Carlos Alcaraz started winning earlier than Jannik Sinner, although he is two years younger than the Italian champion. The young Spaniard won his first Major title at the US Open in 2022, after defeating Jannik in the quarterfinals at the end of a match that is one of the most beautiful in modern times.
The following year, the player from Murcia won his first Wimbledon title by beating Novak Djokovic after a five-set battle. The 21-year-old Spaniard also scored big in 2024, becoming the youngest ever to win Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same year. Despite showing that he can reach monstrous peaks, Carlitos is far behind Sinner in the ATP ranking and was also surpassed by Alexander Zverev in second place. The German champion won the Masters 1000 in Paris-Bercy last week and returned to second place in the ATP ranking, a bad news for Alcaraz ahead of the draw for the Nitto ATP Finals.
The four-time Grand Slam champion will be the third favorite to win in Turin behind the Italian and German, who have a more effective game in indoor conditions. The former world number 1 missed out on the 2022 ATP Finals due to an abdominal injury, while last year he was defeated by Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals.
A suggestive duopoly
Alcaraz will have to work hard during the off-season to eliminate those breaks during the season that have caused him a lot of damage in the last two seasons. The Spanish ace didn’t play his best tennis especially in the Masters 1000 tournaments this year, where he collected ‘only’ 75% of wins.
Carlitos won only at Indian Wells in 2024, while in the other Masters 1000 tournaments he suffered many unexpected eliminations against second-tier players. Croatian coach and former ATP ace Goran Ivanisevic has given a series of interesting thoughts on the three best tennis players currently in the ATP tour. The former coach of Nole has recently returned to train, moving into the women’s tour: in fact, from the Wta Finals in Riyadh, he started a collaboration with WTA star Elena Rybakina.
Interviewed by ‘Tennis Majors’, the 53-year-old from Split spoke about the Serbian champion and his ambitions to win more Grand Slam titles in 2025: “I don’t know if he’s motivated, but when he decides to play it means he wants to. Sinner and Alcaraz are definitely superior to the rest of the competition but I put Novak in the group with them, because when he really wants to play he is still the best in the world according to me”, said without hesitation. Then he added: “We saw it at the Olympics, if he gets on the court that way he can still win a Slam. It will depend more on his ranking and the board, but you can never give it up. I would never do that”.
Goran was asked who was the best between Italian and Spanish. Here’s his answer: “They are different players. When they are both at their best, I think Sinner is better. He is more consistent throughout the game, Alcaraz manages to go from incredible hits to some easy mistakes. Carlos had some losses this year that I can’t explain. If we take Novak out of the equation, they will dominate on tour. They are far above everyone else”. Ivanisevic was also categorical about who can worry them at the Slam level: “Nobody”.
Carlitos is practicing hard
Alcaraz is practicing hard at the Ferrero Tennis Academy before heading to Turin for the Nitto ATP Finals, which will start on Sunday 10 November. The four-time Grand Slam champion is training on a surface that is virtually identical to the one on which the last major event of the ATP calendar will be played. It’s no secret that Spaniards are not keen on particularly fast surfaces, as shown by the premature eliminations of Cincinnati and Paris-Bercy this year.
After being defeated by Ugo Humbert in the last Masters 1000 of the season, the number 3 in the world complained a lot about the courts: “When I played the first match, the stats came out that it is the fastest court in the Masters 1000, probably on the tour right now. This is crazy. I don’t know. Probably and the fastest one, you know, in the last ten years in this tournament. I don’t know why they do it. I don’t know why they have changed a lot, you know, a court from other tournaments and obviously in the same tournament, you know, comparing to other years. You know, honestly all I can say is I don’t understand why they did it.”
