NATIONAL BESTSELLER
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2025 BY
* THE NEW YORKER * NPR * TOWN & COUNTRY *
The story of Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, and their epic rivalry, as told by "the best tennis writer in America" (Brian Phillips, The Ringer).
For more than two decades, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer dominated men's tennis so thoroughly that it became difficult to imagine how the game would keep its shine once they retired.
Then came 2024-the first year since 2002 that none of them won a Grand Slam tournament-and a technicolor future was revealed. The major titles were divided between a pair of prodigies in their early twenties: the effervescent showman Carlos Alcaraz, whose infinite variety of shots won him the French Open and Wimbledon; and the relentlessly cool Jannik Sinner, whose power and precision secured him the Australian Open and US Open even amid a doping controversy. Though other young contenders jostled for the spotlight, and Djokovic tried to hold his ground, the transcendentally gifted Alcaraz and Sinner just kept installing their new regime.
"Witty" (The Wall Street Journal), delivering "loads of insight" (The Washington Post), and rooted in a true fan's love of the game, this "scintillating account" (Publishers Weekly) serves as a primer to the rivalry poised to define the next decade of the sport. Giri Nathan is a staff writer and cofounder at Defector Media. His writing has appeared in New York magazine, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times, National Geographic, The New Yorker, and The Believer. He is the senior correspondent at tennis outlet The Second Serve. In 2022, he received the Tom Perrotta Prize for Tennis Journalism. His work was selected for the 2025 editions of The Year's Best Sports Writing and The Best American Food and Travel Writing.
