In Sunday’s US Open final, Jannik Sinner fell to Carlos Alcaraz, coming up short in a four-set match, where it appeared the Italian star struggled to get going.
Despite an impressive run in Flushing Meadows that saw him pick up notable wins over Alexander Bublik, Lorenzo Musetti, and Felix Auger-Aliassime, Sinner’s performance on Sunday fell short of the level he showed in both the Australian Open and Wimbledon finals.
As he explained during his post-match press conference, he was too predictable after comfortably beating his previous opponents.
“I was very predictable on court today. He did many things, he changed up the game. That’s also his style of how he plays. Now it’s gonna be on me if I want to make changes or not. We’re definitely gonna work on that. I’m trying to be more prepared for the next match when I will play against him.”
As he continued, he needs to push himself to take risks earlier in tournaments, before he faces Alcaraz, even if it means coming up short on occasion:
“One thing is, when the scoreline matches before are comfortable, you always do the same things like I did for example in this tournament, I didn’t make one serve and volley, I didn’t use a lot of drop shots. Then you arrive at the point where you have to play Carlos, where you have to go out of the comfort zone. I’m gonna aim to, maybe even lose some matches from now on, but trying to do some changes. To be a bit more unpredictable as a player. That’s what I have to do, trying to become a better tennis player. At the end of the day that’s my main goal.”
You can see the full press conference below:
Sinner Plans to Make Minor Tweaks to Serve Following US Open
As Sinner has shown this season, he’s without question one of the two best players in the world.
After coming up short on Sunday, and losing his status as world No. 1, Sinner explained that he plans to make some minor tweaks to his serve, and his game.
Although he doesn’t plan to make any big changes, sometimes it’s the small things that make all the difference:
“I’m a very, very solid, baseliner. I’m a very strong hitter. I’m a good player, you know, but sometimes adding just “something”, you know? And I think that’s gonna make a difference from my personal point of view. I can say that I’m gonna become a better tennis player and gonna change a couple of things on the serve, just small things, but, they can make big differences.”
As Sinner showed when he bounced back in the Wimbledon final, just weeks after coming up short against Alcaraz at the French Open, he has the resilience to bounce back.
Jannik Sinner Weighs In on Carlos Alcaraz’s Evolution Since Wimbledon
Heading into this season, Alcaraz and Sinner had never faced off in the final of a major. Since then, however, the two have battled it out in three straight Grand Slam finals.
In response to one member of the press who asked Sinner about the differences between the Alcaraz he faced at SW19, and the Alcaraz he faced on Sunday in Flushing Meadows, Jannik Sinner explained:
“He has has improved. I felt like he was a bit cleaner today. The things what I did well in London he did better today and that’s the result. So I feel like he was doing everything slightly better today, especially serving, both sides, both swings, very clean.
“I’ll give lots of credit to him because he handled the situation better than I did, and he raised his level when he had to.”
With any luck, we’ll get to see these two battle it out again before the 2025 season ends.
US Open: Jannik Sinner Press Conference Following Alcaraz Loss