Jannik Sinner lacked an important victory during the Australian Open admits Toni Nadal, but despite that viewpoint, he still sees the Italian ace as the main rival for Carlos Alcaraz despite the Spaniard not performing well in the tournament that saw Sinner became a Grand Slam champion for the first time.
Sinner saw off Daniil Medvedev coming from two sets down to perform a heroic Great Escape to achieve tennis destiny. Nadal said that the power and precision of Sinner destroyed Medvedev in the end and like many, he saw it as a true changing of the guard for years to come in tennis with the Next Generation coming to the fore.
“When a player's shots are no longer enough to win, he has no choice but to resort to tactics. But Medvedev didn't even have a choice. The Italian's power and precision completely destroyed him," said Nadal to El Pais. “Once the Sinner & Medvedev match was over, I commented on the match with my children. I fear that this big and significant step could change the landscape of tennis in the coming years. Although Sinner had long been considered Alcaraz's most likely rival, he lacked a victory of that magnitude to back it up. He will be our tennis player's biggest rival in the coming years.”