MALAGA, SPAIN – NOVEMBER 26: Jannik Sinner of Italy celebrates winning match point during the Davis Cup Final match against Alex De Minaur of Australia at Palacio de Deportes Jose Maria Martin Carpena on November 26, 2023 in Malaga, Spain. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images for ITF)
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After Carlos Alcaraz became world No. 1 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in September, the beaten Jannik Sinner went straight for the self-improvement tool, winning in Shanghai and beating his nemesis in Saudi Arabia at the Six Kings Slam. There’s no “I” in team, and Sinner has pulled out of his country’s Davis Cup defense in Bologna next month to focus on plans for the Australian Open.
“I’ve won the Davis Cup twice. My team and I made this decision because the end of the season is very long, and I need an extra week off to start training earlier,” Sinner told Sky Sports during media day at the Vienna Open, which he won in 2023. He has done his national service. Sinner wants to get back to the top of the singles tree.
“The goal is to be in top shape for Australia. Over the last two years, I haven’t been at my best due to a lack of time, so we decided this was the right move.” Some might question that argument, given that the current Melbourne holder won eleven consecutive sets to lift the title in 2025.
Sinner is slated to play in the ATP Finals from November 9 to November 16, and the Davis Cup Final 8 will begin two days later. Italy captain Filippo Volandri tried to be diplomatic, calling the competition Sinner’s “home”, but claiming that the other team members would fight for the blue jersey. Former French Open winner Nicola Pietrangeli was more forthright, blasting the decision as “a huge slap in the face for Italian sport.”
Pietrangeli’s position is perhaps one of tradition, given that he guided the team to their first-ever Davis Cup title in 1976 as coach. In today’s hectic schedule, top players prioritize increasing workloads. Alcaraz pulled out of the Valencia second-round tie in September just days after winning his second U.S. Open.
Sinner has never played in the Laver Cup, while world No. 3 Alexander Zverev is a regular and Carlos Alcaraz appeared in San Francisco less than a fortnight after his sixth slam success in New York. In mitigation, Sinner withdrew from the 2024 Paris Olympics with tonsillitis as Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic battled out a ferocious final.
However, Sinner was backed heavily by his countrymen during his three-month doping ban, entering the Italian Open like a returning gladiator. “We’re waiting for him with open arms,” said tournament director Paolo Lorenzi. Even Italy’s second-best-selling newspaper, La Gazzetta dello Sport, insisted that he should have a rethink.
Italy has won the Davis Cup in the last two campaigns with Sinner as a central figure in both, winning all of his singles and doubles matches from the knockout stages. The 24-year-old’s Davis Cup comeback victory against Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in 2023, when he came back from 504 and 0-40 down, really changed the dial on his confidence against the 24-time major champion in Malaga. It set the path for his dominance of the major circuit alongside the other standout Next Gen graduate.
Sinner started his head-to-head against Alcaraz in the ascendancy, but has lost seven out of his last eight professional matches against the Spaniard. The current Australian Open and Wimbledon champion admitted that he needed to make changes after his loss at Flushing Meadows. Sinner took the Six Kings title exhibition in Riyadh with a brand of tennis that meant business, while Alcaraz enjoyed the ride. The majors mean more.
RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – OCTOBER 18: Jannik Sinner of Italy and Carlos Alcaraz of Spain embrace after the Men’s Single’s Final on day three of the Six Kings Slam 2025 at ANB Arena on October 18, 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
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Sinner’s performance in Riyadh showed a new resolve to up the ante on serve, but he also showed a change of pace outside of his automated artillery of returns and groundstrokes. Alcaraz mentioned that “he could feel” the difference.
If both competitors click at the same time, then it’s going to be a battle for the ages. Alcaraz was off his game on serve at Wimbledon, while Sinner’s first serve percentages dipped in New York. The epic French Open was a blast, and surely more of that is to come as both continue to push the envelope.