Final preview: Sinner vs Alcaraz

Can hard court king Sinner make inroads into Alcaraz' dominance on the clay?

 - Alix Ramsay

It was our colleague, Chris Bowers of Radio Roland-Garros, who pointed out the other night that, in effect, we currently have two world No.1s. Jannik Sinner is the master of all he surveys on the hard courts while Carlos Alcaraz is the grand master of the natural surfaces, clay and grass.

As everyone who faces Sinner on a hard court knows, it is best to expect the worst. Last year, on his way to his seven hard court titles (he also won in Halle on grass), he played 57 hard court matches and won all but three of them. And two of the ones he lost were to Alcaraz.

On clay, though, the tables are not so much turned as upended. Alcaraz’s career record on clay is 121 matches played, 102 matches won. One of those matches was his five-set semi-final against Sinner here last year.

But now Sinner is muscling his way onto Alcaraz’s patch. This is his first final in Paris; this is his first sight of Alcaraz since the Spaniard gave him a pasting in the Rome final. This could be interesting.

The Italian has yet to drop a set here, even if Novak Djokovic pushed him hard in the previous round. With his relentless hitting and pinpoint accuracy, he is ruling the world. And yet he knows that may not be enough on clay, not against Alcaraz. He will have to come out of his comfort zone and improvise.

“If you watch all the rivalries, they have all been tactical,” he explained. “You don't go on court, and you just hit the ball. You have to understand what's going on. You have to understand what's working in that day, because things can change.

"Maybe you prepared in one way, and it's not working, and you have to change. You have to be ready. You have to be ready to counterattack. That's why it's very important to be focused. Because if you sleep, then the match is gone.”

Sinner speaks from experience: he has not beaten Alcaraz in nearly two years (that was on a hard court, obviously) and trails their rivalry 4-7. He did beat the champion on clay once, but that was three years ago in Umag over the best-of-three sets. 

As for Alcaraz, he sized up the task ahead of him before Sinner and Djokovic had played their semi-final and concluded that he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“If I want to play against Jannik, he's the best tennis player right now,” he said. “I mean, he's destroying every opponent through the semi-final. Djokovic is a 24 Grand Slam champion.”

For now, though, Roland-Garros is still Alcaraz’s fiefdom and no one knows how to defend this small rectangle of Parisian real estate better than him.