Coach Simone Vagnozzi Reveals Reason Behind Jannik Sinner’s Participation in Madrid

World No.1 Jannik Sinner will be chasing his third clay-court title at the Madrid Open.

Coach Simone Vagnozzi Reveals Reason Behind Jannik Sinner’s Participation in Madrid

Jannik Sinner, Simone Vagnozzi (Image via X/jannik sinner files)

In Short
  • Jannik Sinner aims for his fifth consecutive Masters 1000 title at the Madrid Open.
  • Coach Simone Vagnozzi emphasizes the importance of match play for maintaining rhythm and energy.
  • Sinner currently leads Carlos Alcaraz in rankings, with 13,310 points compared to Alcaraz's 12,960 points.

The Madrid Open is the only Masters 1000 tournament where Jannik Sinner has never progressed beyond the quarterfinals. He will be up against Benjamin Bonzi or Titouan Droguet in his campaign opener.

Sinner will be chasing his fifth consecutive Masters 1000 title after victories at the 2025 Paris Masters and this year’s Indian Wells, Miami Open, and the Monte-Carlo Masters. He is on a 22-match winning streak at this level.

Sinner, after his victory over Carlos Alcaraz in Monte Carlo, hinted at skipping the Madrid Open to manage his schedule, as he has been playing continuously since the Australian Open. His coach, Simone Vagnozzi, has now revealed the reason behind his participation.

Sinner in Madrid? We’ve had plenty of time to train in Indian Wells, and we’re prepared. Jannik was already feeling better as time went on during Monte Carlo. If we hadn’t come to Madrid, too much time would have passed between that tournament and Rome. He’s doing well; there’s no need to worry. There’s no better training than match play. When a player wins and plays well, they waste less energy.

Simone Vagnozzi told Gazzetta

Sinner made the quarterfinals in Madrid once, in 2024, but handed the walkover to Felix Auger-Aliassime. The Italian, the fourth man to win four consecutive Masters 1000 titles, is also the second man, after Novak Djokovic, to win the first three Masters 1000 of the season.

You can train perfectly for three months, but if you arrive at your first match without rhythm, you burn more fuel than someone who’s in form. You need to find balance, be flexible, adapt. We’ll see when the tournament ends here and plan the training based on that. We made this choice because we believe it’s the best for the entire clay season.

Simone Vagnozzi added

As he has no points to defend in Madrid, his victory will help him increase the rankings gap between him and Alcaraz. Sinner at present has 13,310 points in the rankings, while Alcaraz has 12,960 points.

Boris Becker explains why Carlos Alcaraz gets injured more

Carlos Alcaraz will not be playing in Madrid for the second consecutive time because he suffered a wrist injury during the Barcelona Open. Alcaraz also hinted at skipping Roland Garros to avoid serious injury in the future. Recently, Boris Becker, during his interview with Eurosport Spain, explained why he thinks Alcaraz gets more injured than Jannik Sinner.

Carlos Alcaraz
Carlos Alcaraz (Image via X/Carlos Alcaraz 4K)

It’s true that Alcaraz is more often injured than Sinner, but because of his style. He has a different style than Sinner. With Sinner, I call him [Novak] Djokovic 2.0; similar style from the baseline and very consistent. And also wins his matches quickly.

Alcaraz has so far won the Australian Open and the Qatar Open this year by defeating Djokovic and Arthur Fils, respectively. The seven-time Grand Slam champion then lost to eventual runner-up Daniil Medvedev in the Indian Wells semifinal and Sebastian Korda in the third round of the Miami Open.

Sinner, on the other hand, beat Medvedev and Jiri Lehecka in the Indian Wells and Miami Open finals. At the Australian Open, Sinner’s campaign was ended by Djokovic in the semifinals, while Jakub Mensik defeated him in the Qatar Open quarterfinals.

The main draw of the Madrid Open kicked off on April 22. Sinner will be chasing the third clay-court title of his career following his wins at the 2022 Croatia Open and this year’s Monte Carlo win. His victory over Alcaraz has helped him improve his head-to-head ranking to 7-10, and it was also his second consecutive win over the World No.2 following last year’s ATP Finals championship clash.

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