Mouratoglou: “I don’t think Sinner is above Alcaraz”

The Italian has established himself as the most consistent player in the world in excellence since the end of the 2023 season.

March 16, 2024 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain shakes hands with Jannik Sinner of Italy after winning the Semifinal match at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, CA. (Zuma/Panoramic)

Mathieu Canac

January 31, 2025

100 matches, 93 wins. Having become half man, half steamroller – especially on hard courts – since the autumn of 2023, Jannik Sinner has achieved a 93% success rate – worthy of the Big Three – after his Australian Open title. His third Grand Slam title in a year, winning his 21st consecutive match.

Since the creation of the ATP Tour in 1990, only three (super)men have done better, as found by Game, Set and Maths. Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, with 97 matches won out of 100, 95 out of 100, and 94 out of 100 respectively. John McEnroe also had 97 out of 100 in the 1980s.

World number 1 with a 3695-point lead over his runner-up, Alexander Zverev, Sinner has become uncatchable for the competition. Even the Djokovic monument has ‘broken his teeth’ there, losing four of their last five duels.

Alcaraz has won three in a row against Sinner

But one die-hard resisted the conquest of the new Caesar. Of the seven defeats of the 23-year-old Italian, three came against one and the same rebel: Carlos Alcaraz. In addition to these three consecutive defeats against his rival, the native of San Candido is down 6-4 in their head-to-head.

Jannik Sinner’s seven defeats in his last 100 matches:

Against Carlos Alcaraz | Beijing, October 2024 | Final
Against Andrey Rublev | Montreal, August 2024 | Quarter-finals
Against Daniil Medvedev | Wimbledon, July 2024 | Quarter-finals

Against Carlos Alcaraz | Roland-Garros, June 2024 | Semi-final
Against Stefanos Tsitsipas | Monte Carlo, April 2024 | Semi-final (by being penalised by a big refereeing error)
Against Carlos Alcaraz | Indian Wells, March 2024 | Semi-final
Against Novak Djokovic | Masters, November 2023 | Final

“Jannik (Sinner) is not above everyone, I don’t think he is above Carlos (Alcaraz),” Patrick Mouratoglou analysed in a video published via his Instagram account. “When Carlos is at his best, there is a real match, and I’m sure sure who is going to win, and nobody can say who will win.”

“All their matches have been extremely close, extremely uncertain,” continued Naomi Osaka’s coach. “And Carlos won some big ones (matches). They have a different type of game. »

Carlos (Alcaraz) makes more unforced errors than him, he is playing with much more risk. The quality of Sinner is that he plays at a crazy high pace without missing

“Carlos makes more unforced errors than him, he is playing with much more risk,” he continued. “The quality of Sinner is that he plays at a crazy high pace without missing. The asset of Carlos is that he has this incredible power in the racket, but also his ability to change rhythm. »

“He (Carlos Alcaraz) can play on a certain pace and suddenly – BAM, BAM! – he accelerates the pace like crazy way,” explained the French coach. “Jannik plays everything at the same extremely high pace.”

“So the fact that Carlos is making more errors maybe makes him look less dominant in the matches against other players, but he has so much margin, it’s crazy,” he continued.

“I don’t think we can say that Jannik is way above Carlos, that’s not true,” concluded the French coach, recalling that the Spaniard has already won four Grand Slam titles. “That’s one more than Jannik Sinner, being two years younger.”