Great review, I'm curious about one thing, the best player in the world debate as you said is nuanced because Carlos rules on natural surfaces and Sinner rules on hard courts. How far do you think Carlos is from Sinner in hard courts? After Sinner became world number 1, their grand slam matches on natural surfaces have been very close. Alcaraz has shown to beat him at the US Open and although it was pre Sinner world number, I still think it shows Carlos' level in a hard court fiver setter. I specifically want to see him in an Australian Open final against Sinner because Carlos has been very poor in that tournament and he needs that career grand slam. Carlos always seems to raise his level against Sinner and I trust him to play more consistently against him. So how do you think that would play out and what does Carlos need to improve on to close the gap? Thanks, and keep up the good work.
Regarding a hard court match, although I would still favor Sinner, I won't be shocked if Carlos wins it due to his current mental and confidence edge over him. Out of all the criticism Carlos gets, the only one that is relevant and probably accurate is his consistency on hard courts. The gap between him and Sinner on that surface isn’t that much larger in isolation, but is widened by Sinner practically being guaranteed a deep tournament run every week, while Carlos is prone to upsets.
Your twitter is hilarious and your substack is incredible, I enjoy reading your writing and analysis - thank you for the hard work! I look forward to reading your future articles on Carlos’ tennis.
Out of curiosity, when it was set 4, did you have hope Carlos could win that set and set 5? Or were you kind of in the acceptance mode already? The final was great but experiencing it live was pure suffering…
given the surface repartition throughout the year, what do you think about a "alcaraz will never be no1 again" (discounting any prolonged sinner absence, be it ban or injury) hypothesis ?
He will be, as I expect him to, gradually improve on hard courts. (And Sinner won't always go undefeated against everyone else like he had in the past 18 months.)
Great review, I'm curious about one thing, the best player in the world debate as you said is nuanced because Carlos rules on natural surfaces and Sinner rules on hard courts. How far do you think Carlos is from Sinner in hard courts? After Sinner became world number 1, their grand slam matches on natural surfaces have been very close. Alcaraz has shown to beat him at the US Open and although it was pre Sinner world number, I still think it shows Carlos' level in a hard court fiver setter. I specifically want to see him in an Australian Open final against Sinner because Carlos has been very poor in that tournament and he needs that career grand slam. Carlos always seems to raise his level against Sinner and I trust him to play more consistently against him. So how do you think that would play out and what does Carlos need to improve on to close the gap? Thanks, and keep up the good work.
Thank you!
Regarding a hard court match, although I would still favor Sinner, I won't be shocked if Carlos wins it due to his current mental and confidence edge over him. Out of all the criticism Carlos gets, the only one that is relevant and probably accurate is his consistency on hard courts. The gap between him and Sinner on that surface isn’t that much larger in isolation, but is widened by Sinner practically being guaranteed a deep tournament run every week, while Carlos is prone to upsets.
An amazing review of an epic match. Great work 👏🏽
Thank you!
Your twitter is hilarious and your substack is incredible, I enjoy reading your writing and analysis - thank you for the hard work! I look forward to reading your future articles on Carlos’ tennis.
Out of curiosity, when it was set 4, did you have hope Carlos could win that set and set 5? Or were you kind of in the acceptance mode already? The final was great but experiencing it live was pure suffering…
Yeah lol, I thought the match was over by the middle of the fourth set.
given the surface repartition throughout the year, what do you think about a "alcaraz will never be no1 again" (discounting any prolonged sinner absence, be it ban or injury) hypothesis ?
He will be, as I expect him to, gradually improve on hard courts. (And Sinner won't always go undefeated against everyone else like he had in the past 18 months.)