“Thanks to him, I make an effort every day.”

Last November, before the ATP Finals in Turin, Jannik Sinner He had yet to win a Grand Slam and was fourth in the ATP rankings, but Carlos Alcaraz He has already predicted his rise to heaven. “I have no doubt that he will win a major tournament. And I think he will become number one in the world in 2024, or at least close to it,” the Spaniard warned at the time. . Friends, since they faced each other in 2019 in the first round of the Alicante challenger, these words of Alcaraz may have seemed like politeness towards Sinner, pure collegiality, even defensiveness, but there was a lot of tennis behind them.

The two faced each other last month in October last year in the semi-finals of the Beijing Masters 1000 and the Spaniard was able to notice the Italian’s physical and mental changes. From a guy who could not stand it and suffered many ups and downs during matches, to the dominator of the current tournament.

This Tuesday, due to the withdrawal of Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros, Alcaraz’s prediction came true, Sinner rose to first place in the ATP rankings, and a few hours later the Spaniard presented himself as his first challenge. The Italian will make his debut in the ATP rankings against his generational rival, an opponent with whom he will mark an era. Could there be a better scenario?

“This is the best in the world”

“It will be a really difficult challenge. He is the best player in the world at the moment, the new number one in the world and, moreover, the one who plays the best,” Alcaraz commented, moving on. After Sinner’s victory over Grigor Dimitrov and about his victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas in three sets, that is, after the two turned the quarterfinals of Roland Garros into a formality, it became obvious that they were well above the average class of tennis. They have each other to motivate them. If one of the two was not there, let’s see where they got the desire from.

“Thanks to him, I strive to improve every day, get up in the morning to continue working,” Alcaraz admitted that he will not train this Wednesday. As he did after the first Grand Slam tour in France, when he had already had two days of rest, he will go on an excursion with his team and, in fact, they will probably return to the Palace of Versailles.

The two main favorites for the title in Paris have met eight times already, with each winning four times. The latest precedent in Alcaraz’s favor was a victory in the semi-finals of the last Masters 1000 in Indian Wells, but on clay they met only once, in the final of Umag 2022, and the victory went to Sinner. “I have to win with the balance in my favor, but I think he’s the favorite this time. Now he’s number one, I can’t feel like the favorite against number one,” Alcaraz said on the brink of the fight. his first final at Roland Garros.