Sinner making 'lots of small changes' following Alcaraz defeat
Two and a half weeks on from his US Open final defeat to Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner has had time to process his four-set loss in New York and is implementing change.
The Italian overcame the Spaniard in the Wimbledon final in July but struggled to match the 22-year-old at Flushing Meadows, with Alcaraz improving to 10-5 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series. Small tweaks are now the name of the game for Sinner, who could face Alcaraz again in October at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Shanghai.
“We’ve been reflecting a lot on that final,” Sinner said ahead of his opening match at the China Open in Beijing. “We are working on new things. We are changing a lot of small things. The amount of mistakes at the moment is for sure a little bit higher, but I hope that this recovers.
“It’s just a question of time. I don’t know how much I’m able to [implement changes] on the actual match court because one thing is practise and one thing is match. Let’s see. I’m very motivated. It’s great to work on something new, then we see how this ends up. We always try to move forward. One step in front is always better than two steps back. Let’s see what we can do.”
Sinner won majors at the Australian Open and Wimbledon this season and is hoping to capture another title in the next week in Beijing, where he leads the field as the top seed. The Italian triumphed in the Chinese capital in 2023 and then lost in the title match last year to Alcaraz, who is competing at the ATP 500 event in Tokyo this week.
Sinner arrives in Beijing with a new member in his team after adding physiotherapist Alejandro Resnicoff.
“He’s a very experienced physio, obviously being on the ATP Tour for 15 years,” Sinner said. “Also before he had other tennis players, so he has a lot of experience. He also respects how we are as a team. It’s not that he comes in and he changes everything. If he sees that we have or could potentially improve something for my body, he’s here to help. This is how it works.
“But it also takes time. I’ve worked with him a little bit in the years when I didn’t have my physio. Not as much. Obviously now having him for me, it’s a huge privilege. He’s super, super experienced.”
The No. 2 player in the PIF ATP Rankings Sinner will face former Beijing finalist Marin Cilic in his opening match at the ATP 500 hard-court event and will hope for another deep run to close the gap on World No. 1 Alcaraz, who returned to top spot following the US Open final.
Sinner is 37-5 on the season, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index and has already qualified for this year’s Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, having won the prestigious year-end event last season.
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