Verdasco on Alcaraz and Sinner: "It's going to be a long road if they want to win as many Grand Slams as the Big 3".

During the Doha tournament last week, Fernando Verdasco played the last doubles match of his career alongside Novak Djokovic.

The 41-year-old Spaniard, former world No. 7 and winner of seven ATP Tour titles, bid farewell to professional tennis.

The man who won his biggest title in Barcelona in 2010 took advantage of his first days as an official retiree to talk about the new generation of tennis players, symbolized by Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

"They're the two biggest now, above everyone else. You can see them a bit above the others, and you can see that they're the guys most likely to fight for big titles again and again.

It's a bit like Roger (Federer), Rafa (Nadal) and Novak (Djokovic): back then, you could see that these guys were a bit different from the others.

That's why they won all the major titles for so long, including the Grand Slams and Masters 1000s.

What I can say is that for Sinner and Alcaraz, it's almost impossible to do as well as the Big 3, because to win 22 Grand Slams, you don't have to be that clever.

But it's just that you have to win two or three Grand Slams every year for many years to get to that number.

As soon as you have surgery or a physical problem, it becomes almost impossible.

The average of these three guys winning Grand Slams year after year in the past is incredible, it's out of the ordinary.

So, obviously, it's difficult. Alcaraz is 21 and Sinner is 23, so it's going to be a long road for them if they want to win at least as many Grand Slams as the Big 3, but who knows," he assured World Tennis Italia.