Carlos Alcaraz admitted he didn’t play well in important moments after the Monte Carlo final loss against Jannik Sinner. The Italian registered a 7-6, 6-3 win against the Spaniard to win his maiden ATP 1000 title on clay.

With this loss, Alcaraz also lost the World No.1 ranking, with Sinner taking the top spot. Alcaraz could not bring his best against the Italian, whereas Sinner was able to grab his opportunity.

“I would say that the important moments, the important points, I didn’t play well,” Alcaraz reflected in his post-match conditions. “I think I had so many opportunities in the match that I didn’t take it. So many games, points, so many 15/30, Love/30. I think the first tie-break, I didn’t play well and I think he just played unbelievable tennis when it mattered. I think that was the key today.”

In fact, Alcaraz led by a break in both sets but was unable to capitalise on the advantage. The Spaniard admitted the windy conditions were really difficult.

“I think today was really difficult conditions, because I just consider myself that I play great tennis when there is a lot of wind. Today’s wind was a little bit tricky because it wasn’t in just one direction,” Alcaraz said. “It was twirling around. One point you play a point with the wind helping and the next point it was totally opposite. So it was tricky to understand where the wind goes.”

Sinner has improved to 7-10 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series and is now 2-3 against the Spaniard on clay.

“We have seen Jannik’s level on clay and I think he’s been improving a lot year by year,” Alcaraz said of Sinner, who will climb above the Spaniard and return to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings on Monday. “I think he’s reaching a level on clay that is going to be really dangerous for everybody. I’m not surprised at all, because we could see last year in Roland Garros the level he played.”

Alcaraz will look to take his revenge in the upcoming Madrid Open if he plays Sinner.