For the 16th time, the two dominant players in world tennis will face each other.
Carlos Alcaraz grinned broadly. Thinking about Sunday’s dream final at the ATP Finals against Jannik Sinner, the Spanish tennis star could hardly wait. “Of course it’s great to play against Jannik. I know I have to play my A-game to beat him and win the tournament,” Alcaraz said.
“We’ll push each other to the highest level, which will be great for the fans,” said the six-time Grand Slam winner after his outstanding performance in the semifinals, where he defeated Félix Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 6-4: “It will almost be like a Davis Cup atmosphere.”
And Sinner? After his easy two-set victory over Alex de Minaur, he was looking forward to his third consecutive Turin final: “These are the matches I love. They show me where my level is before the off-season begins,” said the South Tyrolean. There are a number of factors in Sinner’s favor on Sunday, not just the home advantage in Turin: Firstly, Sinner is the better indoor player, because Sinner is simply the best indoor player of his generation. He is now unbeaten in 30 matches on indoor hard courts. Secondly, the South Tyrolean had more time to recover before the final – he played his semifinal an impressive six hours earlier on Saturday.
However, Sinner is not the big favorite, because Alcaraz is something of a bogey opponent for the Italian. He has won seven of their last eight encounters on tour and, like Sinner, was in top form in his semifinal against Félix Auger-Aliassime.
What’s more, Alcaraz already has a partial victory over Sinner this year. He will finish the season as number one, regardless of the outcome of the final. The number one spot is “already a big motivation for next year, but he deserves it,” Sinner told Sky. He also said that Alcaraz is a “great guy.”
These statements make it clear how unusually friendly the two great rivals have always been with each other. “I see him more often than my mother,” Alcaraz had previously explained in a CNN double interview. That’s how you get to know each other better and better.
Nevertheless, Sunday’s match will be a close contest. After all, the two exceptional talents have shared all four Grand Slam titles between them in 2025. Sinner won the Australian Open and Wimbledon, while Alcaraz beat the Italian in the finals of the French Open and the US Open.