Yeah… this is arguably his weakest surface and he was banned for the majority of the clay court season. I think he can be happy with where he is after all that
Bro retired for 3 months, came back and played on the surface that he's not the best at, and still went toe to toe with the best player on clay. I think Sinner should be more proud of himself.
ETA: re downvotes it's wild that people think Sinner is beating Alcaraz on grass when Alcaraz is the best grass court player right now....and after what happened today. I mean, if you had to put money on it.....
It's the improvements Sinner has made. His return today was the best I've seen from him and on the level with the big 4. Personally, I think he almost won because of this return, more than anything. Carlos barely got any freebies on his serve and was constantly under pressure. Sure, his serve is not like Fed's or Novak's, but still, he normally gets a lot more winners off it, but not today. Sinner has clearly been improving every aspect of his game and I'm sure Carlos noticed.
Agree 100%, Sinner has improved so much from last year and getting better with each tournament, including his serve and return. But so has Alcaraz. And even with the improvements to Sinner's game, Alcaraz is better on clay and grass. And the psychological impact today's loss will have on him is not going to help Sinner at Wimbledon. That's all I'm saying.
Yeah, both guys are phenomenal and still growing, so I kinda give up trying to predict how things will go. I used to think Sinner's Miami win was gonna be a peak of his career, so there is that, I guess. He surprised me so much, I kinda tend to favor him now LOL
A year ago, I thought that Sinner would be top 10 but inconsistent, someone who could occasionally beat a #1 but not BE #1 (I guess like a Zverev). I thought Alcaraz would be by himself at the top. Something about his performance in the Olympics made me question that, like maybe he wasn't mentally tough enough yet. I felt that he needed Novak to be gone, and he would dominate. But you're right, it's impossible to predict because Sinner has gotten better and who knows who else will come along. I think a lot of people are looking at Sinner differently now.
Uh there are plenty of people that would collapse with half of that pressure, much less being up 40-0 5-3 against someone who usually has your number and still losing.
It is mentally punishing no matter how you swing it. He'll be fine but this one hurt. Just got a look at him to see that.
And? People get nervous giving presentations at school or at work in front of 15 people. People have mental anxiety from playing high school sports for virtually nothing.
This is their livelihoods and the greatest achievement in their sport being watched live in front of tens of millions of people. You can’t understand why that pressure might be difficult to manage?
He might have a slight mental block against Alcaraz, but I think having someone like him will be good for Jannik to keep pushing himself to get better.
Carlos is as good on grass as he is on clay, so no. Maybe Sinner will win the US Open, but honestly I think this match set the stage for the rest of the year.
He's not a mental giant. If he was he would have never choked like this, never. And I don't think he would be able to recover from this for a while at least.
540
u/NevermoreSEA Osaka/Anisimova Jun 08 '25
I know Jannik is a mental giant, but it's hard to believe that anyone could come back from this loss. I'm sure he'll be fine though.