Why is Sinner having issues with Alcaraz?

Daniel Andrade said:
Simple question.

As far as I know the last 5 matches Alcaraz has won and Sinner lost. What are the dynamics that made this happen? Why is Sinner having trouble defeating Alcaraz?
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its because Alcarez plays with variety better than any other player and that throws off Sinner many times. and Carlos can also hit with power when he needs to. Those insane close to perfect drop shots carlos can hit over and over really bothers Sinner more than people realize. Yea sure Sinner sometimes runs it down and hits great shots but that's not the point... over the time span of long matches , that shot really has Cumulitive effects on a player and forces you into errors :)
 
Daniel Andrade said:
Simple question.

As far as I know the last 5 matches Alcaraz has won and Sinner lost. What are the dynamics that made this happen? Why is Sinner having trouble defeating Alcaraz?
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Carlos has a vicious spitting hooked FH that he can get high to Sinner's FH which does trouble Sinner. He always leaks errors on the FH side to Alcaraz. Djokovic actually started the SF hitting loopy FH to FH's and was having success but for some reason abandoned the tactic.

The other issue he has is that although he has a better BH than Alcaraz, it isnt by that much which means Alcaraz can live with him BH to Bh for long enough to get Sinner out wide to the FH at some point which most players have no real chance of doing as Sinner's BH destroys them. I think at the FO and USO Alcaraz will be tough for Sinner, which is being borne out as its 3-0 h2h at both, but i think at the lower bouncing W and AO's Sinner will be too much for Carlos. Its not a dissimilar dynamic to Nadal v Djokovic back in the day
 
Daniel Andrade said:
Simple question.

As far as I know the last 5 matches Alcaraz has won and Sinner lost. What are the dynamics that made this happen? Why is Sinner having trouble defeating Alcaraz?
Click to expand...
Carlos is just better on the clay man. The crazy shots he pulled off today, I truly believe most of those shots that he caught, would be regular winners for Sinner against any other player, including Djokovic
 
  • Variety: tactics, shot selection/shot height... mixing things up at a high level seems to be about the only thing that really bothers Sinner consistently
  • Having to hit those extra shots that other players would not get back, having to run down his drop shots all day... physically draining
  • Only meets him late in tournaments when both have invested plenty of energy. Even a straight sets win can use a lot of mental and physical credit... that Gioco match was hard-fought for Sinner. Don't be fooled into thinking that because Sinner steamrolled everyone on the scoreboard that he was mentally fresh as a daisy, consider the focus and intensity it takes to pull that off in a two-week tournament
  • Level tends to be raised by Alcaraz when stakes are highest and he also relishes long matches
  • He hasn't played him in Melbourne yet which would be a much more favourable setting for Sinner. A straight sets win there would not be hard to see as Alcaraz doesn't settle on that court anywhere near as well as the other slams. It might sound silly but straight sets is the best way to negate Alcaraz... Gioco did it at the Olympics and Sinner could probably do it in Aus. If Alcaraz gets his teeth into a match he becomes extremely hard to put away
 
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Sinner is "cold as ice" or "robotic". Alcaraz at certain times ups the intensity and brings the fire. When there's a dynamic like this, the one bringing the fire is going to control the outcome, but the icer will punish him if he doesn't deliver. Alcaraz has delivered in the matches.
 
It scary that sinner is so good but he might not be able to beat Carlos again. If they meet again at Wimbledon or us open I’m backing alcaraz. It seems sinner is great against the rest of the field but alcaraz is his big daddy. In the key moments alcaeaz goes to another level sinner can’t handle. Sinner gets more tight against alcaraz than any other player too.

Sinner simply has to win the next matchup or this H2H could get ugly and sinner could become alcaraz pigeon in big finals.
 
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StrongRule said:
It's all mental. Sinner for some reason just continues to lose all the big points. Between these meetings, only Rome final wasn't close. In all others, Sinner just lost it mentally after a very even battle.
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I agree. It just shows you that matchups and mental battles are so important. If that was any other player or even Djokovic as we saw he close it out. However, he doubts himself against Carlos whereas alcaraz thrives in the pressure moments against him.
 
Djokovic_is_the_best#1 said:
It scary that sinner is so good but ihe might not be able to beat Carlos again. If they meet again at Wimbledon or us open I’m backing alcaraz. It seems sinner is great against the rest of the field but alcaraz is his big daddy. In the key moments alcaeaz goes to another level sinner can’t handle. Sinner gets more tight against alcaraz than any other player too.

Sinner simply has to win the next matchup or this H2H could get ugly and sinner could become alcaraz pigeon in big finals.
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I have a feeling he will win Wimbledon. @Winner Sinner is on break right now but he always told me Wimbledon will be Sinners first non HC big title
 
There is not much difference between the two in terms of their strengths and weaknesses. They do everything well.

There is not something very elite like Federer's serve, Djoko's lockdown mode, Nadal's tenacity but they dont have too much weakness too and their rally tolerance seems on par with big 3 and is only going to get better.

So, in a game with very thin margins (Sinner won 1 more point today), it is just a matter of who delivers the final below. The more recent matches have been on clay (RG24, RG25, Rome 25) , so we have recency bias.
 
Djokovic_is_the_best#1 said:
I agree. It just shows you that matchups and mental battles are so important. If that was any other player or even Djokovic as we saw he close it out. However, he doubts himself against Carlos whereas alcaraz thrives in the pressure moments against him.
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This time it really was a new low though. 2 sets and a break up, then up a break and had triple matchpoint in the fourth set. Served for the match. I mean, this is Zverev USO 2020 level choking. How many chances does he need in order to cross the finish line and get the win?
 
dking68 said:
I have a feeling he will win Wimbledon. @Winner Sinner is on break right now but he always told me Wimbledon will be Sinners first non HC big title
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He has to and must beat alcaraz next meeting. We can maybe excuse this because it was close and he should have won in 4. However, he didn’t and that is now 5 losses in a row. He must stop the bleeding soon otherwise the mental baggage will get too much to overcome.
 
Djokovic_is_the_best#1 said:
It scary that sinner is so good but ihe might not be able to beat Carlos again. If they meet again at Wimbledon or us open I’m backing alcaraz. It seems sinner is great against the rest of the field but alcaraz is his big daddy. In the key moments alcaeaz goes to another level sinner can’t handle. Sinner gets more tight against alcaraz than any other player too.

Sinner simply has to win the next matchup or this H2H could get ugly and sinner could become alcaraz pigeon in big finals.
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God, no. TTW swings from one end to another. This match could have been over in straights too and we would have said CarlosMug cannot even win on clay and we can stick a fork in him.

we will be questioning how his run was so weak that he lost sets to Mugsetti, Maroszan , Shelton and Dzumhur.
 
Djokovic_is_the_best#1 said:
He has to and must beat alcaraz next meeting. We can maybe excuse this because it was close and he should have won in 4. However, he didn’t and that is now 5 losses in a row. He must stop the bleeding soon otherwise the mental baggage will get too much to overcome.
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No excuses man. Well deserved to Alcaraz, Sinner had his chances and didn’t take them, and he just has to live with it. I told you once it was going 5, he wouldn’t win. But I appreciate the fight and he pushed it to a tiebreaker. But in the tiebreaker, Alcaraz was simply superior
 
StrongRule said:
This time it really was a new low though. 2 sets and a break up, then up a break and had triple matchpoint in the fourth set. Served for the match. I mean, this is Zverev USO 2020 level choking. How many chances he needs to cross the finish line and get a win?
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I agree and even when he was winning I felt it wasn’t fully over. As we seen sinner choke against alcaraz before. The us open 2022 match another game he had a match point. Alcaraz is breaking sinner’s heart with these painful loses. The matches tend to be close apart from Rome 2025 but if sinner doesn’t win soon he can easily become alcaraz pigeon for good.

We hope he too good to let that happen as we all built this up to be the great rivalry. In a way it is great as matches tend to be close but if the same guy keeps winning then it not the best rivalry and more Carlos domination. If this keeps happening, sinner might lose confidence and alcaraz might beat him more easily.

It weird because I was in awe of the match both players should be proud of the final they put on but ultimately sinner choked and this match could mess him up and set him further back when he faces alcaraz again.
 
ND-13 said:
God, no. TTW swings from one end to another. This match could have been over in straights too and we would have said CarlosMug cannot even win on clay and we can stick a fork in him.

we will be questioning how his run was so weak that he lost sets to Mugsetti, Maroszan , Shelton and Dzumhur.
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Yeah but that didn’t happen. Sinner lost and it 5 losses in a row. I’m pointing out he must win the next match or 2. If alcaraz goes 7/8 matches in a row against him then that could really hurt sinner for good. I don’t care how good he is, the guy has to start winning against the Spaniard and fast. Otherwise this rivalry could just turn out Alcaraz dominating even if matches are close.
 
dking68 said:
No excuses man. Well deserved to Alcaraz, Sinner had his chances and didn’t take them, and he just has to live with it. I told you once it was going 5, he wouldn’t win. But I appreciate the fight and he pushed it to a tiebreaker. But in the tiebreaker, Alcaraz was simply superior
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Fair enough but that is another problem. We say sinner has to win quick or it becomes alcaraz match. That isn’t good either because matches like this tend to go long so sinner needs to improve winning longer matches. He can’t win every match in 3 sets especially against a player like alcaraz.
 
Djokovic_is_the_best#1 said:
Fair enough but that is another problem. We say sinner has to win quick or it becomes alcaraz match. That isn’t good either because matches like this tend to go long so sinner needs to improve winning longer matches. He can’t win every match in 3 sets especially against a player like alcaraz.
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I regained faith when Sinner broke back when Carlos was serving it out in the fifth, and was 2 points again away from generating MP at 6-5. But it wasn’t meant to be. Carlos was too good
 
Djokovic_is_the_best#1 said:
Yeah but that didn’t happen. Sinner lost and it 5 losses in a row. I’m pointing out he must win the next match or 2. If alcaraz goes 7/8 matches in a row against him then that could really hurt sinner for good. I don’t care how good he is, the guy has to start winning against the Spaniard and fast. Otherwise this rivalry could just turn out Alcaraz dominating even if matches are close.
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Sinner won the Saudi slam, which was as important as any other big event.
 
Sinner is a pigeon now, that’s why but I wouldn’t be shocked if Sinner beats Alcaraz at Wimbledon should they both make it to the finals.
 
dking68 said:
No excuses man. Well deserved to Alcaraz, Sinner had his chances and didn’t take them, and he just has to live with it. I told you once it was going 5, he wouldn’t win. But I appreciate the fight and he pushed it to a tiebreaker. But in the tiebreaker, Alcaraz was simply superior
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It was similar to 2012 AO and 2013 FO Nadal and Djokovic. Ultimately the matches went the way of the better player on that surface. Its such fine margins at that GOAT level and i am going to include Alcaraz and Sinner at that very top tier level.
They play like today in 5 weeks time at SW19 if they make the final id think Sinner wins. I think Sinner is more natural on grass and but for his illness last year v Medvedev i think he would have won W last year.
Sinner will be hurting for a few days but ultimately i think today actually was a positive for him as if he can live with Alcaraz on clay in sunny conditions surely he will be confident in lower bouncing conditions such as AO and W. USO is almost a coin toss id think
 
This match was a lot like Wimbledon 2019 in that the person who was the second best player for most of the match clutched up when it mattered and won the deciding tiebreaks.

That Alcaraz could go thermonuclear and reach the level that only he can when he was in trouble in his last service game and through the final tiebreak after five hours and 20 minutes is ridiculous, you can't teach that.

The best part of all this for me is that people are now even asking the question whether these guys are the same level (or perhaps even better) than the big 3 and whether this was the best ever FO or GS final.

There's no way to objectively prove or disprove that, but these two even being in the conversation means that we can breathe a sigh of relief that tennis doesn't have a big dip in level after the big three leave and we have many years of epic matches to look forward to.

It also means we need only one other guy to step up his level for us to have a new big three.
 
Mustard said:
Alcaraz beat Sinner at the US Open in 2022. A very different dynamic in 2022, except for Sinner losing to Alcaraz after having match points ;)
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USO is outside of IW the highest bouncing hard court event there is. High bouncing courts will suit Alcaraz more in this match up as sinner has a slight weakness with the high ball shoulder height.
 
TennisTurkey said:
This match was a lot like Wimbledon 2019 in that the person who was the second best player for most of the match clutched up when it mattered and won the deciding tiebreaks.

That Alcaraz could go thermonuclear and reach the level that only he can when he was in trouble in his last service game and through the final tiebreak after five hours and 20 minutes is ridiculous, you can't teach that.

The best part of all this for me is that people are now even asking the question whether these guys are the same level (or perhaps even better) than the big 3 and whether this was the best ever FO or GS final.

There's no way to objectively prove or disprove that, but these two even being in the conversation means that we can breathe a sigh of relief that tennis doesn't have a big dip in level after the big three leave and we have many years of epic matches to look forward to.

It also means we need only one other guy to step up his level for us to have a new big three.
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Draper, Shelton, Fils, Musetti, maybe even Rune if he gets his head right, could make it a truly golden era. Mensik as well.
 
Djokovic_is_the_best#1 said:
I liked sinners fight in 5th set. He didn’t just wilt away so that big positive to take at least.
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He’s physically stronger now. Many of those shots that Sinner hit today that Alcaraz returned back, would’ve been winners on hardcourts or on some grass. And I’m a believer in that. But he’s got to turn it around otherwise it could be a Sharapova - Serena rivalry
 
TennisTurkey said:
This match was a lot like Wimbledon 2019 in that the person who was the second best player for most of the match clutched up when it mattered and won the deciding tiebreaks.

That Alcaraz could go thermonuclear and reach the level that only he can when he was in trouble in his last service game and through the final tiebreak after five hours and 20 minutes is ridiculous, you can't teach that.

The best part of all this for me is that people are now even asking the question whether these guys are the same level (or perhaps even better) than the big 3 and whether this was the best ever FO or GS final.

There's no way to objectively prove or disprove that, but these two even being in the conversation means that we can breathe a sigh of relief that tennis doesn't have a big dip in level after the big three leave and we have many years of epic matches to look forward to.

It also means we need only one other guy to step up his level for us to have a new big three.
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Agree with everything, but I am just happy with this rivalry and don't need a 3 way tie here.
 
dking68 said:
He’s physically stronger now. Many of those shots that Sinner hit today that Alcaraz returned back, would’ve been winners on hardcourts or on some grass. And I’m a believer in that. But he’s got to turn it around otherwise it could be a Sharapova - Serena rivalry
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Nah, it wont be like that. Sinner is more or less Alcaraz equal, their rivalry is going to be condition dependent i think like Nadal-Djokovic before them. Its a gut wrenching loss obviously but i dont think it needs to be over analysed. Sinner can take many positives really. I make him favourite for W
 
messiahrobins said:
Nah, it wont be like that. Sinner is more or less Alcaraz equal, their rivalry is going to be condition dependent i think like Nadal-Djokovic before them. Its a gut wrenching loss obviously but i dont think it needs to be over analysed. Sinner can take many positives really. I make him favourite for W
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In fact, after today's match, I do think Sinner has the upper hand in the rivalry on a long term basis on Wimb and HC. If he has a good serving day, he may have an advantage.
 
Djokovic_is_the_best#1 said:
I agree and even when he was winning I felt it wasn’t fully over. As we seen sinner choke against alcaraz before. The us open 2022 match another game he had a match point. Alcaraz is breaking sinner’s heart with these painful loses. The matches tend to be close apart from Rome 2025 but if sinner doesn’t win soon he can easily become alcaraz pigeon for good.

We hope he too good to let that happen as we all built this up to be the great rivalry. In a way it is great as matches tend to be close but if the same guy keeps winning then it not the best rivalry and more Carlos domination. If this keeps happening, sinner might lose confidence and alcaraz might beat him more easily.

It weird because I was in awe of the match both players should be proud of the final they put on but ultimately sinner choked and this match could mess him up and set him further back when he faces alcaraz again.
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Not sure he choked tbh. He never really missed a sitter, shots he missed were off deep shots. FO and USO do suit Alcaraz more. That said if similar happens at AO and W i think there could well be pigeonitis setting in.
 
ND-13 said:
Plus as nice as Sinner seems, he will be out to get some revenge for the loss today
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Yeah, i think the only threats at W to a repeat of today are Draper and Djokovic. Shelton i dont think yet will be comfortable movement wise on grass. Musetti still seems physically weak to live with these guys best of 5. Rune is miles off. Mensik still too raw. Fils has a back issue.
 
Carlos goes to a different gear when he is on the verge of losing a final. His opponent has to raise his own level to nullify him - Djokovic did that at the Olympics and Cinci, but not in the 2023 Wimbledon final. Sinner so far has been unable to hang with that highest level of Alcaraz, but maybe he will in the future especially on hard courts. I’m sure he now feels that he is very close to beating Alcaraz.

The good news is also that he didn’t seem too fatigued after five hours unlike previous long matches of his career where he was toast even before the four hour mark. So let’s see what happens in future epics between them.
 
messiahrobins said:
Not sure he choked tbh. He never really missed a sitter, shots he missed were off deep shots. FO and USO do suit Alcaraz more. That said if similar happens at AO and W i think there could well be pigeonitis setting in.
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I agree. Sinner is good enough to beat alcaraz and makes this a great rivalry but he has to do it. I think Wimbledon is huge for sinner now especially if they play again in final.
 
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