The "turducken" of tennis? Jon Wertheim hails Alcaraz, Sinner and Medvedev as the next Big 3

Since Roger Federer’s retirement and Rafael Nadal’s dwindling appearances on the professional tennis tour–plus Andy Murray’s uncertainty regarding how much longer he can play–the question of "Who's next?" has followed the conversation about the sport's top triumvirate more often than not.

The answer might be found on the latest episode of the Served with Andy Roddick podcast.

“There’s kind of a new Big 3 in men’s tennis, at least a Big 4, like Novak-adjacent,” Roddick said. “He’s still the best player on earth when everything is right, but Alcaraz, Sinner, Medvedev, in his absence, have almost created their little sub-committee of reliability.”

Weekly guest on the show and esteemed tennis journalist Jon Wertheim added his own take on the matter.

“I was going with the turducken metaphor,” he said. “I don't know who's the chicken, turkey, or duck among Sinner, Alcaraz and Medvedev, choose your own, but these are three guys who have kind of distanced themselves from the pack here and ironically enough not one of them is ranked No. 1.”

Djokovic has held the No. 1 ranking for 418 weeks, twice as many weeks at No.1 than any other active player, including Rafael Nadal. However, his 2024 season has been met with some unexpected results. Not only was Djokovic defeated at the Australian Open earlier this year by eventual champion Jannik Sinner—a tournament that more often than not sets the Serbian up for a successful tennis year—but he also had a shocking third-round loss to lucky loser Luca Nardi at Indian Wells.

“The irony is, he also hasn’t won a tournament this year,” Wertheim said.

Among the personal shake-ups for Djokovic (he announced a split with longtime coach Goran Ivanisevic this week), Wertheim continues, is the realization that none of this has to do with his age or physicality.

“But in his absence, you’re right, there does seem to be this three-man race,” Wertheim said. “You know when they say the United States has one of the highest obesity rates and 80% of the population is overweight? I would point to the turducken as an approximate cost.”

Could this statistic translate into how the Italian, the Spaniard and the Russian are making up 80% of the late rounds in draws this season?

Conversations in this episode carried onto heavy opinions on the USTA Foundation and the development of young tennis players, as well as the controversial foul ball occurrence in Miami last week, where a fan was asked to give the ball back. Wertheim’s take, specifically, had Roddick laughing out loud.

Watch the full episode on T2 and Tennis Channel Plus, and tune into T2 every Sunday night for the latest recording.