{"id":139538,"date":"2025-09-07T14:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T14:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/139538\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T14:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T14:21:08","slug":"how-to-beat-jannik-sinner-and-carlos-alcaraz-according-to-their-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/139538\/","title":{"rendered":"How to beat Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz \u2013 according to their rivals"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Partway through Ben Shelton<\/a>\u2019s Wimbledon<\/a> fourth-round meeting with Lorenzo Sonego<\/a>, one man in the press box turned to his companion and asked who the winner would face next. \u201cJannik Sinner<\/a>,\u201d the other replied confidently. <\/p>\n

Never mind that Sinner had yet to play his quarter-final with Grigor Dimitrov<\/a>. The result was taken as read. Death, taxes and Jannik Sinner winning, to paraphrase the saying. (Ironically, Dimitrov then came a set away from a huge upset before retiring injured<\/a>).<\/p>\n

But the point stands that Sinner, the world No 1, a four-time grand slam champion, and Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>, world No 2 and five-time grand slam champion, are a cut above the rest of the field. After Sunday\u2019s clash in New York<\/a>, they will have won the last eight majors between them and contested the three most recent finals among themselves. It is the first time in the Open era that the same two players will contest three of the four slam finals in a season. <\/p>\n

This is the era of \u201cSincaraz\u201d, as dominant and ruthless as the previous era of the \u201cBig Three\u201d. Their rivals and challengers ruefully admit the pair are streets ahead of everyone else. <\/p>\n

Stefanos Tsitsipas<\/a>, part of the much-maligned 1990s generation<\/a> of players who never quite reached the top, summed up why Alcaraz and Sinner are nigh on untouchable. \u201cThey are the ones shining,\u201d he said, in his usual poetic style, in a press conference earlier this summer. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows you how much more physical and mental tennis has become. Their concentration levels, especially when they really want it badly, it\u2019s really tough to find another player who can get close to their levels. They\u2019ve got the whole package, they can play every single shot, and tennis has developed into this aggressive, physical sport that 10 years ago didn\u2019t exist as much, wasn\u2019t intensified [so much].\u201d <\/p>\n

So how do you go about beating them?<\/p>\n

\"Alcaraz<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Alcaraz swept past Djokovic to progress to the final (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The man best placed to disrupt their duopoly remains, at the advanced age of 38, Novak Djokovic<\/a>, still the third-best player in the world despite a host of physical issues. \u201cI know that my best tennis is going to be required, but I\u2019d rise to the occasion,\u201d the Serb said before his semi-final with Alcaraz. <\/p>\n

After a straight-set loss<\/a>, he noted that the unparalleled intensity of grand slam tennis put him at a disadvantage straight away. \u201cI ran out of gas after the second set,\u201d he said. \u201cBest-of-five makes it very, very difficult for me to play them. I\u2019m happy with my level of tennis, but it\u2019s just the physicality of it, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Djokovic\u2019s period of sustained dominance over the sport was as notable for his psychological hold over his opponents as much as his incredible standard of tennis. Now he is on the other side of the net, figuratively. \u201cI definitely am not going with a white flag on the court,\u201d Djokovic said. \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody does really when they play them, but particularly not me.\u201d He may speak for himself, but there is an element of the rest of the tour being in awe of Alcaraz and Sinner in the same way they once were \u2013 and many still are \u2013 of Djokovic. <\/p>\n

Even before his fourth-round match with Sinner, Alexander Bublik \u2013 remarkably, the only man besides Alcaraz to have beaten the Italian this year \u2013 sounded defeated, saying his opponent was \u201clike an AI-generated player\u201d. That feels unfair on Sinner, who at least allowed Bublik three games in a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 beatdown, with the Kazakh wryly celebrating avoiding a third-set bagel.<\/p>\n

\"Sinner<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Sinner has dropped two sets at the tournament, to Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Alcaraz has dropped none (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Another Italian, 10th seed Lorenzo Musetti, was left to muse how to bridge the gap to the pair after a quarter-final loss to his compatriot. \u201cI think with an opponent like him, you have to take the few chances that he gives you, and I was not able to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cI never played, honestly, someone who put me in this kind of rush in the rally, and he was always leading the rally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Felix Auger-Aliassime<\/a>, who faced Sinner in the semi-finals, took a practical approach. \u201cHonestly, the next match I’m not really going to focus on my opponent more than myself. I need to play good tennis. There is no other way.\u201d He lost in four sets, but struck a positive note after his best slam performance in four years, speaking proudly of \u201cthe belief, the mentality, the conviction in myself that I have what it takes to win these types of matches\u201d.<\/p>\n

Easier said than done, as Czech 20th seed Jiri Lehecka found out in a lopsided straight-sets defeat to Alcaraz in their quarter-final. The 23-year-old said ruefully afterwards, \u201cI think today I kind of met the grand slam version of Carlos. I think that the most important things which he needed to do, he did better than me. If you want to beat him, you need to win at least a few of the big points, and he won all of them. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven when I played a really good rally, even when I tried to put him under pressure, go to the net, change the rhythm, do something, he was there, and he had an answer for everything I tried. He always managed to do something special.\u201d The Czech mused: \u201cI think that on the grand slam stage when he knows that he has more sets to find his rhythm, he\u2019s a little bit more free [in] how he plays.\u201d Ominous for the rest of the field. <\/p>\n

\"Few<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Few players have had an answer to the pair\u2019s athleticism and intensity (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Besides Auger-Aliassime, the only player to have challenged either Sinner or Alcaraz in New York has been Denis Shapovalov, a similarly talented player in his early years, with vicious shotmaking and an all-out, offensive game. He raced to a 5-2 lead in the opening set of his third-round match against an out-of-sorts Sinner and had a break point to go 4-0 up in the third set, but ultimately lost in four.<\/p>\n

Sinner\u2019s escape was helped by Shapovalov losing intensity and focus at key moments, but it provided a glimmer of hope for his opponents. Even the best have off-days… but he still won the match.<\/p>\n

Shapovalov said afterwards: \u201cWe were going toe to toe. I was playing with a lot of variety; I was mixing things up pretty well against him. I was trying to make it as difficult as possible while still trying to implement my game and try to play aggressively. <\/p>\n

\"Sinner<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Sinner conceded his opening set to Shapovalov with a double fault and looked far from his best in a four-set win (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, of course, he’s No 1 for a reason. He fights extremely well. Yeah, I need to learn from my mistakes today, try to almost stay even more solid.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no room for error against two players with seemingly all the answers. But as Shapovalov said: \u201cI was able to put pressure on Jannik today, so, you know, who says that another player can\u2019t do the same?\u201d <\/p>\n

It will be some time before we find out, with the pair set for a clean sweep of the grand slams for the second year running. Djokovic admitted: \u201cIf I\u2019m to lose to someone, I would lose to these two guys. I know that they are just better at the moment. You just have to hand it to them and say, well done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coverage of the US Open men\u2019s singles final starts at 7pm on Sunday 7 September on Sky Sports Tennis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-139538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}