Sinner vs. Alcaraz Roland Garros 2024 SF | Post Match

Love your content Gill, always enlightening! 👏

Sinner could hardly exercise before RG and stated after insisting questions that:

“The match the more goes on, the right hip doesn’t have the strength of the left hip,” he said. “So sometimes I feel a little bit, especially after two-and-a-half hours and until the four hours, but this is no excuse. I was moving good.”

To me this explains largely the movement and some of the shot disadvantages late in the match.

For me the moment that turned it was Sinner serving at 4-5 30-15, 2 sets to 1 up easy smash lets the ball bounce aprox 10ft from the net and missed 30-30 all instead of 40-15 then loses that game and the set! At 5-5 all Alcaraz was under more pressure!. Also got to say Sinners 1st serve was at 55% and didn't really hit a first serve when he needed it! As for cramping fitness etc. Didn't play for 3 weeks was suffering with a bad virus! I also believe the new coaching rules benefit Carlos more! He was getting very upset & frustrated at 6-2 2-0 down he was constantly being given instructions by his coach!

I thought Sinner was the better player by far in the early goings. Due to his cramping, and his execution in big moments this year -I have to conclude Sinner was simply not as resilient physically - he had strength and fitness issues - and that was the difference! It may have been as simple as diet/ hydration. I mean there was no comparison in the quality of the Tennis in the early goings, Sinner was playing like prime Djokovic in caliber. Sometimes being a little shorter helps with muscular resilience through the course of a grueling tournament. But I do think Sinner is going to put it all together and keep having major success at tournaments, including beating Alcaraz next time they meet in a final; I also think clay is Sinner's worst surface against Alcaraz right now! (and he still looked better other than health setbacks in my estimation). I'm not saying Alcaraz isn't a phenomenal player or didn't deserve it, but I do think a non-cramping Sinner would have taken it in 4 sets. Sinner needs to think about borrowing from Djokovic's diet and stretching.

When Carlitos states intent it means he’s going to double down to achieve what he needs to. Example: after the Djoko RG cramping he said in his interview it wasn’t going to happen again which meant he had internalised the issues and would be able to overcome them. After the Sinner semis he said he knew he “had to win 2 sets” which showed he was prepared to do what was needed to achieve that result.

Carlos' FH save, 4th set 3-3 30-15, down the line deep on the far right side... don't know if you mentioned that spectacular shot... Very interesting thoughts, Gill!

Sinner lost last year in first or second round on clay, so that is a big improvement for him already. Also it was clear he was not in best shape, he lost a lot of weight (muscle mass). In second set he was out of breath already.

great breakdown of each player.

Carlitos was also cramping in the third, you just should see his serve speed during this period. First below 100 mph and second ridiculously lower.

Too much touchie-feely psychoanalysis in this video. It wasn't until minute eight that he starts talking about the tennis, almost as if it was an afterthought. Gill Gross picked the wrong profession to go into.

Alcaraz started cramping too up in the 3rd, it was obvious some physical issue was happening to him. He even said it after the game. It seems that if you dont gesticulate nonstop like Sinner does you are okay.. Carlos serve literally dropped to 160 and he stopped going for balls he literally went easily the entire game till that moment.
With Sinner is always the same vs Alcaraz when he starts losing, he always starts to gesticulate some sort of injury or cramp, literally ALWAYS! And then keeps running like a psycho and hitting even better than before.. i know him very well already since 2022 Wimbledon game.. Alcaraz takes third set 7-6 and Sinner starts stretching calves nonstop like he couldnt walk.. just to obliterate Carlos in the fourth like he just came fresh to start a new match.
Since then every single time Alcaraz is playing better he does it.. last time in Indian Wells literally the same... "Oh Alcaraz won cause Sinner was cramping or injured, just look at him gesticulating every point", yesterday Alcaraz starts owning him and suddenly Sinner starts doing literally the same with his hands/arms, then like he couldnt walk anymore... and he makes you notice it clearly by gesticulating nonstop.. its always the same, it makes me sick already seriously. How is nobody noticing this? Go rewatch the h2h games if you dont believe what im saying.

It was Carlos turn after what happened to him in the semis last year.

Hey Gill great video but I have to disagree with you when you said that Alcaraz was the one creating opportunities and Sinner was not. Sinner was creating more opportunities in the match and was the more solid player apart from the second set, Alcaraz made many uncharacteristic mistakes.

why didn't you cover Sinner's physical condition? For me it was a major factor for the match outcome. Sinner couldn't move as good as usual and was somehow affected physically. In my opinion this might have affected his ability to be clear in his head to take the right shot selection.
Thanks, love your content! :)

Sinner has lost three matches this year on slow courts to Alcaraz twice and Tsitsipas, all three in deciding sets. He is going to be tough to beat for the rest of the year.

Sinner recovered from a cramp against a 21 year old player to give heck of a fight. It is only that Alcaraz is lucky as always that he won.

Fluke Alcaraz on the other hand cramped against a 36 year old player last year on this very court but just couldn't recover and got hammered. His deluded fans, jealous Fedal fans and Novak's detractors use this cramping as a flimsy excuse to claim that Alcaraz would have easily won if he didn't have cramps even though they had split sets and Novak won more number of games.


The fact is that the fluke kid caved in very easily and wilted without a fight last year; whereas Sinner fought like a Lion till the last to lose a match he should have won.

Interesting that the errors were from nerves, I guess it's normal because of the big hype and I think the pressure was more on Sinner than Alcaraz this time because of moving to world no 1, and having won the Aussie. I thought although it's clear that the shot making is more something that Carlos does, we did see more variety from Sinner. There was a very nice scooped cross court drive from an Alcaraz dropper, there was at least one beautifully executed drop shot, I think off the forehand wing.

My worry with this rivalry was always that Alcaraz was just too good but I underestimated Sinner and I don't think for a moment that Alcaraz can rely on his superior toolkit and creativity. Jannik is a workhorse, and has shown how he has already grown variety in his game. I think had he had a better consistency day it could have been a closer match. But nonetheless for a player not known for clay court brilliance, a fantastic slam for jannik. I look forward to seeing what happens at Wimbledon.

omg the comments of Alcaraz fangirls here shows that Tennis is becoming like football. so much disrespect and hate for the opponents. disgusting

I think the match was pretty even, until the tail end of the 4th set, where Alcaraz found a higher level and Sinner could not..

Alcaraz manages to neutralise a lot of janniks big returns deep in the middle with his incredible pick up's on the forehand and backhand side.

Alex Corretja asked Carlos about what happened in the third set and in response, Carlos said he too cramped a little bit in the third set and had to shorten the points. He said this is what he learned from the Novak match in 2023 at RG.

No one mentions Alcaraz's forearm injury and that he hasn't had much match practice since Miami. He had to skip Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome because of this. It's amazing that he made it to the Roland Garros final with that. As the youngest player ever, he has now reached all 3 Grand Slam finals on all 3 tennis surfaces.

Great analys as usual.

Jannik looked an alien until 2-0 in the second set, then, probably due to his poor form ('cause of illness+hip=2 kg less) he appeared out of steam (which also reflected in a poor serve performance in the second set) and had to change strategy (no long rallies). One could argue that Carlitos came from injury too but that was a kind of issue that doesn't prevent training endurance. In the end Jannik can be happy for a good performance with poor preparation in Carlitos surface. Hopefully there would be another clash in the Wimbledon final. Having said this, hope that Carlos wins this RG as I really love him as a player and sportman.

Bro's predictions are wrong again..
Just like every year Every tournament..
Bro is wrong again..

I think Sinner’s movement got hampered in the first or second game of the second set

You was spot on with Zverev. I know you didnt give a prediction but the way your were talking and body language about Ruud was yelling take Zverev Money line

Alcaraz is definitely almost a complete all surface player. Sinner is just a notch behind on the clay, but only a matter of time before they both are at their peaks on all all surfaces. Tennis is in for a treat for years.

what is with everybody cramping like never before in the history of tennis??.
it was 72 degrees in Roland Garros today!

alcarez drop shot wins many games for him. one has to prepare to play deep snd short with Alcaraz ..can’t maintain a consistent offense against him. Zerev most likely. hard to hit a drop shot against zerev’s deep power shots. will keep alcaraz backed up.

indeed. sinner over powered by Carlos extensive
offensive repertoire!

Carlos will be dominant on clay from here on out. Has all the tools to be great. Major finals on every surface already... WOW

@GillGross, have you through about doing live commentary on YT for these big games. Would he great to get your takes as the action happens?

As a huge Sinner fan that pretty damn crushing. It feels like Alcaraz just kept getting lucky but obviously thats because he was just the better player and some bias from me.

Holy crap those eyebrows are something

Sinner threw the kitchen sink at him, but it just wasn’t enough. He will have the no.1 ranking though, but I wonder if he should have waited until Monday to celebrate, and if he was a little distracted. His interaction at the net with Carlos was unusually frosty too. Interestingly enough, Jannik had a 6-8 record in 5-setters going into this match, and 0-5 record if going over 4 hours, which is very poor for a no.1! Meanwhile, Alcaraz is now 11-1, and he’s two years younger. That’s just crazy! While I enjoyed this match, I don’t quite think it was on the level of their previous encounters. Carlos had 58 unforced errors and Sinner had 44!

I think it was pretty simple Gill. Sinner’s tank was empty after just one set. The injury break affected his stamina. When Jannik is playing his game, Carlos cannot create. Doesn’t have time to do it.

Watched IW match and this one, and they felt awfully similar. Bottom line: Alcaraz has more game. It could be a frustrating next 15 years for Jannik trying to solve the Alcaraz riddle.

Carlitos brought out the 10% of magic Gill mentioned in the SF preview!

I backed Carlos at the start of the I tournament and against sinner. I said sinner doesn’t move as well on clay, not as athletic, 👊

Keep up the content!

We might see these two as top seeds at Wimbledon with Djokovic not playing there or is he?

Alcaraz was better than Sinner in almost every shots yesterday and he deserved to win in 4 sets.

Thanks for a quick post match analysis. Spot on!
I am surprised that players don't ask for more often watering and brushing clay during the match.
it's obviously very dry, slippery and dangerous.

The was a super low quality match! Neither deserve to win RG but maybe Alcaraz will do the job! He was my pick before RG started! Lets see what Zverev can do..

So Gil picked Sinner to beat Zverev in the final! Sinner didn’t even make the final. He also picked Tsitsipas to beat Alcaraz in Quarters! 😂

Great summary - I also noticed especially Sinner making errors at surprising times, seemingly over-pressing, Perhaps his physical condition pushed him into that, and it was almost jarring to see him visibly frustrated. Intriguing if not great match.

Really should've mentioned Sinner's 2 weeks of sickness leading up to this tournament. This match was over in the 2nd set. Sinner was out of gas, and as you did mention briefly, not moving well. He lacked fitness, and that is why Sinner lost the match...everything else came from there.

but what happens to Alcaraz in the 3 set? it is injured in some way? Zverev will raise the title if Alcaraz it,s not 100 % the sunday.I hope both will be fine and we got a good battle.

The second set was much more about Carlitos raising his level and much less about sinner losing his way.

It is exactly what happened in the second set of IW.