Tennis is finally taking a breath. After four Grand Slams, 56 more ATP Tour tournaments and the small matter of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the tennis calendar enters its off-season — in which players are mostly found first in the Maldives and then on the practice courts before the new season begins in Australia and New Zealand at the end of December.

In a review of the 2024 ATP season, The Athletic’s tennis team look back at Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz’s remastering of men’s tennis; Novak Djokovic’s best worst year; the rise of Taylor Fritz and the retirement of two legends.

They also pick their best and favorite matches, surprises, and moments from another remarkable year in tennis on the court.

Don’t forget to sound off in the comments on your picks — there’s plenty of tennis to review.

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz’s remaking of the tennis court

James Hansen: So, how did Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz get so far away from everybody else in 2024?

Charlie Eccleshare: The variety they have in their games, which is intrinsic to Alcaraz and newly working for Sinner with the improvements he’s made to his drop shot. We’ve seen so many potential ‘Big Three’ successors basically wilt because they can only really do one thing. I remember watching the 2023 U.S. Open final between Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev and it was just so maddening, because Medevedev could only ask Djokovic the same question over and over again. He’s Djokovic — he’s going to work it out. Alcaraz and Sinner can adapt in ways the other guys just can’t right now. It helps that they’re ridiculously quick and talented, of course, but that’s how they’ve separated themselves away from the rest of the field who now look one-dimensional by comparison.

Matt Futterman: The main thing for me is that they’ve eliminated shots two through four in any rally. They immediately go to what shot five would be for most tennis players, the first strike. I was really shaken up by what Casper Ruud said at the ATP Tour Finals in Turin, where he basically admitted that he can’t keep up with how they’re reconfigured tennis into this ultra-attacking game of chicken. Ruud basically said he learned how to play tennis one way and that way doesn’t work anymore. It feels like, on the changeovers, any other player — except maybe some of the newer players — would say something like: “Don’t you know we’re supposed to trade a few shots before one of us attacks?”

It’s almost like playing serve-and-volley without running to the net. They’ve redefined where on the court you can play offense from. As soon as the point starts, they’re going to come after you. You better attack before they do — and even if you do, they’re probably going to steal the point from you anyway.

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz’s brand of tennis has made it hard for the rest of the tour to keep up. (Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)

Eccleshare: You can at least for now rely on Alcaraz to have the odd wacky day. But Sinner doesn’t have those.

Hansen: It seems notable in a year that Alcaraz has a 3-0 record against Sinner (half of Sinner’s defeats all year) Sinner has overtaken him from a serving perspective, which I think makes his “easy” matches easier. He can hit the lines with such regularity now that he can get out of matches where his groundstrokes aren’t quite there. It’s probably the one shot where he constantly outperforms him.

Eccleshare: Sinner’s floor is also higher for now. The WADA appeal into his doping case, which the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is not expected to hear before the U.S. Open, is going to have a huge impact at the top of the ATP Tour at some point in 2025. Any kind of ban for Sinner would change things substantially.

How to figure Novak Djokovic’s 2024?

Hansen: Especially taking into consideration a metal water bottle to the head and a torn medial meniscus in his right knee, could Novak Djokovic have had a better worst tennis year in ages than this one?

Eccleshare: It might be the best historically bad year for a given player ever. It’s the first time he hasn’t won an ATP Tour title since 2005 and his first year without a Grand Slam title since 2017 … But he got to a Wimbledon final just over five weeks after knee surgery and achieved the one thing in tennis he’s wanted more than any other by winning Olympic gold. The one thing that feels different this time is that things feel out of his hands now for the first time since probably 2011. If other players play to their level, he won’t always win.

Futterman: I think he was going to win the French Open. Australia was a shortcoming — if he’d lost in five to Sinner I wouldn’t think that but he didn’t really show up that day — and then he was not great until the French Open, when it looked like he was getting back to himself with that incredible 3:06 a.m. win over Lorenzo Musetti before he got injured. After that, all he cared about was Wimbledon and the Olympics, and he got to the Wimbledon final on one leg and then won the Olympics. Season over. There isn’t much more he can ask for in that context.

GO DEEPER

Inside Novak Djokovic’s recovery – accepting outsiders, hyperbaric chambers, Jelena’s worries

GO DEEPER

Novak Djokovic knew he would win Olympic gold – he just didn’t know when

The rise of Taylor Fritz after another year of doubts

Hansen: Taylor Fritz spent another year defying doubters in the face of a crop of budding American talents, and he spent it by going further than he’s ever gone before: His first Grand Slam final and a career high of world No. 4. How did he do it?

Futterman: I don’t think you can downplay how much of a clod he was three years ago and how much better he moves now, how much he trains better now. It’s nothing earth-shattering. He had a great serve; he made it better. He’s made his forehand more reliable so he can hit it much harder and with less passive loop. The backhand is solid — no more so than in his matches against Alexander Zverev this year. He’s taken the height off his ball which is another reaction to Sinner and Alcaraz, because they can crush pretty much anything above their waist.

Eccleshare: Having spoken to him about his career, he’s said that he feels a really big difference now compared to the height of the ‘Big Three’ era. There is at least a pathway to the final stages of Grand Slams and the top of the rankings now if you get hot — where before I think he got demoralized by having to play Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal every time he had a halfway-decent run.

I asked him about it after the U.S. Open final and he even felt he hadn’t played miles better than he had previously. Maybe that’s not quite realizing his own improvements, or being modest, but he got to a Grand Slam final without beating anyone in a kind of ‘wow’ way. He was solid enough to take advantage of things opening up a bit for him, where he could never even see that situation happening before. That should apply to more players in the future too.

Taylor Fritz had the best year of his career. (Kirsty Wigglesworth / Associated Press)

Improvements and disappointments, for themselves

Hansen: Which players have stood out to you for making improvements and which players will be disappointed with their seasons?

Eccleshare: Jack Draper’s progress at the U.S. Open stood out to me, playing more consistently and well rather than delivering a knock-out performance. To finish world No. 15 and with a serious chance of making the top 10, finally winning a title and going beyond the fourth round of a Slam, getting his first big win by beating Alcaraz at Queen’s… He’s now someone you’re thinking could make a final if he plays well.

Futterman: Zverev. If the bar is who is better than they were, given where he was a year ago still coming back from the French Open injury against Nadal … I think him and Fritz are the only players of that 1990s group who have really embraced the mission of chasing down Sinner and Alcaraz by committing to changing how they play tennis. They’re moving better, their serves are better, their brains are better.

Hansen: And the opposite?

Futterman: Frances Tiafoe and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Tiafoe thinks he should have been in the U.S. Open final and he knows the extent of his capabilities while too rarely playing to them. Tsitsipas feels similar to Ruud from earlier — he learned his game one way and is slowly realizing it isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Hansen: For breakthroughs, Arthur Fils, Tomas Machac and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard deserve mentions, so too Lorenzo Musetti’s improvements, especially on the natural surfaces he loves.

GO DEEPER

Britain wants Jack Draper to be its tennis hero, but he’s feeling himself in New York

And finally, two huge retirements

Hansen: Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray’s exits from tennis were a reminder of their greatness, and a reminder that this sport, perhaps more than any other, does not deal in ideal farewells.

How Andy Murray left tennis

How Rafael Nadal left tennis

2024 ATP Tour speed-run

Best match:

Carlos Alcaraz vs. Novak Djokovic, Olympic gold medal match (MF, CE)
Novak Djokovic vs. Lorenzo Musetti, French Open third round (JH)

Favorite match:

Adrian Mannarino vs. Ben Shelton, Australian Open third round (MF)
Carlos Alcaraz vs. Jannik Sinner, China Open final (CE)
Corentin Moutet vs. Shang Juncheng, Madrid Open first round (JH)

Most memorable (not necessarily best!) shot:

Novak Djokovic‘s forehand winner at 2-2 in the second-set tiebreak of the Olympic gold medal match (MF)

Carlos Alcaraz‘s backhand flick-pass in the final set of the French Open final against Alexander Zverev (CE)

Carlos Alcaraz‘s pick up at 5-6 down in the third set of the Wimbledon final he should have won 10 minutes before he hit this shot (JH)

(Top photo: Lintao Zhang / Getty Images)