Carlos Alcaraz will always be ‘heavy, heavy French Open favourite’ ahead of Jannik Sinner, says tennis great

Jannik Sinner has the all-round game to win the French Open, but former world No 1 Mats Wilander admits the Italian will probably always be behind Carlos Alcaraz when it comes to being the favourite to win the tournament.

Sinner is currently the hottest prospect in tennis after he started the year with three titles as he won his maiden Grand Slam at the Australian Open and followed it up with trophies at the Rotterdam Open and Miami Open.

He has beaten Novak Djokovic, Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev during his incredible run and has risen to a career-high of No 2 in the ATP Rankings with only Djokovic ahead of him.

But all three of those titles were won on hard courts and as tennis season heads to clay, Wilander admits the Italian will need to find his feet on the red dirt first before he can start thinking about winning the French Open.

“I don’t think Jannik’s going to walk into Roland-Garros as the favourite necessarily unless he puts together three or four great weeks on clay in the clay season beforehand,” he told Eurosport.

“When it comes to him on clay, he’s going to be compared to Novak Djokovic so many times in his tennis career. He plays more aggressively than Novak most of the time, but the defensive part of his game is very similar. That defence on a clay court doesn’t always work.

“When you’re not willing to step away from the baseline, there’s going to be times when the court is either too slippery or his opponent is playing too well, and so he’s not going to be the favourite at the French Open.

“If I was coaching Jannik Sinner, I’m hoping to see him continue his hard court tennis throughout the first few weeks of the clay court season.

“Keeping in mind, he’s very comfortable on clay being Italian, but I don’t think that he is able to win the French Open if he starts playing a little bit more passive, if he starts not controlling the point, because no matter how good he is at defending, defending with an open stance on the backhand on a clay court one metre behind the baseline is not going to be good enough against certain players on certain days.”

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But while Wilander is confident that Sinner does have the ability to win the French Open and can beat Alcaraz over five sets, he feels the 22-year-old will always be behind the Spaniard in the queue of favourites for years to come.

Sinner’s best display at Roland Garros came in his debut campaign in 2020 when he reached the quarter-final. Last year he lost in the second round against Daniel Altmaier.

The Swede added: “I think Carlos Alcaraz will come into the French Open as a heavy, heavy favourite for many more years than Jannik Sinner.

“But that doesn’t mean that Sinner, over five sets, won’t win the French Open as many times as Alcaraz, because three out of five sets is a massive advantage for Sinner, being so level-headed the whole time.”