Carlos Alcaraz unsettles Jannik Sinner like no other player in tennis and former world No 1 Mats Wilander believes there are a couple of reasons why the Italian struggles to deal with his biggest rival.
Alcaraz ended Sinner’s long unbeaten run when he secured a straight sets win in the Italian Open final earlier this month, with the defending Roland Garros champion laying down a marker ahead of the defence of his title in Paris.
Alcaraz leads his head-to-head record with Sinner 7-4 and Wilander has told Tennis365 that the 22-year-old has two big weapons that allow him to compete with the current world No 1 like no other player in the game.
“The main reason why Sinner struggles against Alcaraz is he is so fast at doing everything,” Wilander told Tennis365 in his role as a TNT Sports analyst.
“The other reason Jannik doesn’t like playing against him he has a big forehand and that can knock you off balance.
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“The big thing with Sinner is he strikes the ball so hard and also the way he can strike it early, without making too many mistakes.
“That is too much for a lot of people, but Alacarz is so quick that he can get to a lot of the balls other players cannot reach.
“When Sinner has a forehand and time to hit it, the other players have to guess left or right to have a chance to get it. Carlos doesn’t have that problem so much as he is super fast.
“I was in the front row watching their Rome final a few weeks back and for the first half an hour it looked like Alcaraz was struggling to hang with Sinner.
“Then he started to absorb the power coming at him and found a way to swing it in his favour.
“Okay, Sinner could have won the first set of that match and it could have been a different result, but you could see that Alcaraz was getting used to absorbing the pace and when he then got Jannik doing things he didn’t want to do, the match turned in his favour.”
Wilander also suggests Alcaraz’s magical dropshots are a challenge for Sinner, as it allows the Spaniard to take his big rival out of a comfort zone where he can be unstoppable.
“It’s not just about trying to bring Jannik forward that is the secret for Alcaraz’s success against him,” stated Wilander.
“What we see with Sinner is he likes to be on the base line hitting balls so hard and so early, but that means he is not always on his toes. His feet are fully on the ground so he can develop that power.
“So when he has to deal with drop shots and low balls that force him to come forward, that is not where he wants to be.”
“It gets him off balance. Not just with his feet but in his mind as well.”
Alcaraz and Sinner could be on course to meet in an epic Roland Garros final, as the top two seeds are moving through the draw in Paris with impressive efficiency.
It would be their first meeting in a Grand Slam final, with Alcaraz’s pace and forehand power the two key elements to look out for if the ‘Big 2’ meet once again.
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