The tennis fans are still basking in the Jannik Sinner’s maiden win against Novak Djokovic that came at the ATP Finals in Turin and World No. 2 and Italian’s rival Carlos Alcaraz is among the pack who cherished the matchup on Tuesday.
Sinner set the stall for a win at home to notch the first win against the legendary Serbian. The World No.4 won a three-hour high octane battle in front of 14,000 fans at home – 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-6(2) – that could be easily rated among the best matches of the 2023 tour. As for Djokovic, he has already secured the year-end No. 1 rank – the oldest on the tour – but Alcaraz feels the Italian has just raised his game to get through the biggest stages as a victor.
On Wednesday, after his triumph against Andrey Rublev, Alcaraz in the post-match press conference was asked about his reactions on the Djokovic-Sinner clash and the Spaniard admitted that his generation-fellow is ready to compete for the biggest titles on the circuit.
“As a tennis fan I saw Sinner’s match against Djokovic, I think it was one of the best of the season,” said Alcaraz.
“It was very hard fought, everyone enjoyed it. I had fun watching it, it was incredible.
“I think it wouldn’t be easy to play here against Sinner with the audience on his side, but when I played him it was always great games, so who knows what could happen.”
The 2-time Grand Slam champion then went on to laud the Italian and predicted what he is capable of achieving in the upcoming 2024 season: “In 2024 Jannik will be a serious candidate to win a Grand Slam. I think he will even be able to reach No. 1, or put himself in a position to get there.”
Sinner maintains a winning head to head against the Murcian in a rivalry that has just started and is destined to make one of the biggest rivalries in the coming years. And Alcaraz is very aware of the Sinner’s skillset after having faced the Italian no less than 7-times on the tour to earn 3 wins. This year he defeated Sinner in Indian Wells before being beaten in Miami and Beijing.
The duo could add another chapter to their rivalry on Saturday if Alcaraz edges Daniil Medvedev in his final match of the group stage. The scintillating Spaniard has now beaten 10 top 10 players this season and to put that into perspective, only two other men have achieved this feat under the age of 21 since 2000 – Rafael Nadal and Lleyton Hewitt.
If Alcaraz takes care of Russian to get past the round-robin stage, that would be a mouthwatering encounter and former US Open champion Andy Roddick who also praised the Sinner believes the 22-year-old demonstrated that the only way to beat Djokovic is by taking ultra-aggressive approach and pushing the world No. 1 to the defensive shell.
“When the book’s being written on Sinner, he’s going to look back on this and say, ‘Hey that might have been the best match I ever played’,” said Roddick while talking to Tennis Channel.
“It’s just an unbelievable effort from Jannik Sinner from start to finish. As Jim Courier mentioned, Novak played well.
“He doesn’t often play that well & find the wrong side of it. Sinner was winning points right, taking cuts off returns.
“He took the racquet out of Djokovic’s hand a lot, serving well, moving well, switching directions. I couldn’t be more impressed with the match that we just saw.”
Sinner revealed that his ability to hold his nerve in the crucial moments allowed him to be positive and ultimately earned him the breakthrough win against a very hard to beat 36-year-old.
“When you win against the world No 1 and he has won 24 Grand Slams, it is clear that he is in the top, top,” said the Italian.
“I don’t know where I would put this as the best win of my career so far, but it was a really tactical match and I’m glad I found a way to win.
“I still have to learn many things. In the second set tie-break, he played better than me, but in the third set, I was really brave in important moments.
“I felt like we were both serving really well, so there weren’t so many exchanges. When we did have them, it was a really, really high-level match.”
Defending champion Djokovic will be next up against Pole Hubert Hurkacz on Thursday in his final group match as he bids to qualify for the semis of the year-end Finals.