Former world No 1 Andy Roddick has given his verdict on Carlos Alcaraz’s victory against Jannik Sinner in the 2025 Italian Open final.
Alcaraz secured his first Rome Masters title as he delivered a stellar performance to defeat Sinner 7-6(5), 6-1 in the championship match.
The world No 2 has won four consecutive matches against Sinner and holds a 7-4 head-to-head advantage over his Italian rival.
The 22-year-old Spanish star has now collected all three clay-court Masters 1000 titles, and he has strengthened his favourite status ahead of his French Open title defence.
Speaking on Tennis Channel, Roddick assessed that both Alcaraz and Sinner would be happy with their Italian Open campaigns.
The American said: “Yeah, listen at the beginning of the week, if you had said to Carlos, ‘Hey you’re gonna win this tournament, take out Sinner,’ that’s a 12 out of 10, right?”
“If you had told Sinner, ‘You’re actually gonna play great tennis, you’re gonna beat Casper Ruud 0 and 1, and then lose to Carlos,’ listen, he would’ve taken that 10 out of 10 times.
“So this is what needed to happen for both of them. It was the perfect preparation. And Carlos, just flashing all the variety, the threat of the options that he has seemingly keep Sinner off-beat.
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“Sinner knows what’s coming, he’s gonna beat you. If he doesn’t know what’s coming, then you got a shot like Alcaraz.”
Asked what Sinner needs to do to change the dynamic of the matchup with Alcaraz, Roddick identified the Italian’s returning and second serve as areas for improvement.
“I think the biggest thing today was return position and as effective as he is, sticking that return, especially on second serves, that was missing a little bit today,” said the 2003 US Open winner.
“And I think he actually pushed the risk towards the sidelines a ton and it’s kind of a tough one, because you know you have to take a little more risk against Carlos because of his wheels, but also not to the detriment of making unforced errors on a high forehand.
“But, he has to defend the second serve a little bit better, whatever that looks like – if it’s switching line on that first ball a little bit more often so Carlos can’t be as creative.
“And also, I think he would’ve wanted to stick more second serve returns today, which normally is something that he does very well.”
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