Ex-ATP Pro Convinced Jannik Sinner ‘Will Win More’ Than Carlos Alcaraz Despite Italian Open Defeat
Carlos Alcaraz has won three titles this season, while Jannik Sinner, who also faced a three-month doping ban, took home one title.
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Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner (Image via X/Giovanni Pelazzo, Carlos Alcaraz)
No player was more consistent than Jannik Sinner last year. The winner of eight official titles, which also included his three Grand Slam trophies, ended the season with a 73-6 win-loss record.
This season was no different, for he defended the Australian Open, and despite his three months’ absence, he reached the final of the Italian Open where Carlos Alcaraz ended his 26-match winning streak. The Rome Masters is a clay-court tournament- Sinner’s least favorite surface- and he has made a strong statement by progressing to the final.
Sinner’s compatriot and former ATP player Adriano Panatta compared the two young rivals and said the World No.1 will win more than the four-time Grand Slam champion. He told Corriere della Sera:
I remain convinced that Sinner will win more than Alcaraz in their respective careers, because he is more consistent, while the Spaniard only seems to become so when he plays against the Italian. But there is no doubt that when Alcaraz manages to combine all the best things in his tennis, the level he manages to develop is the highest on the tour.
Last year, Alcaraz lifted four titles, including the Channel Slam. This season, after losing the Australian Open quarterfinal and then winning the Rotterdam Open, Alcaraz suffered a slump in form as he failed to reach the final of the three next hard-court tournaments, including at Indian Wells and the Miami Open.
He entered the clay season without a Sunshine Double title under his belt. Alcaraz, however, reached the final of the three clay-court tournaments he played, winning two.
Adriano Panatta thinks Jannik Sinner would have won the Italian Open if he had not served a doping ban
A lengthy ban loomed over Jannik Sinner at the start of this year as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had demanded before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that Sinner should face a ban of between one and two years. But after the Australian Open, the two parties reached a settlement agreement and Sinner received a three-month suspension.
What would have happened had Sinner not received that ban? Adriano Panatta, the only Italian to win the Rome Masters, implied that the 23-year-old would have defeated Carlos Alcaraz if he had more match practice. Adriano Panatta told Corriere della Sera:
I wonder what the final would have been like if Jannik had had the continuity that the three months of stop, very unfair, have taken away from him.
Next is the French Open, the clay-court Major that Alcaraz lifted last year for the first time by beating World No.3 Alexander Zverev, whom he removed from the second position after his Italian Open triumph. Before defeating the German ace, Alcaraz overcame Sinner in five sets in the semifinals.
Sinner, while serving his doping ban, had signed up for the Hamburg European Open to get more match practice but he has now pulled out of the ATP 500 tournament. Sinner will schedule his 12th tour-level match against Alcaraz at the French Open if both of them advance to the final as Alcaraz, after the latest ranking, will be the second seed.
Alcaraz, who now has a 7-4 head-to-head lead over Sinner, also extended the Big Title lead over him as he has now clinched 11 of these trophies (seven Masters 1000 and four Grand Slam ones). He produced his best performance at the ATP Finals when he reached the semifinals in 2023. At the Olympics, he lost to Novak Djokovic in the final last year. Sinner, on the other hand, has eight Big Titles (three Grand Slam titles, four Masters 1000s, and the ATP Finals he won last year).
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