In the end, it wasn’t meant to be for Carlos Alcaraz. Eyeing a hattrick of titles at the Wimbledon Championships, the Spaniard fell short in the summit clash, losing against a spirited Jannik Sinner. Alcaraz gave his all in the entire tournament but couldn’t clear the final hurdle as he had to be content with a runner-up finish. Following his defeat to Sinner, Alcaraz received a stern suggestion from Rafael Nadal’s uncle, Toni, on how he could’ve avoided the defeat.

Recently, Toni Nadal has been linked to Alexander Zverev as his new coach, as the two were seen together in an intense practice session of the German star at Rafa Nadal Academy. While neither of the two has hinted about a potential collaboration, Toni has remained close to the sport and often shares his views about the recent happenings in the tennis world.

On this occasion, in a column of the Spanish newspaper ‘El País,’ as reported by ESPN, he talked about how Alcaraz could’ve avoided a defeat against Sinner. Toni said, “He showed a more intermittent and erratic game and lost faith in his chances of winning. I think the Spaniard needed to try to vary his game a little more and follow Dimitrov’s example.”

Interestingly, Dimitrov was leading in his pre-quarterfinal match against Sinner at Wimbledon when he was forced to retire due to an injury. The Bulgarian star was up 6-3, 7-5, 2-2 when he suffered a partially torn pectoral muscle and the pain became unbearable for him to continue. Thus, Dimitrov was left heartbroken to exit from the tournament but gave others a hint of how to dominate over Sinner. However, Alcaraz failed to take a leaf out of Dimitrov’s book, as he allowed Sinner to come back and take his first Wimbledon title.

Meanwhile, Toni Nadal wasn’t the only one to comment on the reason why Sinner defeated Alcaraz in the Wimbledon finals. Even American legend Jimmy Connors stated why he felt Sinner was the better of the two en route to his maiden Wimbledon title.

Jimmy Connors states the one reason why Jannik Sinner defeated Carlos Alcaraz

Although Sinner was among the favorites to win the Wimbledon title, many pundits believed that Alcaraz had a better chance than him to defend his crown. Moreover, Alcaraz started the match brightly and won the opening set 6-4. However, he soon lost steam as Sinner made a strong comeback and he never looked back to clinch the match in four sets. Subsequently, Connors revealed why the Italian star was victorious in that match.

He said, “It’s interesting for me because everybody has put so much emphasis on the serve. This guy has a 140mph serve, and look at that, it’s so hard. That’s the biggest of all time. But what wins you matches? That is what [Jannik] Sinner did yesterday. Returns. He returned the ball with authority and with purpose. Not just to get the ball in play and start the point off, as they stay in neutral. But he was looking to take advantage and to be aggressive.”

After his Wimbledon heartbreak, Alcaraz will be seen in action next at the Canadian Open later this month. It’ll be interesting to see if he can overcome the emotions of a tough Wimbledon loss and come back stronger in the upcoming tournaments.