After being treated to Roger Federer’s clashes with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic for the best part of two decades, tennis fans have a new, enthralling rivalry to enjoy for the foreseeable future in the form of Carlos Alcaraz versus Jannik Sinner.
Alcaraz and Sinner met six times at tour-level events in 2025, with three of their matches coming in Grand Slam finals.
The ‘new two’, as they have been dubbed, produced bouts of the very highest quality last year; none better than the championship match at Roland Garros, which many now consider to be one of the greatest tennis matches of all time.
A reminder of what happens when Jannik Sinner plays Carlos Alcaraz…
Both stars are head and shoulders above the rest of the ATP Tour, and their rivalry is very similar to that of Federer and Nadal, who dominated men’s tennis for the majority of the 2000s before Djokovic came along.
Ahead of his exhibition match at the Australian Open, the Swiss Maestro spoke about Alcaraz and Sinner’s level.
Roger Federer speaks about Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner
When asked in a pre-tournament press conference what he sees when he watches the Spaniard and the Italian play, Federer responded: “At Wimbledon, when Grigor [Dimitrov] was playing against Jannik, I was sitting there, and that made it easy to think how it could have been because Grigor plays very similar to how I played.
“That I think was one of the first times I thought how would it have been to play Jannik in a match situation.
“When I saw Jannik play against Novak in Shanghai, I didn’t feel that way. I was just watching great tennis. They both play very different to how I play.
“When I see Carlos, I feel like there’s more similarities in terms of what we would do in terms of when we would hit a dropshot, when we would come to the net, how passive, offensive we decide to play.
“I think we like to play on our own terms. I think I put myself more into Carlos’ mindset and skin when I watch him.
“With Sinner, at one time, I thought, okay, now I understand how I would play against Jannik.
“Other than that, I’m very happy. I love watching tennis just as a fan. That’s always been the case, even when I was still on tour, unless it was my next-round opponent. I would kind of try to suss out some strengths and weaknesses.
“If I would go out and watch Rafa play against a second-round opponent, I would just enjoy the match. I think it’s important to also just be the fan and not always just the competitor.
“Today I’m relaxed. I’m really, really removed of everything. But sometimes it’s happened like that.”
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s first match at the Australian Open
In the first match of his title defence, Sinner will face Hugo Gaston, whom he has played twice before at tour-level events.
Sinner leads the head-to-head with the Frenchman 2-0, having defeated him in both their 2021 clashes in Marseille and the Miami Open.
Has anyone in tennis history ever hit the ball as hard as Jannik Sinner does?
Alcaraz, on the other hand, will go up against home hope Adam Walton, and the world number one will hope for a slightly more comfortable contest with the Australian this time around.
They last met at Queen’s in 2025, where Walton took 10 games off Alcaraz, with the scoreline ending 6-4, 7-6 in favour of the eventual champion.
Seeded first and second at the Australian Open, Alcaraz and Sinner will meet in a fourth consecutive Grand Slam final, should they both advance through their halves of the draw.
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