Jannik Sinner’s Ex-Coach Names Player ‘Who Can Worry’ the Italian and Carlos Alcaraz at Roland Garros

This year’s Roland Garros is scheduled to start on May 24th. Carlos Alcaraz will enter the tournament as the defending champion and bid to complete the three-peat.

Jannik Sinner, who finished as the runner-up last year, will be bidding to become the seventh man and the first since Alcaraz at this year’s Australian Open to complete the Career Grand Slam. Sinner’s former coach, Riccardo Piatti, during his interview with Corriere della Sera, said that although the top two players will be the favorites to win the Roland Garros, they need to be wary of one player, and that’s World No.3 Alexander Zverev.

For me, the only one who can worry those two on clay is Zverev. He’s a hard worker, but he never changes his mind: having his father as a coach is fine, he’s happy with it, but maybe having a coach who tells him something different wouldn’t hurt. On clay, I also expect good things from [Lorenzo] Musetti, who always plays well in Paris.

Zverev finished as the runner-up in the 2024 Roland Garros. These three players are in Monte Carlo. Alcaraz will be entering the tournament as the defending champion. Last year, he defeated Musetti to win his first title in The Principality.

Sinner is a two-time semifinalist in the tournament, reaching the stage in 2023 and 2024. While Alcaraz has 1,000 points to defend, Sinner won’t be defending any points and will dethrone his arch-rival from the top spot if he wins the title.

Alcaraz has 4,300 points to defend on the clay swing as he clinched the Monte Carlo Masters, Italian Open, and the French Open, as well as reached the final of the Barcelona Open last year. Sinner played only two clay-court events last year, the Italian Open and the French Open, losing both to the Murcia native.

The South Tyrol native has so far clinched one clay-court title- the 2022 Croatia Open by defeating Alcaraz, who is a winner of 11 clay-court titles, six of which are Big Titles (four Masters 1000s and two French Opens).

Riccardo Piatti on Carlos Alcaraz’s coaching situation

Samuel Lopez is currently coaching Carlos Alcaraz, and Riccardo Piatti thinks there won’t be any changes to the World No.1’s team in the near future. But if Alcaraz parts ways with Lopez, Piatti said Alcaraz should hire Carlos Moya, who also coached Rafael Nadal until his retirement in November 2024.

I don’t think he’ll change anytime soon. First of all, it’s not easy to find a great coach for Alcaraz: I really like Moya. And then, because he has people around him who let him do what he wants. For example, with Ferrero, he probably wouldn’t have bought a $9 million yacht. Even Nadal wanted a yacht at one point, but Uncle Toni told him he could forget about it: he had to play tennis. It’s distracting. How many times a year will he use it? Who knows.

Riccardo Piatti told Corriere della Sera

Last year, Alcaraz parted ways with Juan Carlos Ferrero due to failed contract negotiations. There were debates about how Alcaraz would perform without the guidance of the former World No.1. But the debates stopped after Alcaraz completed the Career Grand Slam by defeating Novak Djokovic in this year’s Australian Open.

Following his win in Melbourne, Alcaraz lifted his career’s first Qatar Open title by beating Arthur Fils. But at the Indian Wells and Miami Open, Alcaraz failed to progress to the semifinals. Eventual runner-up Daniil Medvedev defeated him in the California desert, while Sebastian Korda knocked him out in the Miami Open third round.

Also read: Jannik Sinner Downplays ‘Secondary’ World No.1 Battle With Carlos Alcaraz at Monte Carlo

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