Sinner<\/a> said the match would not be a true indicator of their levels heading into the new season and that \u2060both players would focus on entertaining spectators.<\/p>\nIt was a promise they lived up to, as \u200cthe largely light-hearted hit-around unsurprisingly lacked the intensity that has characterised their previous meetings on \u200bthe sport’s biggest stages.<\/p>\n
The pair mixed up their game with an array of trick shots and engaged in a number of memorable rallies \u200dto keep fans at the Inspire Arena on the edge of their seats, with Sinner allowing a child in the stands to play a point for \u200dhim in the second set.<\/p>\n
Exhibition events<\/p>\n
It was an entertaining display from both players, who are no strangers to putting on a show at exhibition events.<\/p>\n
Sinner and Alcaraz competed in the Six Kings Slam exhibition tournament in Riyadh in 2024 and 2025, with the Italian winning in \u2060the final on both occasions.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz has defended his decision to play in such lucrative events despite previously saying he would consider skipping ATP Tour events to prioritise his health in a crowded schedule, saying they provide relief from the grind of the tour.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard has also admitted there are considerable financial incentives to playing exhibition events, saying last year the prize money on offer was a motivation for playing in the Six Kings Slam.<\/p>\n
With the exhibition match wrapped up, the serious business starts for Sinner and Alcaraz, who will now shift their attention to the Australian Open.<\/p>\n
The two have much at stake in the season’s \u2060opening Grand Slam, which begins at Melbourne Park on January 18th, with \u200cSinner looking to win a third straight Australian Open title and Alcaraz chasing a career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n
“It was an entertaining match, that’s why we came here and obviously now the main goal is in Australia,” Sinner said.<\/p>\n
“At the end of the day, exhibition matches are different, you are a \u2060bit more relaxed and also entertaining the crowd a little bit more \u200bwith different shots and different actions on court.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"undefined Carlos Alcaraz beat his great rival Jannik Sinner 7-5 7-6(8) to win their Hyundai Card Super Match…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-399292","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\/399292","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=399292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}