According to former tennis great Mats Wilander, Carlos Alcaraz is still the clear favourite although Jannik Sinner has the all-around skill to win the French Open.
After winning three titles in the first three months of the year—the Australian Open, the Rotterdam Open, and the Miami Open—Sinner is currently the tennis world’s most exciting potential.
During his amazing run, he has defeated Daniil Medvedev, Novak Djokovic, and Alcaraz. He has also climbed to a career-high position of No. 2 in the ATP Rankings, with just Djokovic standing in his way.
Though Wilander acknowledges the Italian will need to adjust to the red clay before he can consider winning the French Open, all three of those titles were obtained on hard courts.
Wilander expressed his thoughts about it and said: “I don’t think Jannik’s going to walk into Roland-Garros as the favourite necessarily unless he puts together three or four great weeks on clay in the clay season beforehand. When it comes to him on clay, he’s going to be compared to Novak Djokovic so many times in his tennis career. He plays more aggressively than Novak most of the time, but the defensive part of his game is very similar. That defence on a clay court doesn’t always work.”
He added: “When you’re not willing to step away from the baseline, there’s going to be times when the court is either too slippery or his opponent is playing too well, and so he’s not going to be the favourite at the French Open. If I were coaching Jannik Sinner, I’m hoping to see him continue his hard-court tennis throughout the first few weeks of the clay court season. Keeping in mind, he’s very comfortable on clay being Italian, but I don’t think that he can win the French Open if he starts playing a little bit more passively and if he starts not controlling the points, because no matter how good he is at defending, defending with an open stance on the backhand on a clay court one metre behind the baseline is not going to be good enough against certain players on certain days.”
He concluded his discussion and said: “I think Carlos Alcaraz will come into the French Open as a heavy, heavy favourite for many more years than Jannik Sinner. But that doesn’t mean that Sinner, over five sets, won’t win the French Open as many times as Alcaraz, because three out of five sets is a massive advantage for Sinner, being so level-headed the whole time.”
Carlos Alcaraz in 2024
Currently ranked no.3, Alcaraz played his last match on the 28th of March when he capitulated to world no.9 Grigor Dimitrov 6-2 6-4 in the quarter in Miami (draw).
Currently, during this season the Spaniard owns a composed 15-4 match record. This year, Alcaraz won 1 tournament in Indian Wells.
Alcaraz is scheduled to compete next in Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters (Monte–Carlo). He will start to play the tournament from the main draw that will commence on the 7th of April.
Jannik Sinner in 2024
Now ranked no.2 (career-high), Jannik played his last match on the 31st of March when he beat world no.9 Grigor Dimitrov 6-3 6-1 in the final in Miami to win his 14th career title.
At the moment, during this season the Italian has a compiled 22-1 record. The Italian clinched 3 titles in 2024 at the Australian Open, Rotterdam and Miami.
Sinner has scheduled to compete next in Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters (Monte–Carlo). He will start to play the tournament from the main draw that will commence on the 7th of April.
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner faced off 9 times. Their head to head is 5-4 for Alcaraz. Before, the last time they locked horns, Carlos Alcaraz won 1-6 6-3 6-2 in the semifinal in Indian Wells (BNP Paribas Open) on the 16th of March 2024.
Here are the highlights.