Former Italian tennis star, Paolo Bertolucci believes that
Carlos Alcaraz is well behind
Jannik Sinner in one key aspect that being mental strength after the Italian sealed his maiden Grand Slam title at the 2024 Australian Open.
Alcaraz ended his run at the Australian Open on a disappointing note losing to Alexander Zverev in a pretty one-sided Quarter-Final after spending most of his tournament seemingly flat and playing his B game with only his flair seeming to garner headlines according to pundits at the time. A similar viewpoint but a more damning one was the thought process of Bertolucci.
Speaking to Fanpage.it, he said that Alcaraz who was defeated by Zverev 6-1, 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-4 is behind mentally as in his mind, he values having fun with the crowd and having something other on court than his tennis and he said that his tennis is all 'special effects' as opposed to Sinner who is very much the complete opposite.
Sinner himself showed his mental grit and fortitude to grind out a Grand Slam final win for the ages as he took down Daniil Medvedev from two sets down and showed why he certainly turned a corner in terms of not only his on court game but his mental side
“In my opinion Alcaraz is great technically, even physically, but mentally he is light years away from Sinner.
He looks for something else besides just winning the point, many times he seems to have fun and involve the audience because he has a tennis made of ‘special effects’.
"He is not satisfied with just winning the point, he wants to do it with a double somersault. They are beautiful things, they drive you crazy to watch, but sometimes they make you lose the matches.
There are times when everything is easy and you can have fun. However, when it’s 3-3 in the third set, you need to go back to basics, and he has been lacking lately from this point of view”
