Has Jannik Sinner 'killed' Carlos Alcaraz? The shift in Spaniard's tone no one’s talking about

Carlos Alcaraz has mellowed in the past year, and it’s been very interesting to note because this player was the embodiment of supreme confidence. What happened?

It’s tough to say because while he’s had his fair share of unsuccessful spells, the Spaniard has also had some tremendous moments. Let’s review the 2024 campaign of Alcaraz.

He made the Australian Open quarterfinal, won Indian Wells, made the Miami Open quarterfinal, missed most of the clay season, and returned in Madrid, where he lost in the quarterfinal.

Then he won Roland Garros, won Wimbledon, suffered a tremendously painful loss in the Olympics final to Novak Djokovic, shockingly crashed out of the US Open, but won Beijing.

Overall, it was a good year for Alcaraz, even though he didn’t win as much as he could and certainly allowed Jannik Sinner to dominate the second half of the season.

That domination by Jannik Sinner is at the center of this mellowing question. Alcaraz stormed into the tennis world with a lot of confidence. This was a player who made grand proclamations as a teenager, essentially claiming that he wanted to be the best in history.

It was November of 2023 when he repeated something he had famously said before, which is that he wants to be the best in history, at the 2023 ATP Finals press appearance:

“I am an ambitious guy, and I want to be the best in history.”

Alcaraz said this at the ATP Finals in 2023, and while that is certainly still something he strongly believes, the words he uses these days are far more mellow. Leading up to the ATP Masters in Monte-Carlo, Alcaraz said in the press conference:

"A lot of people are telling me to take advantage of Jannik's absence to get back to the top. That pressure probably killed me, in a way. I'm too far away from him."

While this might be the truth and how he’s feeling in this very moment, it’s also a far cry from the way Alcaraz used to speak over a year ago. That Alcaraz would have used very different wording, but reality has hit him like a truck, and that reality is that he hasn’t been able to keep playing the way he wants to play, especially in 2025.

---

Alcaraz’s reality

2023 US Open - Day 12 - Source: Getty

So, what is Alcaraz’s reality? Well, the reality this year is that he hasn’t been able to do too much. He famously admitted that he wants to battle Jannik Sinner for the number one spot, and the perfect chance came when the Italian was suspended, giving Alcaraz a chance to overtake him as number one.

Two months later, he hasn’t been able to do that. He’s barely any closer to doing that, which is damning. He lost in the Australian Open quarterfinal, won Rotterdam, made the Doha quarterfinal, lost in the Indian Wells semifinal, and the second round in Miami.

That’s not an impressive stretch of results, especially not for someone who wants to be the best in history and number one. It’s even worse when you realize that his main rival hasn’t been playing all this time, and he still hasn’t been able to do much with that.

So, the reality for Alcaraz is that he failed at doing what he wanted to do. The way he talked about it seems to blame the pressure that was put on him as the culprit as to why he hasn’t achieved what he wanted, which is an admiring statement as well.

It’s not problematic because he is human, and buckling under pressure is entirely normal, but the phrasing is again what tells the bigger story.

He used to be a player who openly embraced pressure and talked about how he dealt with pressure very well. That tone has changed dramatically, as in recent times, the Spaniard has been open about his struggles with pressure.

He mentioned pressure after losing the Olympic final as well, which likely shows that struggling with pressure has been an ongoing thing for him. Again, that’s perfectly normal, but it shows how he’s adjusting both his thinking and his stance in recent times.

He’s not the supremely confident player anymore who believes that he can’t do anything wrong. He has been humbled on the court, which has left an impression on him.

The good news is that this is essential for him to become the champion he wants to become. Finding a way to rise above this is what is going to cement his legacy, and he has both the time and skill to do it. He’s only 21 and already arguably the best teenage tennis player the world has ever witnessed.