Jannik Sinner told he made a ‘fatal’ error against Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open final, ‘that is just not good enough’

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Jannik Sinner was unable to add to his Grand Slam collection after being beaten in the US Open final by Carlos Alcaraz.

Sinner was unable to match a Roger Federer record, after being beaten in the US Open final by his biggest rival.

Despite the disappointment of his loss, Sinner has been praised for his behaviour after the match.

However, as Sinner’s head-to-head with Alcaraz worsens, he has now been told he made a big mistake in the US Open final.

Steve Flink tells Jannik Sinner his serve was ‘not good enough’ in the US Open final

Alcaraz beat Sinner, 6-2 3-6 6-1 6-4, to win his sixth Grand Slam title in perhaps the most impressive tournament of his career.

A lot has been said about the improvements Alcaraz has made to his serve, but this was actually something that hindered Sinner in the US Open final.

Sinner had a real issue on serve in the US Open final, hitting just 48% of his first serves in the court.

This is something that Tennis Hall of Famer journalist Steve Flink pointed out when reflecting on the match with Ubitennis, and he also explained how pivotal Sinner being broken in his first service game was.

“Now conversely, it wasn’t a good serving day for Sinner, 48% of his first serves that is just not good enough,” said Flink. “First game of the match I think he dug a hole for himself, 30-0 up, he had a game point in that game, he got broken. That got him off on the wrong track and Alcaraz took control from there. But that was a fatal, fatal game for him in a lot of ways to get broken in the opening game of the match.

“And there was really a time in this match that he seemed to have good rhythm on his serve. While Alcaraz was being particularly impressive with that serve in the Ad-court, when he went wide to Sinner’s backhand at 130,131,132 miles an hour.

“That was just an unstoppable serve, that’s what he closed the match on, the third match point was an ace, that very serve acing him out wide in the Ad-court. He had good rhythm for the most part and his second serve was better, his first serve was much better.”

It was not just the serve that Flink thinks was costly for Sinner, as he also spoke about his uncharacteristic errors.

Sinner hit 28 unforced errors against Alcaraz, and Flink suggested that it was the timing of these errors that made them so noteworthy.

“We were watching together Djokovic against Alcaraz in the semis. We watched that together in the stands and you said to me, ‘Alcaraz makes too many mistakes’, and that’s sort of the prevailing view on him in a lot of his matches,” added Flink. “He didn’t give away very much today and the errors that he made were not at important times.

“But oddly Sinner, who does not make many unforced errors and is more of a percentage player, was much more error prone today, just making some basic fundamental mistakes off both sides. And when Alcaraz saw that, it just gave him added confidence that he was going to get the job done.”

Steve Flink explains why he is ‘concerned’ for Jannik Sinner after the US Open

Alcaraz and Sinner have shared the last eight Grand Slam titles, something that Flink has predicted to continue going forward.

However, Flink does have a concern about Sinner, who now trails his head-to-head with Alcaraz 10-5.

Sinner originally led the head-to-head against Alcaraz 4-3, but has since lost seven of their past eight meetings.

Flink admitted that he is concerned about what Sinner’s mindset will now be like going into future matches against Alcaraz with this head-to-head record hanging over him.

“I think Sinner will continue to trade majors with Alcaraz, but the question is can he beat Alcaraz in more big matches?” questioned Flink. “Wimbledon seemed to be a pivotal win for him, a crucial win. He had lost that heartbreaker at the French Open after having three match points, so to beat him at Wimbledon was a big deal. Then he ended up getting sick in Cincinnati and getting outplayed here.

“So the bigger question to me is, can Sinner solve the problem in the head-to-head against Alcaraz? Because there maybe times when Carlos is injured or something happens or maybe he loses to somebody else and Sinner will beat anybody else but Alcaraz.

“But, I’m concerned now for him about the state of his mind about what it takes for him to beat Alcaraz, because that’s seven out of eight times now. He was 4-3 up in the rivalry, now he’s lost seven out of eight and he’s 10-5 down in the rivalry.”

The next chance Sinner will get to improve his head-to-head against Alcaraz will be at the Shanghai Masters next month.