Stefanos Tsitsipas talks up post-Djokovic and Nadal rivalry amid claim 'Big Three' is over

Stefanos Tsitsipas has talked up a future rivalry with 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz after making a bold claim that there is "no more Big Three". Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have dominated the game for the better part of two decades but the world No 5 pointed out that they were no longer on top as he set his sights on filling the gap left behind in a post-Big Three era.

Tsitsipas recently became the fourth man ever to defend his maiden Masters 1000 title and the sixth man to win back-to-back titles at the Monte Carlo Masters when he lifted the trophy for a second successive year on Sunday. He joined Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz in the list of this season's Masters champions, with the familiar names of Djokovic and Nadal notably absent from the winners' circle.

The 23-year-old has now claimed that there is no longer a Big Three with Federer still sidelined following a third knee surgery. "Right now there is no more Big Three because they are not the three best players in the ranking right now," Tsitsipas said ahead of his Barcelona Open campaign.

While he didn't think the Big Three were still a current force on the tour, the eight-time title winner didn't count out Djokovic and Nadal as he saw the pair still contending for the biggest titles despite the Serb yet to play many tournaments this year and the world No 4 sidelined with a rib injury. "One of them has been absent for a long time, but I still see competition between the other two," he added.

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With Djokovic, Nadal and Federer no longer occupying the top three ranking spots, Tsitsipas looked ahead to the future of tennis and tipped himself and Alcaraz to be two of the dominant