Jannik Sinner
Jannik Sinner had his 19-match winning streak ended recently by Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-final of Indian Wells – but the Italian hopes his growing rivalry with the 20-year-old is just beginning. The pair are tennis’ hottest prospects and intriguingly, they are on opposite sides of the draw in the Miami Open, setting up the possibility of a mouth-watering rematch in the Sunshine State.
After defeating Sinner in their most recent meeting to win the Indian Wells semifinal and snap his 19-match winning streak, Alcaraz went on to defeat Daniil Medvedev in the championship match.
Each of the two has won four of their eight meetings; Alcaraz also prevailed in the California semifinal last year.
As the top seed in Miami, Alcaraz will play either Roberto Carballes Baena or Aleksandar Vukic in his opening round. Meanwhile, second seed Sinner gets drawn to the opposite side of the draw, which might guarantee a tantalizing rematch.
The 23-year-old Sinner is adamant that he respects his 20-year-old opponent and says he is looking forward to many more fights with the Spanish fighter in the future.
“It would be amazing to claim Sunshine Double” – Alcaraz accepts the Miami challenge
In front of his Miami Open round of 64 matchup with Andrea Vavassori, Sinner told the media, “I enjoy it [the rivalry], hopefully it has just started.”
this Friday.
He exhibits strong emotions and a strong will to battle. Although I don’t display many emotions on the court, everyone is different, and it still benefits my side.”I always look forward to facing him because it allows me to see things from a different angle and helps me realize what I need to improve on. Last year, I also lost to him in the semi-finals. I just try to be prepared, and maybe this year I can do the same.”
Sinner brushed off the idea that he had been under a lot of pressure to maintain his winning streak of 19 games.
“Every tournament you go to, it’s a new opportunity and here is a new opportunity again for me to show some good tennis.”On the court, there are difficult moments that I must resolve, like in every other match, and that’s it.
“I anticipated that the turning point—the loss—would arrive. Even though it happened rather late in the competition, which means a lot to me, making it to the semi-finals of a 1000 event is still a fantastic accomplishment.”
