"I demand my highest level, my 100% when I play against him": Carlos Alcaraz buoyed to play his best by Jannik Sinner

Carlos Alcaraz has achieved what seemed impossible this year: beat Jannik Sinner. And he has done it in style, in the semifinals of Indian Wells, with the world number 2 at stake, and coming back from a first set that ended 1-6 for the Italian.

"I stayed strong mentally, I think that was an important part in this match, you have to stay strong mentally if you want to turn these kind of matches around with a set down against someone who is playing at an unbelievable level. I'm very happy with the things I did after that, I raised my intensity, I raised my game and I think it worked very, very well, and yeah, very happy to beat Jannik and be back in the final," he said about how he approached the second set after losing the first.

He revealed a little bit about the tactics he used for that: "I think I had to run more, I guess, just kidding, I had to defend better than I did in the first set, put more balls in, try to stay strong on the court. Honestly, I don't really know what I did, I just changed my return style, stay more at the back of the court, put a lot of groundstrokes in, stay in the rallies. I think we had longer rallies, more than in the first set, where I was missing on the second, third or fourth ball, and against someone like Jannik that's not possible, so I think I did that after the first set."

And once again, after being praised for his mental strength, he answered the following: "Yes, 100% agree. As I said I have to stay mentally strong, something I have worked on, not to give up, not to lower my level of play, I am happy to have achieved that with my team, after the first set they told me to stay mentally strong and to get back into the match, so I am very happy to have done that because it is something that has cost me a lot until this match."

Finally, he had as always words of praise for his friend and rival: "Yes, the truth is that the matches with Jannik are always special, I demand my highest level, my 100% when I play against him, I think I do the same to him, when we enter the court we know we have to play at our best level if we want to win the match and I think that's what makes it special. We have put magic on the court I think, incredible points, I think this for the public is also wonderful, but well the truth is that very, very happy to beat Jannik, because if I remember correctly the last two times I think he has beaten me and nothing, very happy to be in a final again and I think it is a little bit more special to do it here in Indian Wells". Next up Daniil Medvedev in a 2023 final repeat.