Jannik Sinner has enjoyed the perfect start to his clay-court season, having dethroned Carlos Alcaraz to win the Monte Carlo Masters.
It marks the first big clay-court title of his career, and is surely just the beginning of what promises to be a hugely fruitful tenure on this surface.
With all the ingredients to be a threat, no matter the conditions, his adaptability is astonishing.
After all, the way in which he dispatched arguably the best clay-court player in the world was hugely impressive, and it bodes well for Roland Garros.
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And, in the eyes of Nick Monroe and Brad Gilbert, the Italian’s chances for the upcoming Grand Slam have received a further boost, given the respective scheduling choices of the world number one and two.
Whilst Jannik Sinner has opted to rest before Madrid, Alcaraz rushed to Barcelona and subsequently injured himself.
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Even before the Spaniard had suffered this physical setback, Monroe was praising the 24-year-old.
He claimed, on the Big T Podcast: “Yeah, and I think we’ve got to look at scheduling. You know, you look at Jannik Sinner. He’s not playing in Barcelona.
“Carlos Alcaraz is there, right? So there’s a lot of matches now that Carlos Alcaraz is gonna be playing potentially in Barcelona, in Madrid, obviously, being in Spain. And as we know, he likes to play in front of a crowd, so that’s why he’s playing those tournaments, but that’s a lot of matches to be played.
“I actually like for Jannik Sinner, the fact that now he’s not gonna be playing this week, and he’s also maybe not gonna play Madrid, right?
“Obviously, he is booked into play at the moment, but he might not come back until Rome. And what I like about that is if you take a couple of weeks off and you just focus on the fitness, getting the mind right, getting the body right and healthy, you’re looking to win Roland Garros, right? So what’s the best scheduling for you?
“And I feel like since Jannik Sinner has won so many matches, this is actually a great time to say, ‘Hey, you know what? I’m gonna take a couple weeks just to work on my fitness, work on my mental, so that I’m ready to win RG’.”
Gilbert would echo that sentiment, adding: “So now, he obviously has this week off, and geez, how refreshing to have a one-week tournament for a Masters Series.
“So maybe not a bad idea to skip Madrid. You don’t play the altitude, then you play in Italy, and you get ready just for the Italy, Paris double.
“But I do believe for Carlos, being Spanish, it’s crucial for him. He’s got to play those two tournaments. But you wouldn’t mind, just like you said, Sinner has played a lot of tennis in the last three tournaments. So scheduling does matter; you don’t want to be overtired, heading into Paris.”
Carlos Alcaraz’s injury looks worrying ahead of Roland Garros
Carlos Alcaraz’s injury sounded worrying during his match against Otto Virtanen, and his comments afterwards have only reinforced those fears.
After all, the ‘sharp’ pain he described has seemingly developed into something far more ‘serious’ than he first thought.
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He admitted: “It’s a more serious injury than we expected when we saw the results of this morning’s tests. I’m stepping back to avoid taking any risks.”
With the calendar only intensifying as we get deeper into the clay court season, this is a really worrying sign for Alcaraz after just one tournament on this surface.
He now faces a race against time to be fit and strong enough for Roland Garros to properly challenge Sinner.