The level of Carlos Alcaraz's and Jannik Sinner's tennis is so high that they would both be favourites to beat Rafael Nadal "at his best", so says John McEnroe.
Alcaraz and Sinner delivered one of the greatest French Open finals of all time on Sunday, with the Spaniard outlasting the world number one in a five-set thriller.
The five-hour and 29-minute epic was also the longest men's singles final at Roland-Garros in the Open Era, surpassing the previous record held by Mats Wilander and Guillermo Vilas in 1982, which lasted four hours and 42 minutes.
Only Bjorn Borg (six) has won more men's singles grand slam titles than Alcaraz (five, level with Rod Laver and McEnroe) after his first 17 outings in such events in the Open Era.
Alcaraz maintained his perfect record in grand slam finals, becoming the player with the most men's singles grand slam finals played in the Open Era without ever losing (5-0).
Sinner was left to rue missed opportunities after bringing up three championship points in the fourth set, only for his opponent to rally and take the match the distance.
In what was only the second time in the Open Era a men's grand slam final was decided in a fifth-set tie-break, both players gave everything on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
But there could be only one victor, with Alcaraz emerging with a fifth grand slam title, and his second at Roland-Garros, while Sinner has to wait for a fourth major crown.
The pair have dominated the sport over the last couple of years, winning seven of the last eight majors, the only exception being Novak Djokovic's US Open win in 2023.
Nadal went on to claim 22 grand slam titles, including 14 at Roland-Garros, with only Djokovic (24) managing more in the history of the sport.
But McEnroe, who won seven majors in his career, believes that both Sinner and Alcaraz would be favoured to beat Nadal on his favoured clay courts in the French capital.
"You have a look at them bringing their A-game right now - I'm saying Sinner and Alcaraz against Nadal on clay - you would make a serious argument with both guys that they would be favoured to beat Nadal, at his best," McEnroe told TNT Sports.
"Do I think they're going to reach 20, 24 titles either one of them? No. Because I think that plateau is so hard, it's almost impossible. There's more depth in the game, bigger hitters, and more things happen.
"But these two guys right now, it's like when you watch the NBA and you say nobody could be better than Michael Jordan. The tennis level right now is higher than I've ever seen."
