Carlos Alcaraz welcomes Jannik Sinner's Rome return: 'Hopefully I'm going to meet him at the final'

Carlos Alcaraz celebrates the return of his rival Jannik Sinner after a three-month suspension and expressed his support for the former world No. 1 ahead of his comeback at the Rome Open. The Italian will play his first tournament since winning the title at the Australian Open, still comfortably situated at the top of the ranking.

The Spaniard had chances to close the gap with Sinner, or even snatch the No. 1 ranking during his absence, however, he didn't maintain his highest consistency and remains at a considerable distance of almost 2,000 points, despite winning titles at the ATP 500 Rotterdam Open and the Monte-Carlo Masters in the interim.

Alcaraz and Sinner have perhaps created the rivalry that has attracted the most attention in the tennis world over the last couple of seasons. In 2024, they split the four Grand Slam titles with two each, and 2025 was expected to see fierce competition between them. However, Sinner's suspension due to the doping case kept him out of competition for a large part of 2025 so far.

Sinner's return represents a direct rival for Alcaraz, who aspires to win every tournament he enters, while Sinner has been the most dominant player since the end of 2023. In any case, Alcaraz celebrated his rival's return to the courts at the Rome Open. “I'm really happy to have him around again,” he said at the press conference.

“It's been three months. Obviously for him was tough and I'm pretty sure was super long. But yeah, just I think it wasn't a better place to come back than here in his home, for him here in Rome. It is great for me, for the tennis, for the fans to have him again around, that he's able to play a tournament again,” the world No. 3 added.

“We are in different sides of the draw. Hopefully I'm going to meet him at the final. But just what I want to say is I'm real happy to see him, his team around. I think, yeah, I'm going to enjoy watching him playing again, his matches.”

Alcaraz and Sinner are preparing for their debuts, with the Spaniard playing his first match this Friday against Serbian Dusan Lajovic in the second round. On Sinner's side, he will have to wait until Saturday to face clay-court specialist Mariano Navone, a tricky challenge for the Italian against an opponent who is not afraid of long rallies and one of the most consistent returners on the Tour.