Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are the two great players of their generation, but it does feel like the former is starting to pull away from his rival.
After all, despite being two years younger, he boasts more Grand Slam titles, more titles in general, and is sneaking up on his total weeks as world number one too.
The Italian’s tough start to the 2026 season has only fuelled this fire, losing in the semifinals of the Australian Open before a shock defeat to Jakub Mensik early in Qatar last week.
Carlos Alcaraz won both of these tournaments.
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The world number one spoke after his latest title, reacting to hearing that Jannik Sinner had openly admitted that his main goal for the 2026 season was to dethrone him and snag his Roland Garros title.
Carlos Alcaraz speaks about Jannik Sinner’s ‘main goal’ for 2026
Alcaraz and Sinner played one of the greatest tennis matches of all time in last year’s French Open final, with the former saving three championship points as he came from two-sets-to-love down to win the match.
It was a heartbreaking afternoon for the 24-year-old, who now only needs this major title to complete his career Grand Slam.
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He had outlined his desire to do it this year, at the earliest opportunity, after his loss to Mensik.
Alcaraz would reply in his championship press conference: “Well, yeah, I mean, I’m trying not to think about anything else but myself. And what I feel right now, it’s like I love playing tennis, and I love competing. It is time to enjoy every time that I am able to play and step on the court.
“So we sometimes just keep going over ourselves, and we don’t stop and think about everything. So probably, and I’ve been injured, and in that time that you are out of the competition, you’re missing it, and you realise how beautiful it, is the competition and the tennis. So once I’m able to do it, it’s time to stop thinking about it, and think how beautiful and how lucky am I to step on court. So that’s why I’m enjoying every time that I compete and that I step on the court. That’s why you can see myself really happy, even if I’m losing, or even if I lose a point or whatever.
“Obviously, talking about goals, you know, it’s the biggest tournaments in the world, the Masters 1000s, the Grand Slams. The next one is Roland Garros. That’s a tournament that I just have great memories and great experience in that tournament, really looking forward to playing there, to being good there. Before that I have a lot of special tournaments ahead that I just really want to be prepared for.”
Alcaraz beat Arthur Fils in the Qatar Open final in record time.
Carlos Alcaraz’s all-time record at Roland Garros
It will take an almighty task for Sinner to dethrone the two-time defending French Open champion, but he will be well aware of how close he was last year.
After all, for the first three sets, he had been largely faultless. It was just when it came time to see the match out, a combination of some crucial misses from him and clutch moments from Alcaraz turned the tide completely.
Interestingly, Roland Garros is the tournament where the seven-time Grand Slam champion actually boasts his joint-best win rate of 89%.
In the five iterations of the event he has played, he has won it twice and reached another semifinal.
This means he has just three losses to his name and 25 victories.
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