Jannik Sinner vs Carlos Alcaraz: How Grand Slam winners compared in 2024

Oli Dickson Jefford 10 Dec 2024 12:02 PM

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz both won multiple Grand Slam titles in 2024.

There can be no doubt as to who the ATP Tour’s leading stars were in 2024.

With Novak Djokovic faltering at points, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz proved to be the dominant forces of the season.

As the dust settles on 2024 and the 2025 season approaches, we look at how the two matched up across an enthralling season.

Grand Slam titles

Sinner and Alcaraz were level-pegging with Grand Slam wins in 2024, with the duo both capturing two major titles.

Sinner ruled the hard courts, winning his first Slams at the Australian Open and US Open, while Alcaraz found success on the natural surfaces, triumphing at Roland Garros before successfully defending his Wimbledon title.

Across the board, the Italian had more consistent results across all four Slams.

Sinner’s worst result was a quarter-final loss at Wimbledon, while he was beaten by Alcaraz in the last four at Roland Garros.

Alcaraz fell in the last eight of the Australian Open, before a stunning second round loss to Botic van de Zandschulp in New York.

Overall titles

The pair may be level on two Slam victories for the season but Sinner is well ahead in overall titles, with eight such victories to his name.

Alongside wins in Melbourne and New York, the Italian also won Masters 1000 titles in Miami, Cincinnati, and Shanghai – with further successes in Rotterdam, Halle, and the ATP Finals.

Sinner also capped off his season by guiding Italy to a second straight Davis Cup title, not losing a match in the Finals in Malaga.

Alcaraz won four titles overall in 2024, defending his Indian Wells title and also triumphing at the China Open; only Sinner won more singles titles than him on the ATP this season.

Year-end ranking

Sinner’s supreme consistency means that there is a significant gap between the two in terms of ranking points as well.

The Italian ends a dominant season as the world No 1 with 11,830 ranking points, almost 4,000 points clear of world No 2 Alexander Zverev.

Despite winning two majors, Alcaraz is only the world No 3, sitting on 7,010 points – 905 points behind Zverev in second place.

A disrupted clay season coupled with inconsistency elsewhere has ultimately cost the Spaniard in rankings terms in 2024, though there is plenty of room for growth in 2025.

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Match wins

Unsurprisingly, Sinner was well clear of the rest of the field in terms of match wins in 2024, winning 73 matches across the season.

Coupled with just six losses, the world No 1 won 92.4% of his matches across the season – the ninth-highest win percentage by any man in the Open Era.

Alcaraz secured a 54-13 record for the season – the third most wins of any ATP singles player – with his win percentage of 80.6% only bettered by Sinner.

Head-to-head

Interestingly, Alcaraz did not match Sinner’s consistency across the season – but had the edge in all three of their meetings this past season.

The Spaniard rallied from a set down to win their Indian Wells semi-final, from two sets to one down in their French Open semi-final, and then battled past the world No 1 in their epic Beijing final.

Sinner did little wrong in any of those matches but it is clear that when they play, Alcaraz can find something a little extra.

Conclusion

There can be no doubt that Sinner was ahead of Alcaraz in 2024 – the stats are clear proof of that.

However, the Alcaraz match-up is clearly a slight issue for the Italian and is something he will likely need to combat in 2025 – assuming he is not suspended amid an ongoing WADA appeal into his doping case.

For Alcaraz, he knows he can beat his key rival; the challenge is to put himself in the position to face him more consistently.