While Aryna Sabalenka successfully defended her crown, Jannik Sinner fell just short of doing the same as he lost out to a resurgent and relentless Carlos Alcaraz. Gone was the player who struggled to find a first serve at Wimbledon. In fact, his serve was lethal (as was his repertoire of shots), and it was instead Sinner who struggled in his service game. When reflecting on the game, the Italian star knew that he had to change a few things if he had to have an upper hand over his rival, who now leads the rivalry 10-5. So what better time than to do it at the ongoing China Open?

Earlier today, Sinner took down Terence Atmane in the second round of the China Open. Although Sinner had a slip-up towards the end of the second set– Altmane broke Sinner three times in the second set, including when Sinner was serving at 5-6– the latter completely dominated the third set to close it out in just 6-0. With his A game forward in the deciding set, the scoreline read 6-4, 5-7, 6-0, and Sinner moved forward to the quarterfinals. Afterward, he revealed how his current training plan was in his bid to be a more “unpredictable” player, as he had stated after the US Open loss, and this performance was a reflection of that.

“[Machine translated from Italian]  At this moment, I’m spending a lot of mental energy. Today it was 80% me and 20% new things. Maybe I should do 95% my tennis and 5% experiments. And do them in quieter moments. But there are so many positive things and it’s part of the process,” said Sinner during the post-match interview. Interestingly, Sinner hasn’t been shy about pointing out the changes in his game and strategy after his 10th loss to Alcaraz.

During their US Open finals clash, Sinner’s service became quite predictable, and Alcaraz exploited that weakness in Sinner’s game. He landed only 48 percent of his first serves, which left him living off second deliveries, and Alcaraz was relentless in seizing the initiative.  Meanwhile, Alcaraz dropped only nine points behind his first serve throughout the tournament and was broken only once, thus capitalizing on the lower first-serve success and pressured Sinner heavily in return games. However, at the China Open, Sinner has been experimenting with his new serve technique, which he had been practicing a lot in the lead-up to the tournament. Talking about this, he said, “I can say that I’m gonna become a better tennis player and I’m gonna change a couple of things on the serve, just small things, but they can make big differences and then we see how it goes.”

Against Terence Atmane, he served at 63 percent and mixed up his tactics with drop shots, slices, and trips to the net. In his opening match against Marin Cilic, that number was even higher at 77 percent, all telling of his attempts to raise first-serve efficiency. For Sinner, the message is clear: if he can keep the serve steady and add variety, he may start closing the gap on his toughest rival.

However, he knows that it won’t happen in the blink of an eye. “It’s difficult to add new things to your tennis, but I try,” Sinner said. “Sometimes it works, sometimes not. I feel I need to hit the perfect shot to control that play, and many times I don’t wait for the right moment. But I hope that if I keep working, in a couple of months, those things will start bringing me positive results.” 

Sinner also lost his World Number 1 crown after his loss to Alcaraz at the US Open. Alcaraz not only claimed the US Open title but also regained the No. 1 ranking by virtue of his strong service numbers: he outhit Sinner by 42 winners to 21 and dropped just nine first-serve points, winning 98 out of 101 service games across the tournament. Sinner now trails by a margin of roughly 590 points in ATP rankings, but has made an interesting revelation on reclaiming that crown later this year.

Jannik Sinner is not giving up on the World Number 1 spot this year

In the live ATP rankings, Sinner is just a little less than 600 points behind Alcaraz. With some big tournaments in the form of the Shanghai Masters and the Rolex Paris Masters coming up, things could get interesting at the top. Moreover, Sinner is confident that he could reclaim his World Number 1 ranking and took a sly dig at his rival.

He said, “The season’s not over yet. We still have here. We have Shanghai, very big. We have Paris, which is very big. Turin, Davis Cup. Still big tournaments to come. Obviously the biggest, they are gone, with the Grand Slams, and we split those.”

While Sinner may be happy with the way the season has panned out for him, he isn’t done yet this year. However, he would have to be at the top of his game if he has to overtake Alcaraz at the top this year. Who do you think will end the year as the World Number 1? Let us know your views in the comments below.