Carlos Alcaraz has revealed he intends to stay fully \u201cfocused\u201d in his rivalry with Jannik Sinner after predicting the Italian will come good on his promise to improve as a tennis player.<\/p>\n
World No 1 Alcaraz<\/a> and No 2 Sinner<\/a> are not in action at the same tournament this week, with the Spaniard making his debut appearance at the Japan Open and the Italian returning to the China Open \u2014 where he was beaten in the final by Alcaraz last year.<\/p>\n But, despite competing at different events, their ongoing dominance at the top of the men\u2019s game remains a key talking point, with the two combining to win the last eight Grand Slam tournaments.<\/p>\n However, while they have won four Slams apiece across the last two seasons, Alcaraz has surged ahead when it comes to their direct rivalry.<\/p>\n The Spaniard has won seven of their eight meetings since the start of 2024, and now has a commanding 10-5 lead in their overall career head-to-head.<\/p>\n Sinner\u2019s sole victory over Alcaraz since the start of 2024 came in this summer\u2019s Wimbledon final<\/a>, though it was the Spaniard who triumphed in the French Open and US Open finals this year.<\/p>\n After a four-set defeat in the US Open final continued a worrying trend against Alcaraz<\/a>, Sinner vowed to improve in his post-match press conference.<\/p>\n \u201cI can say that I\u2019m gonna become a better tennis player and I\u2019m gonna change a couple of things on the serve, just small things, but, they can make big differences and then we see how it goes,\u201d said Sinner.<\/p>\n ATP Rankings: Carlos Alcaraz reigns over Jannik Sinner, Alexander Bublik career-high, Alejandro Tabilo +40<\/a><\/p>\n ATP China Open Draw: Jannik Sinner learns his path as Alexander Zverev on course to play his nemesis<\/a><\/p>\n The Italian appears to have been good to his word, with the 24-year-old spotted working on a new service motion at the China Open this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n And, when asked about the Italian\u2019s comments in his pre-tournament Japan Open press conference, Alcaraz admitted he full expected a new and improved Sinner in their next encounter.<\/p>\n \u201cI know he\u2019s going to change something from the last match,\u201d said Alcaraz.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the same thing that I did when I lost to him a couple of times, I tried to be a better player the next time I was going to face him.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to be focused and I have to be ready for that change.\u201d<\/p>\n World No 1 Alcaraz will begin his quest for a first Japan Open title on Thursday, facing Sebastian Baez in the opening round, with Sinner set to face Marin Cilic at the China Open tomorrow.<\/p>\n Though they are at different tournaments this week, they will both be in action at the Shanghai Masters, with Alcaraz the top seed and Sinner the second seed.<\/p>\n World No 2 Sinner enters as the defending champion, having beaten Novak Djokovic in the final last Autumn, while Alcaraz will look to improve on his 2024 quarter-final showing.<\/p>\n The pair have gone on to meet in the final of the last five tournaments they have both entered, and will be favoured to make it six at the penultimate Masters 1000 event of 2025.<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>: Japan Open predictions: Will Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz book final clash?<\/a><\/p>\n The post Carlos Alcaraz makes Jannik Sinner prediction after Italian vowed to \u2018become a better tennis player\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carlos Alcaraz has revealed he intends to stay fully \u201cfocused\u201d in his rivalry with Jannik Sinner after predicting the Italian will come good on his promise to improve as a tennis player. World No 1 Alcaraz and No 2 Sinner are not in action at the same tournament this week, with the Spaniard making his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tennis News<\/h2>\n