3 Reasons why Carlos Alcaraz will fail to stop Jannik Sinner's progress in 2025

Carlos Alcaraz is one of the best young players ever to play the game of tennis. At the tender age of 21, the Spaniard has already won four Grand Slam titles and five Masters 1000 titles. However, he has lost the world No. 1 ranking to Jannik Sinner of Italy, his contemporary and arch-rival, in the recent past.

Sinner had a fantastic 2024, winning eight ATP titles, including the Australian Open and the US Open. Quite naturally, he finished the year as the world No. 1.

Alcaraz became the youngest-ever player to win the Channel Slam during the year, but the 23-year-old Italian had the better year undoubtedly. In this article, we take a look at three reasons why Alcaraz will yet again fail to stop Sinner’s progress in 2025.

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#3. Sinner has a better serve than Alcaraz and is a more complete player now:

The serve is a very crucial component of the game irrespective of the surface. Sinner has a significantly better serve than Alcaraz at the moment, bettering the latter's in terms of both power and precision. The Italian is at least a couple of inches taller than the Spaniard, which means he has a height advantage over the latter while serving the ball.

Alcaraz has marginally improved his serve of late but is yet to reach Sinner's level. Hence, the Italian is always likely to have the chance of winning more easy points in a match, giving him a distinct advantage.

Sinner has also improved upon the other aspects of his game like hitting volleys and drop shots during the last couple of years or so. Hence, he is a more difficult player to beat than Alcaraz, at the moment.

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#2. Alcaraz is very injury-prone:

Alcaraz tends to suffer injuries frequently. He missed several tournaments in 2024, like the Monte-Carlo Masters, the Italian Open, and the Barcelona Open, owing to an arm injury. He also withdrew from the Canadian Open due to an ankle injury.

In comparison, Sinner has managed to stay relatively injury-free recently and this year only withdrew from the Italian Open due to injury. Moreover, the Spaniard typically has to toil more for every point he plays, which puts more pressure on his body.

The ATP calendar is quite demanding and can force a player to go through a rigorous schedule. Top players usually enter a high number of tournaments to protect their ranking points and hence staying injury-free is key to sustaining their place at the top of the rankings. Sinner scores over Alcaraz in that regard at the moment.

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#1. Jannik Sinner is a better hardcourt player than Carlos Alcaraz:

Sinner is almost inarguably the best player on hardcourt at the moment. He won the Australian Open and the US Open this year. He also won the ATP Finals and three Masters 1000 titles, in Miami, Cincinnati, and Shanghai. All of these tournaments were played on hardcourt. He also led Italy to victory at the Davis Cup, played on the same surface.

Alcaraz is a better player than the Italian on natural surfaces, but the majority of the ATP tournaments are played on hardcourt. Hence, Sinner will have a better chance of making his more powerful game count on the surface in 2025, too, and thus will hold an advantage over his arch-rival.