Roger Federer gives his thoughts on Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s rivalry after practising with them

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Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner could renew their thrilling rivalry at the Australian Open, with another final meeting on the cards.

ATP number one Alcaraz is the top seed at the Australian Open, with world number two Sinner representing the second seed.

The main draw starts at Melbourne Park on Sunday, but the pair have already learned their fates for round one.

Alcaraz starts his bid for a maiden Australian Open title against Adam Walton, with two-time champion Sinner taking on Hugo Gaston.

Roger Federer loves the Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner rivalry

Ahead of the tournament, tennis legend Roger Federer has shared his thoughts on the current rivalry between the two ATP superstars.

When asked about their rivalry and what he thinks might happen to them at the event, he replied: “That’s I think why we’re here. We’re here to see what happens. What we know about sports, anything can happen.

“Yeah, there’s favorites obviously, but still now that the draw is out, I think every player shifts their view to that one player and nothing else almost.

“You enter the zone of the next three, four, five days, however long you have before that first round. Starts mattering clearly.

“The rivalry with Alcaraz and Sinner is a great one. They play incredible tennis. I think that French Open final was unreal. I think the game, not that it needed it, but it was great that we had it.

“I feel like for a second, for a moment, the world stood still in the sporting world and watched towards Paris, what was going on in that epic fifth set because it could have ended much, much sooner obviously for Jannik.

“Then all of a sudden it ended up in this most crazy fashion. Maybe one of the greatest games we’ve ever had in our sport.

“It’s good we still live off that momentum. Then they backed it up by playing against each other in all those other finals.

“Everybody is trying to keep up and they’re trying to pull away. What we’ve seen in terms of their progression in the last years, it’s been wonderful.

“I practiced with those guys a little bit. They’re incredible ball strikers. There’s obviously more to come. I just hope they stay injury-free obviously.”

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Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner enjoying utter Grand Slam dominance

Alcaraz’s Australian Open struggles prevented a clean sweep of Grand Slam finals between him and Sinner in 2025.

Novak Djokovic, of course, deserves credit for that, having knocked the Spaniard out of Melbourne at the quarterfinal stage.

But after Sinner beat Alexander Zverev in the final, it was very much a case of the Italian versus the Spaniard and nobody else.

They met in the finals of the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, finishing the season with two Grand Slam titles each.

But their epic Roland Garros clash undoubtedly stands out, with Alcaraz eventually winning 4-6, 6-7(4-7), 6-4, 7-6(7-3), 7-6(10-2) after five hours and 29 minutes.

Of course, they also dominated the Grand Slam scene in 2024, with the duo having now combined to win each of the last eight titles.