ROME (AP) — Sure, Jannik Sinner is pleased to have the No. 1 ranking back.
His biggest takeaways from a victory over Carlos Alcaraz in the Monte Carlo Masters final, though, were finally winning a big clay-court title and doing it by beating his biggest rival on his most challenging surface.
“It means a lot to me, because it means I’m progressing,” Sinner said.
For Sinner, it was a first step toward achieving his main goal for 2026: winning the French
Open to complete a career Grand Slam. That’s an achievement that Alcaraz completed when he won the Australian Open in January — making him at 22 the youngest man to have held aloft all four major trophies.
“Winning a big tournament on clay was one of our goals for this year so there’s no better way to start,” said Simone Vagnozzi, who coaches the 24-year-old Sinner alongside Darren Cahill.
Sunday’s meeting was the first on clay between the top two men’s tennis players since Alcaraz saved three match points and came back to beat Sinner in a fifth-set tiebreaker in last year’s French Open final.
“I’m not surprised,” Alcaraz said. “We’ve already seen his level on this surface and he’s improving a lot year after year. He can win any tournament on any surface. He understands the game very well on clay.”
While Alcaraz claimed this year’s first major in Australia, Sinner has now followed up his “Sunshine Double” of hard-court titles in Indian Wells, California, and Miami with another Masters series trophy. Sinner is on a 17-match winning streak during which he has dropped only one set — in the third round in Monte Carlo against Tomas Machac.
In the new rankings released Monday, Sinner moved 110 points ahead of Alcaraz, who had been No. 1 since November.
“It’s nice, obviously. I would be a liar to say anything else,” Sinner said. “But it doesn’t change my thought process. I’m playing to win tournaments and Carlos and I are very close, so the rankings can change from one week to the next.
“There are two big Slams coming up, Paris and London. Let’s see where we are after those tournaments,” Sinner added. “Right now, I’m focusing more on those than on the ranking. But waking up again as No. 1 is pretty nice.”
In a measure of how far ahead of the rest of the field Sinner and Alcaraz are, third-ranked Alexander Zverev trails Sinner by a whopping 7,795 points.
When will Sinner and Alcaraz meet again? Well, the next Masters Series event is the Madrid Open starting next week but Sinner is not committing to that tournament.
“Now it’s important to rest,” Sinner said. “So now I’ll take two or three days without even thinking about tennis and then we’ll decide whether or not to play Madrid.”
The Madrid Open and the Italian Open are the only Masters titles that Sinner hasn’t won and he is making the Rome tournament in May another of his priorities after losing before his home fans to Alcaraz in the Foro Italico final, too, last year upon his return from a three-month doping ban.
Alcaraz’s plan is to get back on court on home Spanish soil at this week’s Barcelona Open — where he can reclaim the No. 1 ranking if he wins the title since Sinner is not entered.
“The goal is to play the entire clay-court calendar. That was the plan last year, too, but unfortunately it wasn’t possible,” Alcaraz said, referring to how he had to withdraw from Madrid in 2025 due to muscle injuries.
“This year I’m going to listen to my body much more, so of that means that I need to skip a tournament then that’s what I’ll do. But if I feel OK, I’ll play everything.”
While tactics were difficult to execute on a windy day in Monaco, Sinner found a solution to apply pressure on Alcaraz’s serve by stepping into the court often.
“Cahill and I are trying to make Jannik more self-reliant,” Vagnozzi said. “He’s getting better at understanding when to try drop shots — which he’s also started hitting with his backhand by taking a hand off the racket. And then for the return of serve he’s mixing up his position more, which doesn’t provide any reference points to the opponents.”
Now Sinner is entering his 67th career week at No. 1 — one more week than Alcaraz's total of 66.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
