{"id":2040,"date":"2026-04-16T15:15:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2040"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:15:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:15:55","slug":"jannik-sinner-warned-he-has-only-won-the-first-phase-of-his-battle-with-carlos-alcaraz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2040","title":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner warned he has only won the first phase of his battle with Carlos Alcaraz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jannik Sinner<\/a> has been warned that he has only won the phoney war with his great rival Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>, with the titles that really matter still a little distance over the horizon.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz appeared to have moved clear of Sinner in the battle between the two dominant players in men\u2019s tennis when he clinched his first Australian Open and became the youngest male to complete a career Grand Slam of all four major titles.<\/p>\n

Sinner has snapped back in impressive fashion as he completed the \u2018Sunshine Double\u2019 by winning the Indian Wells and Miami Open titles, with his victory over Alcaraz in last weekend\u2019s Monte Carlo Masters final<\/a> securing his return to the top of the rankings.<\/p>\n

The balance of power at the top of men\u2019s tennis appears to have tilted in Sinner\u2019s favour for now, but former British No 1 Greg Rusedski has suggested the French Open at Roland Garros in June and the Wimbledon title are the two tournaments that matter over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the latest edition of his Off Court with Greg Rusedski podcast,<\/a> the 1997 US Open finalists suggested Grand Slams are more significant than rankings for the \u2018Big 2\u2019 in men\u2019s tennis.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/h2>\n

Carlos Alcaraz gets some candid advice as he is told one area where Jannik Sinner is \u2018better\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Carlos Alcaraz, Jack Draper, Emma Raducanu \u2013 are tennis chiefs contributing to an injury crisis?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSinner can probably take over as No 1 and Alacarz is like \u2018yeah, no big deal\u2019,\u201d said Rusedski.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor these guys right now, No 1 is important. They love to be the top dog, but for me, it\u2019s all about winning majors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Sinner goes on and he wins Madrid, he wins in Rome, but he loses in Roland Garros final, and Alcaraz wins Australia and wins in Paris, you know they would trade their Masters titles for the two majors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where they want to peak, but also it\u2019s a combination of confidence coming through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rusedski went on to suggest Alcaraz is more vulnerable than Sinner, as he argued the rock solid Italian has a methodical approach that is tough to break down when he is at his best.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s much more difficult to get through Sinner because of his return to serve,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Alcaraz, if you hit your spots, you can get on the front foot and you can knock him around the court a little bit because he\u2019s not as tall<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we saw with Valentin Vacherot on a few points in the semi-finals in Monte Carlo, when you have a big server, he\u2019s not always comfortable.<\/p>\n

Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cIf you look at Jannik, no matter what server he\u2019s playing, whether it\u2019s a big server, he always looks like he\u2019s there and he\u2019s in every return game. Also, his own serve numbers have been phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz and Sinner may be exchanging the world No 1 ranking over the next few weeks, with Sinner favourite to be top of the list heading into the French Open and Alcaraz then having a chance to reclaim top spot at Wimbledon, where Sinner will be defending 2,000 ranking points from his win last year.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: How Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s Barcelona Open withdrawal affects No 1 ranking battle with Jannik Sinner<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Jannik Sinner warned he has only won the first phase of his battle with Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jannik Sinner has been warned that he has only won the phoney war with his great rival Carlos Alcaraz, with the titles that really matter still a little distance over the horizon. Alcaraz appeared to have moved clear of Sinner in the battle between the two dominant players in men\u2019s tennis when he clinched 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-2040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040","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=2040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}