ATP Tour

Kafelnikov on Alcaraz-Sinner rivalry: 'It's like yin & yang'

Yevgeny Kafelnikov, one of only 29 members of the prestigious ATP No. 1 Club, is thrilled with the development of the rivalry between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, who are battling this week at the Nitto ATP Finals.

“Fantastic for tennis. It would be not great if only one would be dominating because the charisma of both, they kind of match each other. It’s like yin and yang,” Kafelnikov said in Turin. “One is one style, the other one is completely different and that’s what fans like. No question. You see it here in Turin, Jannik is selling the stadium as well as Carlos. They’re both great for tennis, absolutely.”

This is the former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings’ first visit to Inalpi Arena and he has been impressed by what he has seen, both on site and from afar.

“The fact that Italians are playing, that always makes it special. One thing I wish [is that] we could have had the tournament in Moscow in 2000 when me and Marat [Safin] were both Top-10 players. We could also sell the stadiums left and right,” Kafelnikov said. “Turin is great and I think the whole idea is to host the tournaments where tennis is a very popular sport and I’m sure in Italy now with all the Italian players doing well, tennis on the rise in the country, I think there is no better place to be honest I would find to host the event.”

Kafelnikov has plenty of experience at the Nitto ATP Finals, having competed in the tournament seven times. He played six fellow No. 1 Club members at the season finale: Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Gustavo Kuerten, Carlos Moya and Juan Carlos Ferrero.

“I think the fact that you get rewarded for all the hard work, which you’ve done through the calendar year. That’s a perfect ending,” Kafelnikov said. “You win the tournaments, you play well in the Slams and you get rewarded, the best eight players competing with each other.”

One player — Sampras — proved his nemesis at the Nitto ATP Finals. They met four times at the event, with the American emerging victorious on each occasion.

“I enjoyed every bit of being in the tournament starting from back in ‘95 in Frankfurt. It was a fantastic arena. Then the next four years were in Hanover, also great. The only negative was that I always ran into Pete Sampras in every single tournament starting from the group and even to the ‘97 final,” Kafelnikov said. “He was always on me. I never got over him, unfortunately. But I enjoyed it.

“Lisbon was a fantastic event in 2000 and of course another successful tournament for me was the very last tournament I played in, it was in Sydney 2001. I love the tournament every bit.”

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Kafelnikov closely follows the ATP Tour throughout the season, including in the leadup to the Nitto ATP Finals. The 26-time tour-level singles titlist watched Joao Fonseca last month earn the biggest title of his career at the ATP 500 in Basel and believes he could one day be competing at the year-end championships.

“Fonseca obviously with all the things he’s done this year and winning the big tournaments like for example Basel just recently a couple of months ago, he could definitely be the one that we should look at next year,” Kafelnikov said. “If he continues to do what he does, I’m sure if not next year, then the year after he will be here.”