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Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner - Shanghai Masters 2023
ATP Tennis Players, British Tennis Players, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Tennis News

Carlos Alcaraz ‘will do better than Sinner next year’ claims British No.1


Carlos Alcaraz has been backed to have a better year than Jannik Sinner by Cameron Norrie, however the British No.1 only has one player in mind when it comes to the Australian Open.

Alcaraz managed another impressive year in 2023, winning maiden titles at both Wimbledon and Indian Wells, as well as defending his Masters 1000 crown in Madrid.

This helped the Spaniard to reach the semi-finals of the ATP Finals on his debut, being beaten by eventual champion Novak Djokovic.

Despite not picking up a major title yet, Sinner finished the season in some form by winning his first Masters 1000 title in Toronto, reaching the finals of the ATP Finals in Turin and leading Italy to their first Davis Cup title in 47 years.

And Norrie has assessed how he thinks things will pan out for the pair next year, “I think Alcaraz will do better than Sinner next year.

“I think Alcaraz has a more complete game. He moves better than Sinner, has more variety on the forehand, better drop shots, he volleys better than Sinner. More skilful with the slice. So I’d say Alcaraz has a better year than Sinner. Let’s see, I could be wrong.”

Norrie’s last match of the season came in the form of a straight sets defeat to world No.1 Djokovic, and the 28-year-old believes that the 10-time Australian Open champion is ‘clearly’ the favourite for the first major of 2024.

“When you look at his record in Australia, clearly he [Djokovic] is the favourite,” claimed Norrie. “The match at the Davis Cup was a tough one for me. I was doing a lot of fitness and a lot of cardio ahead of that match and it was so physical against him. It always is.”

The No.18 continued, “It’s always a lot of fun to be playing against him and even though the result went against me, I wanted to set the tone high and finish the year with a good performance. I was just trying to go in and challenge him. I think I definitely brought a much better level than I had at the last end of my year, so I was kind of proud of how I competed, but it was still tough to lose that one.

“You want to see how close you are to the best player in the world at the moment. He won the ATP Finals the week before, so there is no doubt he is the best right now.”

Djokovic has only lost eight of his 97 matches in Melbourne, with his last defeat coming back in 2018 to South Korean, Hyeon Chung.

The Serb will be the top seed once again, when the Australian Open begins on Sunday 14th January 2024.

Inside the baseline…

The rivalry between Alcaraz and Sinner is an interesting one, with their journeys to the top of the sport quite different. Although Alcaraz has the higher accolades, it is actually Sinner who has the better of their head-to-head (4-3). In terms of the favourite for the Australian Open, Norrie is right by saying Djokovic, as it could be no-one else with his incredible record down under.

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Matthew Johns, Tennishead Writer, is a professional tennis journalist with a specialist degree in Sports Journalism. He's a keen tennis player having represented his local club and University plus he's also a qualified tennis coach. Matthew has a deep knowledge of tennis especially the ATP Tour and thrives on breaking big tennis news stories for Tennishead.