Jannik Sinner spoke of his admiration for Carlos Alcaraz and called him the best player in the world, but says he is forging his own career path.
Sinner was on hand during the men's draw ceremony of the 2023 Canadian Open in Toronto, where he learned his projected draw at the tournament, opening up against either compatriot Matteo Berrettini or Gregoire Barrere in the second round.
The precociously-talented Italian is one of few players who has defeated reigning men's number one Carlos Alcaraz multiple times on Tour, more recently on American hard courts in Miami a few months ago. He hailed Alcaraz's Wimbledon win as a massive confidence booster.
And while many fans have witnessed Alcaraz's meteoric rise under Sinner's watch, the 21-year-old says he is forging his own career and not looking too far ahead of himself. Sinner, however, concurred that Alcaraz is a step ahead.
"Obviously, he is one of the best if not the best player in the world. He is number one and he won Wimbledon which is a big confidence boost. I am just going my path, my way. We are practicing very well. Every matchup I played against him is a very good match, high-level match. I think we showed this in the previous matches where we played."
"Generally talking I think at the moment he is a step forward, he's obviously won so many things already, I am just trying to have this matchup over and over again and we'll see how it goes."
Sinner was also quizzed on the transition happening in the men's tour where some of its biggest stars are slowly fading out of the limelight, with Roger Federer already retired and Rafael Nadal inching closer to ending his playing career. He says he has massive respect for the Big 3 and is learning from Novak Djokovic who is still going strong at 36.
"Having these kinds of names around you is nice. I am just missing a little bit of Rafa and Roger because it's always nice to be around them. I never played against Roger, so it's a match I will miss forever. But on the other way, it's nice when Novak is around, with the Big 3 you can learn many things, how they practice and everything, so they made the history of tennis. So a lot of respect for everyone."
0 Comments