The Spaniard’s victory over Sinner would, however, most significantly guarantee his place in the top two. Alcaraz referred to the game as “the most difficult” of his season during the pregame news conference, yet he couldn’t have been more wrong.
Since Rafael Nadal won 20 straight victories in 2022, Sinner has had one of the finest starts to an ATP player’s season. He had defeated Daniil Medvedev and Novak Djokovic during that run to win the Australian Open and earn his maiden Grand Slam.
Since breaking into the Top 10, Alcaraz has experienced the longest title drought of his career. Additionally, he was behind Sinner in head-to-head (3-4) meetings at the tour level. The 20-year-old shockingly revealed to his supporters that he had not been practicing as hard leading up to Indian Wells due to an ankle ailment he had acquired at the Rio Open.
Taking into account all these components, Sinner was the obvious choice for a lot of folks. Not even Alcaraz’s stellar performance over the past two weeks could alter that assessment.
The first set provided credence to the idea that Alcaraz was experiencing confidence issues. However, tennis is a sport with short turnaround times, and a player’s season can be drastically altered by one game or point.
The former World No. 1 broke Sinner for the first time in the second set’s fourth game and saved two break back chances on his serve to tie the score.
Alcaraz went into overdrive in the third set, breaking the Italian twice and hardly missing a return to secure the win and a spot in the top two. Alcaraz, on the other hand, will have to defend a lot of ground in the upcoming weeks; thus, it will take him another month to overtake Novak Djokovic in the rankings.
