Mats Wilander shares bold take on Alcaraz–Sinner rivalry: ‘It was hard to believe…’

Sinner carried a poor record against Alcaraz into Wimbledon. He had lost their last five meetings, including a dramatic Roland Garros final.

After watching Sinner bring that streak to an end in the All England Club final, former world No. 1 Wilander told L’Equipe that he found it hard to believe how much dominance Alcaraz had over the Italian star.

Wilander explained that he sees the current ATP No. 1 as someone who has improved more than Alcaraz in recent years, which is why the results of their clashes didn’t make sense.

“Watching this final unfold, it was hard to believe that Carlos Alcaraz had won his last five matches with Jannik Sinner,” said Wilander.

“And easy to remember that, yes, Jannik should have won at Roland Garros a month ago. There, as here, he was the better player.

“He has improved more than Carlos over the last two years combined, which, consequently also leaves the latter more room for improvement in the future – particularly in terms of choosing his shots better sometimes.

“It’s more the emotional or the motivational part that you have someone who is young, who wins basically everything. You have to be ready, no, if you want to keep up.”

What do the numbers say about Carlos Alcaraz vs Jannik Sinner?

Before 2024, Alcaraz and Sinner had never faced each other in a Grand Slam final. That changed this year when they met in back-to-back finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

Even though Sinner has taken three straight hard court majors, it’s Alcaraz who holds the edge on that surface in their head-to-head record.

Alcaraz also leads on clay, but after the Wimbledon final, Sinner remains unbeaten against him on grass.

Their last four meetings have all been finals. The next place they could meet is at the Masters 1000 event in Toronto later this month. The Canadian Open starts on Monday, 28 July.