Here we go again.
Tennis fans may not have even had time to recover from the epic French Open final that took place only one month ago, but Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz will go head-to-head in another Grand Slam championship match on Sunday afternoon. This time it’s at Wimbledon, where Sinner is playing in his first final and Alcaraz is the two-time defending champion.
Two guys who certainly have recovered from Roland Garros are Sinner and Alcaraz, themselves. Sinner lost early in Halle (although there is nothing bad about going out to Alexander Bublik on grass), but the top-ranked Italian has been back at his best in London. Alcaraz got right back in gear–following his annual shenanigans in Ibiza–to triumph at Queen’s Club, further cementing his status as the Wimbledon favorite.
The fortnight has been somewhat of a roller-coaster for Sinner, who easily disposed of Luca Nardi, Aleksandar Vukic, and Pedro Martinez in week one. In the fourth round, the 23-year-old trailed Grigor Dimitrov two sets to love when the Bulgarian was suddenly forced to retire because of pectoral injury. After beating Ben Shelton in straight sets, Sinner faced a hobbled Novak Djokovic in the semis and rolled 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.
Alcaraz also found himself one set away from the exits, with his scare coming right away–a 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 first-round victory over Fabio Fognini. The second-ranked Spaniard mostly cruised past Oliver Tarvet, Jan-Lennard Struff, Andrey Rublev, and Cameron Norrie before requiring a fourth-set tiebreaker to escape Taylor Fritz on Friday.
The end result is a 13th chapter in what has become by far the best rivalry in tennis. Alcaraz leads the head-to-head series 8-4 and has won five in a row over Sinner, but that hardly tells the real story of this matchup’s competitiveness. Four of the 22-year-old’s five straight victories have gone to a decider, including two in final-set tiebreakers. Alcaraz’s 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(10-2) triumph in Paris lasted five hours and 29 minutes after seeing him come back from triple-championship point down.
Even though Alcaraz is incredible on grass, you can still make the argument that clay is even more advantageous for his game. The world No. 2’s defense is basically impenetrable on the terre battue, and he can time his forehand even better than he can on grass. On the green stuff, Sinner–and other big hitters like Fritz–have more of a chance to take the racket out of Alcaraz’s hands.
Sinner was unlucky at Roland Garros. He has been lucky–and that’s an understatement–so far at Wimbledon, getting a literal retirement from Dimitrov and virtual walkover from Djokovic. As if the world No. 1 needs any help from the tennis gods, they seem to be paying him back for what happened in Paris. Payback is what he might give Alcaraz on Sunday.
Pick: Sinner in 5
Y isn’t Ferrero giving Carlos instructions?? He’s lost focus and direction..
Castle says it was as a wonderful match. Some great points but it wasn’t.
Major congrats to Jannik! Very well deserved.
It was a good match, not a great match, well done Sinner, he was the better player, so he deserves it
Jannik definitely deserved the win but after all the hype the match was underwhelming. Not a great performance by Carlos.
I am very happy for Jannik who is a great player and very nice guy.
It’s good for the rivalry anyway that he won.
No double chanel slam for Carlos
Lol wish the USO would start tomorrow, going to be interesting
Cincy will be fun
even DC is stacked
Yeah don’t get too far ahead of yourself. The US hard court series is my favourite part of the year, building up to Flushing Meadow
Amy I know that Wimbledon has only just finished, but who do you think will win the USO
J. Sinner (ITA)
Agree with Ricky it will be Sinner Alison. Massive fave now.
Can’t wait! Especially as wimby was underwhelming if I’m being honest…Really pretty disappointed by the match today and yesterday was a horror movie 🎥…
Was anyone else bemused by Ferrero today sitting there like a great big cabbage while Carlos lost focus?? I commented on it earlier and just afterwards Woodbridge said he didn’t know why his coaching team were so silent…surely he is paid the big bucks to intervene when things go wrong…
Coaches can help these days, but Im old school , its really up to the players to sort it out once they on court…
But yeah, they should be offering encouragement at moments like that…
I’m old school as well. I don’t think coaches should be allowed to give instructions. But given they can I thought his silence was pretty odd. It’s very unusual for Carlos to get stroppy with his box but I can’t say I blame him.
There was that period when he was double faulting a lot and Woodbridge said he should alter the toss of the ball. Don’t think his team were saying anything to him which seems incredible. ( obviously I could be wrong…)