeated Djokovic in a bruising, quality nighttime tussle.Draper’s talent and ability have never been in doubt.If he remains healthy enough to train and compete consistently, his ranking and results will follow.
He is back again to give himself more opportunities to achieve those goals,
Gatz review – the Great Gatsby performed in eight and a half hours of attentive, immersive joy
A man enters his office in the morning, finds his computer on the fritz and, after a few attempts to turn it on and off again, comes across a copy of F Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. So he starts to read and when his colleagues enter they find themselves taking on the characters, and soon the novel unfolds around us, word by word. The New York theatre company Elevator Repair Service has produced a work that is not quite adaptation – given it doesn’t really adapt the novel at all – but that is utterly transfixing nonetheless.Following a keen interest in non-dramatic texts, the company wanted to see what would happen when a powerful literary work was read and performed in its entirety. The result is both strange and strangely familiar
How to Make a Killing to Wu-Tang Clan: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Glen Powell indulges in some murder most profitable, and the influential rap collective arrive in the UK complete with a clutch of peerless classicsHow to Make a KillingOut nowLoosely inspired by the much-loved Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets, here is a dark comedy that sees Glen Powell play an upwardly mobile schemer who isn’t afraid to murder his way to his inheritance. Directed by John Patton Ford (Emily the Criminal).Reminders of HimOut nowMaika Monroe (It Follows) stars as a woman who goes to prison following a car accident in which her boyfriend (Rudy Pankow) is killed. On release, she finds herself drawn to a handsome local bar owner (Tyriq Withers). Romance based on the bestselling Colleen Hoover novel
The Guide #234: Five big questions before the 2026 Oscars
Happy Oscars Eve eve to you all. The film industry’s glitziest night takes place on Sunday, at an ungodly hour for those of us covering it from the other side of the Atlantic. Coffee will be essential for anyone staying up, as will the Guardian’s annual liveblog, covering every last minute of the ceremony as well as its red carpet run-up. Head over to the homepage on Sunday evening for that, plus news and commentary on the night’s events.There’s plenty to read before that too: our annual Oscar hustings, making the case for each of this year’s best picture nominees (I sided with Sentimental Value); an interview with Academy top dog Bill Kramer; a piece on the increasingly toxic discourse around many of this year’s nominees; and Guardian film editor Catherine Shoard’s reader Q&A on this year’s race and the state of film in general
Jimmy Kimmel on Trump being gifted an Olympic medal: ‘Yet another award he didn’t win’
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Seth Meyers on Pete Hegseth: ‘The face of a man war-fighting with his colon’
Late-night hosts dug into the Trump administration’s vague intentions for the war in Iran, the conflict’s oil-price effect and a Maga rally in Kentucky with Jake Paul.On Late Night, Seth Meyers checked in on Donald Trump’s now two-week-old war in Iran. “The president is maybe sort of threatening/teasing that he might put boots on the ground in Iran? But Republicans can’t seem to agree on whether they support that idea, or for how long, or why,” he explained.The confusion comes from the top: Pete Hegseth, the “defense secretary/morning show host/fifth-year senior who just found out that yeah, he’s gonna need to do a sixth year” who made a big deal about turning the defense department into “the department of war” and “refocusing on the core mission: war fighting”.“And before we go any further: was there a problem with the term ‘warfare’?” Meyers wondered
Sydney Biennale 2026: politics is everywhere – but with nuance, beauty and heart
According to its critics, this year’s Biennale of Sydney, under the leadership of Emirati artistic director Hoor Al Qasimi (the first Arab appointed to the role in the festival’s 53-year history) was destined to be a “hate Israel jamboree” at worst; a hotbed of pro-Palestinian politics at best. These fears – which appear to have originated from pro-Palestine statements Al Qasimi and her parents made in the past – are not borne out by the festival itself, which opens this weekend across five key venues, spanning from the inner city out to Penrith and Campbelltown.In an unusual move for the biennale, Al Qasimi wasn’t present at the vernissage – but with or without her, the resulting festival, the event’s 25th, is complex and nuanced. It’s light on spectacle and slogans; not a political chant but rather a polyphony of voices – more than 80 artists from 37 countries – singing their own songs. The theme, “Rememory” – taken from Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved – is reflected in works that look to the past to find answers to present dilemmas and envision better futures
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