The Italian tennis star’s return from his doping ban started as well as possible, winning five matches to reach the final in front of his home fans at Foro Italico.
Sinner thinks the lack of matches cost him in the key moments of the Rome Masters final loss to Carlos Alcaraz but also added that he realized what needed to be addressed ahead of the French Open.
But against Alcaraz – who was his first major test – Sinner couldn’t come up with the goods as the Spaniard completed a 7-6 (5) 6-1 win.
However, it is not that the world No. 1 didn’t have his chances. At 6-5 in the first set, the home favorite missed out on two set points on the Spaniard’s serve. Then in the first-set tie-break, the Italian was serving at 5-6 when he suffered a mini-break in the critical moments and dropped the opener.
From that moment on, there was only one player on the court and it was Alcaraz, who won the opening five games of the second set before serving out for the title in the seventh game.
Jannik Sinner Speaks on how the lack of matches impacted him in the key moments vs Alcaraz
“Yeah, some choices at times, no? If I would go back, I would play a couple of points in different way, that’s for sure. I’m lacking some matches. There’s no excuses, though. It’s just that what I feel, if I would play them again, I would play them in different ways… It’s good. I played the maximum of matches here in Rome, which is very good. Now I have one week off, which is good for me. A couple of days to switch off mentally, and then being ready for an even more important tournament. So hopefully I’m ready,” Sinner said after the final.
Meanwhile, Carlos praised Sinner’s level after the Rome final, calling it “great” and applauding the Italian for the run he put up in his first tournament since January.