Cincinnati Open Final: Sinner vs Alcaraz – Match Preview

World No.1 Jannik Sinner and World No.2 Carlos Alcaraz will look to write another thrilling chapter to their brewing rivalry. The two rising stars have already met each other in the last two Slams’ finals, with both winning one title each.

Sinner has been on a roll as he is on a 26-match winning streak on hard courts. Alcaraz, on the other hand, has been consistent too but sometimes finds himself in tricky situations.

Both players have produced some theatrical tennis and would definitely want to give another humdinger performance on Monday night.

“It’s going to be a very, very difficult match, but hopefully it’s going to be, in any case, a good match,” said Sinner after he downed Terence Atmane in the semi-finals. “Hopefully, it’s a very high-level match. That’s what for us players, is important, but also for the people who are watching… We will see what kind of fun is going to happen on Monday.”

“I’m excited about it. It’s going to be great,” said Alcaraz ahead of facing Sinner in what will be his seventh consecutive tour-level final. “He won the last one, I won the first two finals, so I think it’s going to be really interesting. It’s the first final [between us this year] on a hard court, so I’m excited about taking that challenge.

“I know that Jannik, without a doubt, is the best player in the world on hard courts and probably on every surface right now, so it’s going to be a great match and I have to be ready for that.”

Alcaraz feels there is hardly any chink in Sinner’s armor, and it is going to be a challenging game for him.

“The ability of not having any weakness,” said Alcaraz on Saturday, when asked what makes Sinner such a tough opponent. “It is crazy, the way he always plays at his best. It seems like you have to earn every point every game. He makes you suffer from the first point of the match until the last ball. The capacity of being there mentally, point after point, not having ups and downs on the match makes him really, really special.”

Alcaraz leads Sinner by 8-5 in the Lexus ATP Head2Head series.