Paris Masters Director Addresses Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, and Carlos Alcaraz’s Participation Amid Doubt Due to Physical Exhaustion
Jannik Sinner is in Riyadh for the Six Kings Slam and will start his campaign against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
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Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz (Image vIa X/Jannik Sinner HQ, Carlos Alcaraz 4K)
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Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz will once again be scheduling a blockbuster match if they both reach the final of the Six Kings Slam, an exhibition event set to start on October 15. After Riyadh, while Sinner will be in Vienna, Alcaraz will be gearing up for the Paris Masters.
Sinner, who had skipped the indoor hardcourt event last year, too, has confirmed that Paris will be his destination after Vienna. Cedric Pioline, the Paris Masters director, addressed whether the top players will be participating in the tournament. His answer also suggested that Novak Djokovic did not put his name on the entry list.
The thousand ATP points awarded to the winner will weigh heavily. Naturally, all the players are physically exhausted because it’s the end of the season. It would be fantastic [if Djokovic] was among the players who could have their name written on the prize list at two different venues.
Cedric Pioline said during an interview with AFP
Alcaraz suffered a third-round defeat in Paris last year. So it only means that both Alcaraz and Sinner don’t have many points to defend in the last Masters 1000 of the season.
Djokovic was last seen at the Shanghai Masters, and his next official tournament will be an ATP 250 event in Athens in November. It’s also uncertain whether the 24-time Grand Slam champion will be playing at the ATP Finals, which he skipped last year.
The 38-year-old is also in Riyadh for the exhibition event and will meet the winner of the Sinner versus Stefanos Tsitsipas match in the semifinals. Alcaraz also has received a first-round bye, and his semifinal opponent will be Alexander Zverev or Taylor Fritz. Last year at the event, four-time Grand Slam champion Sinner defeated Alcaraz and bagged the $6 million prize money.
Paolo Bertolucci is worried about Jannik Sinner’s injury issues during matches
Jannik Sinner is clearly dealing with a lot of physical problems, especially when he is playing in hot and humid conditions. At the Australian Open, he took an 11-minute medical but was successful in knocking out Holger Rune in the fourth round.
But he struggled a lot while he was locking horns with Carlos Alcaraz in the Cincinnati Masters final. After losing games one after the other, Sinner deemed it best to throw in the towel. In Shanghai, the weather was considered even worse as it saw withdrawals one after the other.
Players collapsed, threw up mid-match, and gave walkovers. Sinner struggled to walk due to severe cramps before eventually giving the walkover to Tallon Griekspoor in the third round, thus ending his title defense.
His compatriot Paolo Bertolucci, a former ATP player, called the 24-year-old a fragile player and said he is not as physically consistent as Novak Djokovic and Alcaraz. Bertolucci, however, is not much concerned about the four-time Grand Slam champion, as, in spite of his fitness problems, he is achieving a lot of success. He told Sports Italia:
The boy is a little fragile. He had cramps, then stomach problems, then elbow problems, then blisters and hip problems. In short, he’s starting to feel a lot. He doesn’t have the same physical consistency as Djokovic or Alcaraz; that seems obvious to me now, it’s not surprising. But we shouldn’t be overly worried either. I repeat, in this tragedy, we have the world number two.
Before Shanghai, he ended the China Open in his favor by breezing past Learner Tien. It was his third ATP title of the season in his seventh final. The remaining four defeats he suffered at the hands of Alcaraz included at the French Open and the US Open.
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