'He’s still got some work to do': John McEnroe names player who is capable of forming new 'Big Three' with Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz

Former world number one John McEnroe has named one player who has the talent to become part of the new ‘Big Three’. The 66-year-old is part of the TNT Sports transmission during the ongoing French Open, which is now moving towards the business end.

McEnroe, speaking during the transmission, highlighted that he was somewhat disappointed with Denmark’s Holger Rune's performance. The 22-year-old’s journey at the Roland Garros ended on Sunday as he lost to Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in the fourth round with a score of 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

McEnroe was of the opinion that Rune has the talent to become the third player in the new ‘Big Three’ comprised of Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz. However, according to the seven-time Grand Slam winner, the current world number 10 has not been able to do justice to his talent, which saw him not ranked amongst the top five players on the planet. McEnroe also highlighted how Rune was struggling physically in the heat during the contest against Musetti.

“Holger was the guy that I thought would be the third guy with the new big three, Alcaraz, Sinner, I thought it’d be Rune,” he said. “Rune got a lot to prove to try to get with the big boys. I remember when he played Ruud here a couple of years ago, he sort of brushed him off when he lost. Like, ‘how could I lose to this guy?’ And so it’s taken him a while to start to understand what it takes. But he’s learning that. He seems to be more settled. Got the old coach back. Mom still seems very involved. There’s a fair amount of families like that, but seems to be on the upswing again. I think that’s the reason he’s seeded 10 instead of seeded four, because concentration goes in and out. It’s also conditioning. That happened to be the hottest or second-hottest day of the tournament. He almost, to me, tapped out. He was this close to like it’s over, and he looked really negative. I mean, it was one of those days where it’s like a war of attrition. I think he’s, you know, again, he’s… I like where he’s headed, but he’s still got some work to do to close that gap.”