The last time Jannik Sinner lost an indoor match was two years ago, when Novak Djokovic defeated him in the ATP Finals final in Turin. With the recent victory over Carlos Alcaraz, his streak has now reached 31 consecutive wins. Only four players in tennis history have longer indoor winning streaks: Ivan Lendl (32), Roger Federer (33), Novak Djokovic (35), and John McEnroe, whose astonishing run of 47 indoor victories from 1978 to 1987 still stands as the benchmark.
Sinner is the undisputed king of indoor tennis. The numbers are staggering: 28 of those 31 victories came without dropping a set. He’s played just seven tiebreaks during the entire streak. This isn’t dominance. It’s something closer to inevitability.
So why is he so untouchable indoors?
Why Jannik Sinner Rules Indoors
The Perfect Environment
Besides the apparent fact that Sinner is simply a fantastic player overall, it comes down to how perfectly indoor conditions suit his game. The temperature never changes. The humidity stays constant. The court speed remains the same from the first point of the tournament to the last. There are no gusts of wind, no shifting shadows, no afternoon heat to drain you or evening cold to stiffen your muscles.
For a player like Sinner, who thrives on rhythm and precision, this stability is everything. There are no external factors to disrupt his tempo. He can reach the ball on time, play fast, dictate rallies, and maintain that relentless pace point after point, game after game, match after match. Under these conditions, he becomes just a shade better than everyone else. And in tennis, a shade is all you need.
That’s why he entered yesterday’s final as the slight favorite despite Alcaraz’s recent dominance in their rivalry. Because if anyone can expose Sinner’s weaknesses or disrupt his machine-like consistency, it’s Carlitos himself.
Alcaraz’s Indoor Struggle
In recent seasons, Alcaraz hasn’t produced great results indoors, and the conditions themselves deserve some of the blame. Indoor courts make it easier for opponents to impose their style on him. The Spaniard prefers a bit more time to reach the ball, load up his shots, and create angles and chaos. Indoors, that time shrinks. The ball comes faster, stays lower, and allows less room for his explosive athleticism to take over.
Even at this year’s ATP Finals, he struggled at times against Alex de Minaur and Taylor Fritz, both players who favor flat, penetrating strokes that become even more dangerous in quick indoor conditions. Against de Minaur, he nearly lost the first set in a tiebreak. Against Fritz, he dropped the opening set and had to battle back.
But here’s the thing: that narrative about Alcaraz struggling indoors is slightly overstated. The bigger issue in recent seasons was that he arrived at this stage of the year completely exhausted. He’d grind through the summer, push deep at the US Open, and limp to the finish line with nothing left in the tank. His consistency vanished under fatigue.
This season was different. He reached Turin relatively fresh and motivated. He navigated to the final comfortably, and even before the ATP Finals final, it was clear he could genuinely threaten Sinner’s indoor kingdom.
The Match That Almost Was
In the end, the king remained king. But Alcaraz has every reason for optimism, and it’s only a matter of time before he captures this title. Sinner will continue enjoying home-court advantage in Turin, but Alcaraz will eventually find a way to dethrone him.
He wasn’t far yesterday. Despite a tight scoreline, he didn’t even push Sinner to his absolute limits.
His focus, for instance, wasn’t at the level we saw in the US Open final, and as a result, his decision-making wavered in crucial moments. Many will point to the groin injury that occurred near the end of the first set, but the impression is that it hindered him only slightly, mostly psychologically. And it’s worth remembering that physical discomfort is simply part of elite sports. How well you manage it separates good players from great ones. In that sense, Alcaraz is still relatively inexperienced, and over time, he’ll learn to handle such situations better.
Beyond the injury, he made some genuinely questionable decisions, particularly at the net. Before this match, he’d won 82 percent of his net points during the tournament. Yesterday, he converted just seven of 15, and in the second set alone, only three of nine.
He later admitted dissatisfaction with his backhand volley, but the real issue was that many of his approaches were rushed. The approach shot wasn’t penetrating enough, or the tactical moment to come forward wasn’t right. And crucially, Sinner wasn’t winning those points from desperate defensive positions. He was picking off weak volleys with relative ease.
Alcaraz came to the net at 5-4 for Sinner in the first-set tiebreak when he had control of the rally but no real need to press forward. He did it twice more near the match’s conclusion. He lost all three points. In matches this tight, those microscopic decisions determine everything.
It’s also true that Sinner struggled with his first-serve percentage yesterday, particularly in the second set. But Alcaraz couldn’t capitalize on the second serve effectively. Remarkably, this was the first time Sinner had beaten Alcaraz with such a low first-serve percentage (55 percent).
Why Sinner Survived
The faster Turin conditions helped Sinner compensate. He was brutally dominant on his first serve, winning 36 of 43 points. At times, he took audacious risks on his second serve as well. He saved a set point in the first with a 187 km/h second-serve ace, after which Alcaraz began adjusting his return position.
Overall, Sinner maintained his preferred fast tempo, and in those conditions, it’s harder for Alcaraz to vary pace and trajectory to disrupt rhythm. He misses that extra millisecond on the ball, that fraction of time he needs to unleash his full arsenal. He’ll clearly need more experience before finding a way to dethrone the indoor king.
Why This Victory Mattered
Sinner’s win marked his second over Alcaraz this season, and in the context of their rivalry, it’s better that things unfolded this way.
Before yesterday, Alcaraz had won seven of their last eight meetings. At the US Open, he’d genuinely demolished Sinner in the final. From that perspective, this victory was psychologically crucial for the Italian, especially in conditions that suited him slightly more, and in front of his home crowd.
This was their sixth meeting of the season, all six in finals. In this century, only Federer and Djokovic (eight times in 2015) and Nadal and Djokovic (seven times in 2007 and 2009) have played each other more frequently in a single year.
That’s yet another reminder of what kind of players we’re watching. At this moment, no one can seriously threaten them. The ATP Finals only confirmed it.
A World of Their Own
Sinner and Alcaraz exist in a world of their own right now. We should be grateful to witness two players of this caliber competing at the peak of their powers simultaneously. Yet some are also greedy, quietly hoping for a third rival to emerge and complete the triangle.
Perhaps that’s unfair. Two generational talents should be enough. But the Big Three era spoiled many, leading everybody to expect dynasties and rivalries that would reshape the sport’s entire landscape.
The good news? These two are constantly pushing everyone around them to improve. They’re setting a new standard, forcing the next generation to evolve faster, train harder, and think deeper. That alone increases the chances that another player will eventually break through and join them at the summit.
For now, though, the throne belongs to Sinner indoors. And while Alcaraz circles closer with each meeting, the king isn’t ready to abdicate just yet.
Main Photo Credit: Robert Deutsch – Imagn Images