Jannik Sinner Is Not Better Than Carlos Alcaraz Says Naomi Osaka's Coach
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Many called Jannik Sinner the best player in the world after he won his third Grand Slam at the 2025 Australian Open. Naomi Osaka's coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, disagrees with that analysis.
Alexander Zverev was among those who called Sinner the world's best. He was second-best throughout the final against the world No. 1 and did not create a break point during the straight-sets defeat.
The German also compared Sinner to Novak Djokovic, which the two-time Australian Open champion responded to in his press conference by saying there are similarities and differences between him and Djokovic.
Mouratoglou focused on one of Sinner's other rivals to make the case that he is not the definitive best player in the world. The Frenchman thinks Alcaraz is the one player to whom Sinner is not superior.
In an Instagram post, Mouratoglou said no one can tell who will win a match between the pair when the Spaniard is at his best. He pointed to him beating Sinner in some significant matches, like the 2022 US Open quarterfinal and 2024 French Open semifinal.
"Jannik is not above everyone. I don’t think he is above Carlos. I think when Carlos is at his best, there is a real match and I’m not sure who’s gonna win. Nobody can say who’s gonna win."
"And all their matches have been extremely close, extremely uncertain, and Carlos won some big ones against him. So I wouldn’t say that he is above. I think those two players, him and Carlos, are above everyone else."
In contrast to Zverev seeing similarities in Sinner and Djokovic's styles, Mouratoglou believes that Alcaraz's game is considerably different from the Italian's because of the risk he plays with.
"The difference is they have a different type of game. Carlos is making many more unforced errors than him. He’s playing with much more risk. The quality of Sinner is that he plays at a crazy high pace, without missing, and that’s really his asset."
"The asset of Carlos is that he has this incredible power in the racket, and also the ability to change rhythm. He goes at a certain pace, and suddenly – bam! Accelerates the pace like crazy. Jannik is simply everything at the same pace, which is extremely high, so it’s different."
Mouratoglou argues that Alcaraz's style makes many of his victories appear less dominant than they really are. Osaka's coach also thinks that Alcaraz's winning one more Grand Slam than Sinner means he cannot be considered below his rival.
"So the fact that Carlos is making more errors maybe makes him look less dominant in the matches against the other players, but he has so much margin, that’s crazy. And again, when he faces Jannik, nobody can say who’s going to win."
"And, I mean, look at the achievements. Both won two Grand Slams last year and Carlos, for the moment, has won more Grand Slams than Jannik and is actually younger. So, I don’t think that we can say that Jannik is way above Carlos. That’s not true."
