John McEnroe analyzes Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz debuts at Roland Garros and weighs in about modern tennis' biggest rivalry
ATP
Mats Wilander analyzed another day of competition with John McEnroe after Jannik Sinner's opening win against Arthur Rinderknech. Earlier, Carlos Alcaraz also registered a solid win in Roland Garros debut against Giulio Zeppieri. 'Mac' offered some interesting insights into the Europeans rivalry, particularly in the context of their French Open prospects.
Despite Sinner's efficient style of play, the Italian still can't figure out how to defeat Carlos Alcaraz, his only nemesis since he became the world's No. 1 last year. McEnroe quickly highlighted the tight nature of the matches between Sinner and Alcaraz, despite Alcaraz holding a winning streak:
"He's lost 4 in a row. Those have been close matches so you would expect him to get better and better and better. He dropped the first set, he had a set point against Carlos in that match. He sort of went away, which is somewhat surprising for him. I don't know if he's a little weary, finally, he played a bunch of matches on that period of time, he wasn't used to."
McEnroe’s keen eye picked up on the subtle improvements in Sinner's game, particularly his baseline game: "Sinner is so good at the baseline. Anticipations. Awesome. Taking it early, the slide with the backhands. Absolutely beautiful."
"I noticed that I saw some highlights of him practicing standing 15, 20 feet behind the baseline. He employed that tactic a fair amount today. I was somewhat surprised to see him that far back, but maybe he's just thinking ahead that if he can play against Alcaraz, he's got to show a little bit more varieties," expressed Wimbledon's legend.
Comparing the two them, McEnroe offered a nuanced perspective based on their performance levels:
"Carlos is playing though, you know, on the clay court season you would certainly think and movement wise. He's got a bit of an edge on Sinner to me if they both came out and brought their A+ games. Alcaraz is a slightly better player. He's got a little bit more to his game."
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"If they're playing A- games, I think Sinner's slightly better, you know if they're a little bit off and Carlos gets a little impatient. So it's going to be interesting for a long time to see these 2 go at it. I hope, as much as Rafa and Nole, " concluded the 7-time Grand Slam champion.
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