Jannik Sinner may be well ahead of Carlos Alcaraz in the rankings but Italian tennis legend Paolo Bertolucci is warning his compatriot to "watch his back" because the Spaniard is lurking his opportunity to return to the top spot.
After winning his maiden Wimbledon title crown, Sinner is 3,430 ranking points ahead of Alcaraz. However, not everything about that is perfect. Across the next month, the Italian will have 3,000 points to defend since he won the Cincinnati Masters and US Open last year. On the other side, the Spaniard barely has any points to defend since he lost in his Cincinnati opener last year and only made the US Open second round.
Unless something drastic happens, there is no way Alcaraz will repeat such a catastrophic North American hard-court swing. And since Sinner has a lot of points to defend, Bertolucci suggests the new four-time Grand Slam champion simply must do well in the upcoming period or otherwise he could easily lose the top spot.
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Bertolucci: Sinner will have to watch his back from Alcaraz
"Now in Cincinnati, Jannik will need to immediately deliver a high-level performance to consolidate the points hes gained or make up for those hell lose. Hell have to watch his back from the Spaniard, now his only real rival for the world number No. 1 spot," the 74-year-old told Italian media.
"The Spaniard has followed the same path as Sinner and will also restart on the scorching American hard courts of Cincinnati, but unlike the Italian, despite being behind in the rankings, he will have very few points to defend in this final stretch of the 2025 season. Only two men in command, two players with very different technical and behavioral characteristics, but both aware of the respective strengths of their main opponent."
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Even if Sinner manages to defend his points from Cincinnati and the US Open, the gap between him and Alcaraz will still likely be smaller after the final Grand Slam of the year, simply because the Spaniard can only gain points and not drop during this period.
