“For the first time, he stood still with his game” Boris Becker left ‘disappointed’ with Jannik Sinner’s performance in US Open final defeat to Carlos Alcaraz

Former world number one Boris Becker has stated that he was ‘disappointed’ with the performance of Italy’s Jannik Sinner in the final of the US Open 2025. The 24-year-old suffered a defeat to Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in the final of the fourth and the final Grand Slam on Sunday with a score of 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

With that result, Alcaraz has now overtaken Sinner to become the new world number one after a gap of nearly two years. The defeat can be considered a serious blow for Sinner, who came into the match on the back of registering 27 consecutive wins on the hard court since the start of 2024. Overall, it was Sinner’s fourth defeat in the final of a major competition this year, and all of those came against Alcaraz.

Former world number one Becker has spoken in the Becker Petkovic podcast, where he stated that he was ‘disappointed’ with Sinner’s performance on the big day. Becker was of the opinion that, for the first time, he felt that Sinner had no answer to Alcaraz’s aggression on the court. Becker stated that he felt Sinner was too predictable. Becker also stated that he was pleasantly surprised to see Sinner admitting that he was predictable in the defeat.

“I am one who always thinks to have to tell the truth. I was a little disappointed,” said Becker. “I expected more. But of course I was not disappointed by Alcaraz. Because he really played tennis better today than a year ago. He had more variations, he had speed changes. He played serve volley. He played backhand slice. He played forehand where you don't see the ball. And I think Sinner, for the first time, he stood still with his game. He is now predictable. You know exactly what always happens. And it's not as bad that I see it that way. It's worse for him that Alcaraz sees it that way. And I think for the first time that Alcaraz really took a step forward. And Sinner stayed the same. He partly didn't know how to win the points. Except Alcaraz hit the ball. In his press conference after the match, Sinner, always said very honestly, that he [Alcaraz] has developed further in tennis and I have not. And I think it's great that he says that. But that's how I felt it. There was never a discussion for me, even after the second set, who would win this match in the end. And I didn't see that in any other final between the two.”

Becker then went on to highlight that Sinner must improve his serve if he wants to stay in touching distance with his rival, Alcaraz. Becker believes that in Darren Cahill and Simone Benozzi, Sinner has the right kind of team to lead those changes in the near future. Becker also applauded Alcaraz’s team, which consists of head coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, who, according to him, showed a lot of courage to tell the young Spaniard that, despite getting so much success on the court, he must improve his serve to become better than Sinner.

“I believe that Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi will make it. They will improve Sinner,” said Becker. “So those are the right trends, I want to keep that in mind. But Sinner urgently needs to improve his serve. There were two different worlds, one where Sinner serves and one where Alcaraz. Alcaraz served like that two years ago. That's a completely different movement. He completely changed his serve. And even then he was already a Grand Slam winner. To have the courage of [Juan] Carlos Ferreira and his team to say no, Carlos, with that serve you might win another one, maybe another one. But in the long run he's not good enough that they just did that. So that's actually just a message to all other players. It's never too late to improve and to change the possible weaknesses."

He continued by saying: "If Alcaraz can do it, then anyone can do it. Sinner urgently needs to improve his serve, because with that serve it's not good enough. Alcaraz’s attack has become incredibly strong. In total, he only lost two head-to-head games in the entire tournament. But the head-to-head of Sinner was not good enough yesterday. I am convinced that they [Cahill and others] will make it [Sinner better]. But he really has to improve again. It's crazy. After Wimbledon he was the crowned king. Unattainable. Number one until the next years. Eight weeks later he lost the number one and we have a new king. That's the tennis sport.”