Mats Wilander says Carlos Alcaraz is a stronger player than Jannik Sinner, ‘Sinner is #1 only for the computer’

FernandoBiH

Semi-Pro
Mats Wilander says Carlos Alcaraz is a stronger player than Jannik Sinner, ‘Sinner is #1 only for the computer’

“Alcaraz has shown that he doesn't have to play his best tennis to win. He will be able to win many more Slams thanks to his aggressive game and the great courage he shows in important points. The match always depends on his performance. Sinner is number one only for the computer, Alcaraz is stronger.”
 
D

Deleted member 810491

Guest
Maybe Alcaraz's nickname should be "God", considering Jannik's name is "Sinner".
Alcaraz has not even reached his prime yet, and already is 11-1 in 5-setters.
There is no limit in sight.
 

Kralingen

Bionic Poster
Hm, I actually disagree; right now, Sinner is the bigger threat year round, while Alcaraz has a higher level in the Bo5 format due to his sheer relentless attacking force and physicality.

Sinner holding the #1 ranking while Alcaraz winning more Slams makes perfect sense within the framework through which I view their games.
 

nolefam_2024

Bionic Poster
Nadal was 12-2 in slam five setters until 2012.

Lost 9 of the next 20 matches as he started getting bigger competition and got older.

Same will happen to Alcaraz. Right now he is very fast, less injuries.
 

Humble Crumble

Semi-Pro
If Sinner wins Wimbledon, the weasel like Wilander will switch sides.

A guy who said Djokovic peak clay game is better than Nadal peak clay game should not be taken seriously.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy watching Alcaraz play, and he’s one of the greatest tennis players I have witnessed, but let’s not pretend the best players automatically become the wisest commentators.

I can only laugh in advance for the day when Wilander’s comments age like milk, and it will probably be on July 14, 2024.
 

Pheasant

Legend
Well Wilander, that's easy to say right this moment with a small sample size, since Carlos just won the FO. But with that reasoning, we might as say that Zverev right this minute is way better than Sinner, since he collected far more points during the clay season.

Per the ATP website, here are the players that have a .700 winning pct during the past 52 weeks:

PlayerRecordTitles won
Sinner64-10, .8656
Djokovic50-9, .8475
Alcaraz53-14, .7913
Zverev67-22, .7533
Ruud56-21, .7272
Dimitrov50-19, .7251
Medvedev51-20, .7180
 

The Blond Blur

G.O.A.T.
Yes he is Kanye of tennis
kronk-point.gif
 

SonnyT

Legend
Me too! In their last two slams, Sinner raced to a 2-1 sets, but only to be surpassed by Alcaraz in the final two sets.

To see how rare that was, let's look at Nadal-Djokovic rivalry: neither has won the 4th and 5th sets. In fact, they played 3 five-setters, and neither has won 2 consecutive sets in those 3 matches.
 

Mustard

Bionic Poster
Like the end of 1989. Becker had the better year, because he had won Wimbledon, the US Open and Davis Cup. However, any ranking system would have Lendl as world number 1 for 1989.
 

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
Hm, I actually disagree; right now, Sinner is the bigger threat year round, while Alcaraz has a higher level in the Bo5 format due to his sheer relentless attacking force and physicality.

Sinner holding the #1 ranking while Alcaraz winning more Slams makes perfect sense within the framework through which I view their games.
How is Sinner a bigger threat year round?

He holds 0 grass titles.
He holds 0 clay titles.
He holds 2 Masters both on hard.
He holds the Aus Open on hard,

Alcaraz holds Queens on grass.
He holds Wimbledon on grass.
He holds a Masters on hard.
He holds the French Open on clay.
And he's a former champ of the USO on hard.

Sinner has never made a grass final and has made just 1 clay final in his career which was a 250 and he's older than Carlos is.

I just don't see in what way he's better year round. He's better on hard and that's it. And yet, even saying that, in their short careers, both have won a slam on hard and Alcaraz has actually won more Masters on hard court too!
 
Last edited:

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
Well Wilander, that's easy to say right this moment with a small sample size, since Carlos just won the FO. But with that reasoning, we might as say that Zverev right this minute is way better than Sinner, since he collected far more points during the clay season.

Per the ATP website, here are the players that have a .700 winning pct during the past 52 weeks:

PlayerRecordTitles won
Sinner64-10, .8656
Djokovic50-9, .8475
Alcaraz53-14, .7913
Zverev67-22, .7533
Ruud56-21, .7272
Dimitrov50-19, .7251
Medvedev51-20, .7180
Is that legit because that's embarassing by the ATP Website as it's wrong...

Alcaraz holds:
Queens
Wimbledon
Indian Wells
French Open

Doesn't take a child to count 4 titles there, not 3..

And Djokovic holds:
Cincinnati
US Open
Paris
ATP Finals

That's 4 titles... not 5.

Perhaps they haven't updated the stats with the French Open results since they're giving Novak last years French title and not giving this years to Alcaraz in which case that list will look A LOT different.
 

ND-13

Legend
Hm, I actually disagree; right now, Sinner is the bigger threat year round, while Alcaraz has a higher level in the Bo5 format due to his sheer relentless attacking force and physicality.

Sinner holding the #1 ranking while Alcaraz winning more Slams makes perfect sense within the framework through which I view their games.
This is exactly how i see it as well. Alcaraz is going to take slams seriously. Sinner will do HC, especially indoors very well.

Alcaraz is a monster in mental strength and BO5. I think he will have many more wins on HC majors over Sinner.
 

thrust

Legend
Is that legit because that's embarassing by the ATP Website as it's wrong...

Alcaraz holds:
Queens
Wimbledon
Indian Wells
French Open

Doesn't take a child to count 4 titles there, not 3..

And Djokovic holds:
Cincinnati
US Open
Paris
ATP Finals

That's 4 titles... not 5.

Perhaps they haven't updated the stats with the French Open results since they're giving Novak last years French title and not giving this years to Alcaraz in which case that list will look A LOT different.
Since when has Queens become a masters/big title?
 

NYTennisfan

Hall of Fame
#1 isn't always about the best player, it's about accumulated points based heavily on a lot of smaller tournaments than slams year round. Alcaraz being #1 while Djokovic was winning slams last year was a sham too. I remember when Wozniacki was #1 for a while and hadn't even won a slam yet, she probably wasn't even a top 5 player in reality. It's a flawed system.
 

MeatTornado

Talk Tennis Guru
How is Sinner a bigger threat year round?

He holds 0 grass titles.
He holds 0 clay titles.
He holds 2 Masters both on hard.
He holds the Aus Open on hard,

Alcaraz holds Queens on grass.
He holds Wimbledon on grass.
He holds a Masters on hard.
He holds the French Open on clay.
And he's a former champ of the USO on hard.

Sinner has never made a grass final and has made just 1 clay final in his career which was a 250 and he's older than Carlos is.

I just don't see in what way he's better year round. He's better on hard and that's it. And yet, even saying that, in their short careers, both have won a slam on hard and Alcaraz has actually won more Masters on hard court too!
Sinner does seem to be significantly better on indoor hard courts at least.
 

NYTennisfan

Hall of Fame
Hm, I actually disagree; right now, Sinner is the bigger threat year round, while Alcaraz has a higher level in the Bo5 format due to his sheer relentless attacking force and physicality.

Sinner holding the #1 ranking while Alcaraz winning more Slams makes perfect sense within the framework through which I view their games.
How is Sinner the bigger threat year round? Alcaraz has 5 Masters titles on all surfaces mind you to Sinner's 2 and is 2 years younger.
Even with Sinner peaking this year, he still only has 1 masters title to his credit along with Alcaraz's one which he beat Sinner to accomplish.

Edit: I see that @Aussie Darcy already explained in better detail.
 

Kralingen

Bionic Poster
How is Sinner a bigger threat year round?

He holds 0 grass titles.
He holds 0 clay titles.
He holds 2 Masters both on hard.
He holds the Aus Open on hard,

Alcaraz holds Queens on grass.
He holds Wimbledon on grass.
He holds a Masters on hard.
He holds the French Open on clay.
And he's a former champ of the USO on hard.

Sinner has never made a grass final and has made just 1 clay final in his career which was a 250 and he's older than Carlos is.

I just don't see in what way he's better year round. He's better on hard and that's it. And yet, even saying that, in their short careers, both have won a slam on hard and Alcaraz has actually won more Masters on hard court too!
How is Sinner the bigger threat year round? Alcaraz has 5 Masters titles on all surfaces mind you to Sinner's 2 and is 2 years younger.
Even with Sinner peaking this year, he still only has 1 masters title to his credit along with Alcaraz's one which he beat Sinner to accomplish.

Edit: I see that @Aussie Darcy already explained in better detail.
Cos Carlos gets hurt all the time (see this clay season). It’s really as simple as that. Every year his body has let him down and he’s fallen off badly during a section of the year. I think FeroBango (who is THE Alcaraz fan on here) has made this exact argument as well.

Moreover has a very poor record during the post-USO portion of the season in Asia indoors whereas Sinner is incredible there, and imo Carlos is worse on HC both this year and last because of the AO. By the way Sinner got screwed by a line call and would’ve obviously won MC without it.

Since winning Wimbledon Alcaraz has exactly two titles and only reached three finals. Only three finals in a calendar year! Why? Because he played 80% of his tournaments on HC over that period of time, and Sinner was better on HC, which makes up most of the year round tour. However, I think he has a higher peak at 3/4 Slams than Sinner and excels outdoors. I think my take is quite defensible.
 

NYTennisfan

Hall of Fame
Cos Carlos gets hurt all the time (see this clay season). It’s really as simple as that. Every year his body has let him down and he’s fallen off badly during a section of the year. I think FeroBango (who is THE Alcaraz fan on here) has made this exact argument as well.

Moreover has a very poor record during the post-USO portion of the season in Asia indoors whereas Sinner is incredible there, and imo Carlos is worse on HC both this year and last because of the AO. By the way Sinner got screwed by a line call and would’ve obviously won MC without it.

Since winning Wimbledon Alcaraz has exactly two titles and only reached three finals. Only three finals in a calendar year! Why? Because he played 80% of his tournaments on HC over that period of time, and Sinner was better on HC, which makes up most of the year round tour. However, I think he has a higher peak at 3/4 Slams than Sinner and excels outdoors. I think my take is quite defensible.
Sinner was just as injured during Clay season though.

Everybody knows that Sinner is better on fast indoor courts but that's a far cry from being better year round. Alcaraz has won non-slam titles on all surfaces during different portions of the year.

Alcaraz is a lot more accomplished as a year round player, I don't think this is even arguable. If you want to project forward that you see Sinner as the better year round player eventually then I can see an argument based on health (I too worry about Carlos's health going forward), projectable skillet etc. but that's not based on what has happened in their careers thus far, a career which Sinner has years of more chances to win big titles on Alcaraz.

This is the thing with the rivalry. A lot of the arguments in Sinner's favor are projections while the arguments in Alcaraz's favor are what's actually happened on the court.
 

Kralingen

Bionic Poster
Sinner was just as injured during Clay season though.

Everybody knows that Sinner is better on fast indoor courts but that's a far cry from being better year round. Alcaraz has won non-slam titles on all surfaces during different portions of the year.

Alcaraz is a lot more accomplished as a year round player, I don't think this is even arguable. If you want to project forward that you see Sinner as the better year round player eventually then I can see an argument based on health (I too worry about Carlos's health going forward), projectable skillet etc. but that's not based on what has happened in their careers thus far, a career which Sinner has years of more chances to win big titles on Alcaraz.

This is the thing with the rivalry. A lot of the arguments in Sinner's favor are projections while the arguments in Alcaraz's favor are what's actually happened on the court.
OK. Please explain to me how Sinner being #1 in the world rankings at this present moment is “projection” rather than “what’s actually happened on court”?

That’s a 52 week sample size of reality, and the reality of the last 52 weeks across all surfaces has Sinner amassing more points across all surfaces than Carlos Alcaraz. So… what projection, again?
 

NYTennisfan

Hall of Fame
OK. Please explain to me how Sinner being #1 in the world rankings at this present moment is “projection” rather than “what’s actually happened on court”?

That’s a 52 week sample size of reality, and the reality of the last 52 weeks across all surfaces has Sinner amassing more points across all surfaces than Carlos Alcaraz. So… what projection, again?
And Alcaraz was #1 last year for a long time. Alcaraz is far more accomplished in his career as a year round player, Sinner being #1 right now doesn't change that. Alcaraz literally beat this 2024 version of Sinner twice in a row on two different surfaces. Every argument in Sinner's favor as a better year round player is projection.
 

TheSlicer

Hall of Fame
And Alcaraz was #1 last year for a long time. Alcaraz is far more accomplished in his career as a year round player, Sinner being #1 right now doesn't change that. Alcaraz literally heat this 2024 version of Sinner twice in a row on two different surfaces.
He has beat every versión of sinner on hard courts actually, including a win over him at Paris indoors being 18
 

Kralingen

Bionic Poster
And Alcaraz was #1 last year for a long time. Alcaraz is far more accomplished in his career as a year round player, Sinner being #1 right now doesn't change that. Alcaraz literally beat this 2024 version of Sinner twice in a row on two different surfaces. Everything argument in Sinner's favor as a better year round player us projection.
He has beat every versión of sinner on hard courts actually, including a win over him at Paris indoors being 18
Dude you’re just not engaging with my point at all. Factual statement: Sinner is #1 right now. Yes or no?

He is the #1 player in the world because he has been better over the last 52 weeks than Alcaraz. There is no more projection. Moreover he is a more dominant #1 than Carlos ever was. He has amassed 10,000 points which is more than Carlos ever amassed, so we can’t call this a fluke due to COVID points or a transitional era or whatever - 10k points would work in any era.

This is not projection whatsoever anymore. This is cold hard reality. We’re not talking about the past or future we’re talking about this very moment in time. You refuse to acknowledge that simple reality.
 

NYTennisfan

Hall of Fame
Dude you’re just not engaging with my point at all. Factual statement: Sinner is #1 right now. Yes or no?

He is the #1 player in the world because he has been better over the last 52 weeks than Alcaraz. There is no more projection. Moreover he is a more dominant #1 than Carlos ever was. He has amassed 10,000 points which is more than Carlos ever amassed, so we can’t call this a fluke due to COVID points or a transitional era or whatever - 10k points would work in any era.

This is not projection whatsoever anymore. This is cold hard reality. We’re not talking about the past or future we’re talking about this very moment in time. You refuse to acknowledge that simple reality.
Being the current #1 as your main argument is such a flawed argument I don't even know where to begin.

The fact is that Alcaraz has 3 more masters wins, 2 more slams wins and literally beat the #1 player twice on 2 different surfaces in the last few months in big tournaments. The only argument in Sinner's favor is that he's the #1 player by a computer ranking so he must be the better year round player as a result.

The reality, if we're talking the here and now, is that Alcaraz beat Sinner the last 2 times he played him. This isn't even taking career accomplishments into account which is heavily in Alcaraz's favor, a shorter career btw.
 

Kralingen

Bionic Poster
Being the current #1 as your main argument is such a flawed argument I don't even know where to begin.

The fact is that Alcaraz has 3 more masters wins, 2 more slams wins and literally beat the #1 player twice on 2 different surfaces in the last few months in big tournaments. The only argument in Sinner's favor is that he's the #1 player by a computer ranking so he must be the better year round player as a result.

The reality, if we're talking the here and now, is that Alcaraz beat Sinner the last 2 times he played him. This isn't even taking career accomplishments into account which is heavily in Alcaraz's favor, a shorter career btw.
Here I’m going to clear up my take because I don’t think you really understand it.
Hm, I actually disagree; right now, Sinner is the bigger threat year round, while Alcaraz has a higher level in the Bo5 format due to his sheer relentless attacking force and physicality.

Sinner holding the #1 ranking while Alcaraz winning more Slams makes perfect sense within the framework through which I view their games.
Year round as in from the beginning of the year to the end of it, Sinner has a better chance of capturing more points every week. Which bears out in the fact that over the past 52 weeks, he has won the most points.

you’re also discounting the second part of what I wrote, which is actually a compliment to Carlitos: I would expect Carlos to win more Slams as he is a more impressive Bo5 player.

Well, let’s look at the facts supporting my take and the facts supporting your dismissal of my take: over the last 52 weeks, Sinner has 9525 points and Alcaraz 8580.

In Grand Slams over the last 52 weeks, though, Sinner has 3700 points, and 2 top 5 wins. Alcaraz meanwhile has won 5120 points and Alcaraz amassed 4 top 5 wins.

So what statement do the facts support?

The year round piece of this is that from September to December, Sinner was absolutely hell on wheels great last year, winning Vienna and Beijing and breaking out, beating Medvedev twice and Carlos. He also went 3-0 in group stages and made the Final of the ATP Finals. That’s a total of 2000 points combined. He then won Rotterdam as well to begin 2024 and as a result is way ahead of Carlos outside of their Slam results.

Carlos by comparison struggled both indoors (losing to Safiullin and early in Shanghai) and in the Golden Swing in Rio this year with injury and poor form. And this seems to happen a lot - he has questionable early losses in Canada every year, and is never seemingly fully healthy for long.

I think Carlos is still a better bet for Slams than Sinner is but all evidence I have points to the idea that Sinner is going to win more points year round due to the HC bias of the tour and his general serve/return advantages giving him a high floor.
 

NYTennisfan

Hall of Fame
Here I’m going to clear up my take because I don’t think you really understand it.

Year round as in from the beginning of the year to the end of it, Sinner has a better chance of capturing more points every week. Which bears out in the fact that over the past 52 weeks, he has won the most points.

you’re also discounting the second part of what I wrote, which is actually a compliment to Carlitos: I would expect Carlos to win more Slams as he is a more impressive Bo5 player.

Well, let’s look at the facts supporting my take and the facts supporting your dismissal of my take: over the last 52 weeks, Sinner has 9525 points and Alcaraz 8580.

In Grand Slams over the last 52 weeks, though, Sinner has 3700 points, and 2 top 5 wins. Alcaraz meanwhile has won 5120 points and Alcaraz amassed 4 top 5 wins.

So what statement do the facts support?

The year round piece of this is that from September to December, Sinner was absolutely hell on wheels great last year, winning Vienna and Beijing and breaking out, beating Medvedev twice and Carlos. He also went 3-0 in group stages and made the Final of the ATP Finals. That’s a total of 2000 points combined. He then won Rotterdam as well to begin 2024 and as a result is way ahead of Carlos outside of their Slam results.

Carlos by comparison struggled both indoors (losing to Safiullin and early in Shanghai) and in the Golden Swing in Rio this year with injury and poor form. And this seems to happen a lot - he has questionable early losses in Canada every year, and is never seemingly fully healthy for long.

I think Carlos is still a better bet for Slams than Sinner is but all evidence I have points to the idea that Sinner is going to win more points year round due to the HC bias of the tour and his general serve/return advantages giving him a high floor.
It depends on how you value points and these smaller tournaments. You seem to weigh them heavier than I do (Vienna, Beijing, Rotterdam to name three).

I don't deny that Sinner amassed more points this past calendar year so in that respect he deserves #1. I guess my issue with your original take is you saying that Sinner is the bigger threat year round as if he's generally proven to be the bigger threat. He amassed more points this past year but Alcaraz is more accomplished as a year round winner, including outside of slams, which was my point. The big tournaments, the legacy tournaments.

To sum up, Sinner had the better year if we include all tournaments big and small but even in a relative down year for Alcaraz, he still won as many masters and beat Sinner twice so I think it all boils down to how we value the points system, I value it less than you do.

Going forward we'll see but so far this edge Sinner apparently has on hard courts (his strong surface) isn't one, 2-3 against Alcaraz so we'll see how it projects forward.
 

FeroBango

Legend
#1 isn't always about the best player, it's about accumulated points based heavily on a lot of smaller tournaments than slams year round. Alcaraz being #1 while Djokovic was winning slams last year was a sham too. I remember when Wozniacki was #1 for a while and hadn't even won a slam yet, she probably wasn't even a top 5 player in reality. It's a flawed system.
But in this case it perfectly represents Jannik as the best in the world. It's not the worst system tbh.
 

dking68

Legend
Cos Carlos gets hurt all the time (see this clay season). It’s really as simple as that. Every year his body has let him down and he’s fallen off badly during a section of the year. I think FeroBango (who is THE Alcaraz fan on here) has made this exact argument as well.

Moreover has a very poor record during the post-USO portion of the season in Asia indoors whereas Sinner is incredible there, and imo Carlos is worse on HC both this year and last because of the AO. By the way Sinner got screwed by a line call and would’ve obviously won MC without it.

Since winning Wimbledon Alcaraz has exactly two titles and only reached three finals. Only three finals in a calendar year! Why? Because he played 80% of his tournaments on HC over that period of time, and Sinner was better on HC, which makes up most of the year round tour. However, I think he has a higher peak at 3/4 Slams than Sinner and excels outdoors. I think my take is quite defensible.
Lol I think you’re going to rethink that by the end of this year. Sinner is taking him to the cleaners on a hard court and most likely on grass.

Alcaraz is NOT defeating 2024 Sinner at the USO.
 

dking68

Legend
@Kralingen the 2022 USO is a false dawn for Alcaraz. Medvedev, Sinner and Zverev are just going to be really difficult for him on a hard court and I don’t see him winning a second anytime soon. Even AO is going to be very difficult for him. His variety is just so ineffective on the Melbourne courts. Think Sinner winning 2 slams a year is more guaranteed than Alcaraz winning 2 a year.
 

FeroBango

Legend
Cos Carlos gets hurt all the time (see this clay season). It’s really as simple as that. Every year his body has let him down and he’s fallen off badly during a section of the year. I think FeroBango (who is THE Alcaraz fan on here) has made this exact argument as well.

Moreover has a very poor record during the post-USO portion of the season in Asia indoors whereas Sinner is incredible there, and imo Carlos is worse on HC both this year and last because of the AO. By the way Sinner got screwed by a line call and would’ve obviously won MC without it.

Since winning Wimbledon Alcaraz has exactly two titles and only reached three finals. Only three finals in a calendar year! Why? Because he played 80% of his tournaments on HC over that period of time, and Sinner was better on HC, which makes up most of the year round tour. However, I think he has a higher peak at 3/4 Slams than Sinner and excels outdoors. I think my take is quite defensible.
I agree with most points here though I believe peak Raz hasn't truly consistently shown up anywhere really yet, particularly on HCs as evidenced by his "poor" 75% career win-rate there.

In my hopes/belief, Alcaraz of ages 23-24 will be be an even more dazzling spectacle; a better, more mature Tennis player.

Also undeniable is as far as today goes, Sinner is far away the better HC player. Stats say so at least. I hope Alcaraz levels up to his Sinner's level on the surface as soon as possible, because that means I get to watch the best tennis attraction today play more by winning more. It's a personal win of sorts. A break from the incredible stresses of life.
 
I’m looking forward to seeing how Sinner progresses this year in terms of his hip and how his recovery goes, how he responds to Carlos taking the spotlight again after RG, and if he can toughen up a bit and match Carlos’ audacity and wreckless abandon on big points.

On one hand, Sinner did slay the statistical GOAT ***** Oldavic rather easily & went on to win AO & eventually get to #1. Also, despite being questionable for RG and unable to even play for like 10 days, he made the semis and led Carlitos, only to lose in 5. At his fittest Sinner may well pull ahead on the hard courts, where imho he may matchup well with Carlitos. The grass courts matchup between the two at this point seems even harder to call.

On the other hand, Sinner still needs to get meaner and toughen up a bit imo. Realistically, his AO win was huge for him to finally come out and silence the Sinner hype denialists; however, had Medvedev not spent so much time on court, only to eventually fade away after set 2 in the final, he may well have stopped Sinner. Medvedev tactically outplayed him early stages of that AO final, a detail that Medvedev and his team won’t soon forget. (Kudos to Med & his team team after his tactically pitiful USO ‘23 final.)

In response to OP, I have to agree with Mats here. The year round ranking system works well for seeding purposes, but how silly was it to keep hearing about World No. 1 Djokovic during RG when he hadn’t made a final this year and had clearly not been the world’s best? Alcaraz winning a major on all 3 surfaces at 21 is a colossal achievement, and his bold shot making and clutchness is undeniable and frankly scary at his age. Clubber Lang might call Sinner a “paper tiger” lol.
 
D

Deleted member 806402

Guest
Mats should try computing the $$$ Sinner gets from Nike, Gucci and Ferrari.
 

thrust

Legend
I’m looking forward to seeing how Sinner progresses this year in terms of his hip and how his recovery goes, how he responds to Carlos taking the spotlight again after RG, and if he can toughen up a bit and match Carlos’ audacity and wreckless abandon on big points.

On one hand, Sinner did slay the statistical GOAT ***** Oldavic rather easily & went on to win AO & eventually get to #1. Also, despite being questionable for RG and unable to even play for like 10 days, he made the semis and led Carlitos, only to lose in 5. At his fittest Sinner may well pull ahead on the hard courts, where imho he may matchup well with Carlitos. The grass courts matchup between the two at this point seems even harder to call.

On the other hand, Sinner still needs to get meaner and toughen up a bit imo. Realistically, his AO win was huge for him to finally come out and silence the Sinner hype denialists; however, had Medvedev not spent so much time on court, only to eventually fade away after set 2 in the final, he may well have stopped Sinner. Medvedev tactically outplayed him early stages of that AO final, a detail that Medvedev and his team won’t soon forget. (Kudos to Med & his team team after his tactically pitiful USO ‘23 final.)

In response to OP, I have to agree with Mats here. The year round ranking system works well for seeding purposes, but how silly was it to keep hearing about World No. 1 Djokovic during RG when he hadn’t made a final this year and had clearly not been the world’s best? Alcaraz winning a major on all 3 surfaces at 21 is a colossal achievement, and his bold shot making and clutchness is undeniable and frankly scary at his age. Clubber Lang might call Sinner a “paper tiger” lol.
IMO, by the time of the FO tournament rankings/seeds should be determined by the Race points as of January 1 of this or any other year. Though I am a fan of Novak, I did not think he should have been the top seed in this year's FO.
 
Top