Former world No 1 reveals why Carlos Alcaraz lost to Jannik Sinner in Monte Carlo
Rennae Stubbs believes that Carlos Alcaraz’s lack of serve power and drop shot precision were the keys that led to his defeat against Jannik Sinner at the Monte-Carlo Masters.
The Spaniard looked to defend his title in the Principality, but was unable to do so after suffering a 7-6(5), 6-3 loss to the Italian.
As a result, Alcaraz surrendered his world No 1 position to Sinner for the first time since mid-2025.
Their head-to-head currently sits at 10-7 in Alcaraz’s favour, with Sinner having won the last two encounters.
It was also their first meeting on clay since their historic French Open final, which lasted five hours and 29 minutes – the second-longest Grand Slam final.
Given their recent meetings, former world No 1 Stubbs believes that Alcaraz must seek to improve his serve, much like his rival did after their 2025 US Open clash, in order to better compete with Sinner.
“I feel like he’s (Sinner) hitting the ball a little bit bigger,” Stubbs said on The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast.
“I feel like Carlos’ serve is not doing enough damage.
“I know that he changed his serve at the start of the year, but you have to think maybe. He doesn’t quite have the same pop as Jannik.
“Clearly Jannik, you know, has just a little bit more firepower, not only in the serve, but – the forehand. He was just crushing balls all over the place and taking advantage of certain things.”
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Indeed, during their latest clash, Alcaraz produced disappointing service numbers.
He won just 58% of his first-serve points and 56% of those on his second serve, compared to Jannik Sinner’s 66% and 65%, respectively.
Most pointedly, Carlos Alcaraz double-faulted to hand Sinner the first-set tie-break and had led by a break in both sets.
So far this season, Sinner’s ace rate sits at 14.5, compared to 8.9 in 2025, while his first-serve percentage has improved from 62% to 66.6%.
Stubbs also added that Alcaraz ‘messed up’ his drop shots during the Monte Carlo final and this severely cost him in key moments.
“And the interesting thing is the variety that Carlos Alcaraz possesses, which makes him so good on clay and grass and all these sorts of things and natural surfaces because you do have to come up with some, a little bit more ingenuity, a little bit more sort of crafty stuff,” the former world No 1 added.
“It usually helps Carlos, but having said that, the dude kind of messed up with the drop shots.
“And as good as the drop shot is on occasion, oh my God, (when) he hits the forehand drop shot, it’s just like out of this world how good it is, and you have to be able to hit that shot on any surface really.
“But particularly on clay, because when players get so far behind the baseline, you know, it’s hard to hit through them, right?
“And it’s very hard to hit through someone like Jannik because he’s so good at moving from the back of the court. He slides really well. He, of course, can turn defence into offence so easily, so quickly.
“But Carlos kind of, there were some drop shots that got him into trouble.
“There was one, I believe it was two all in the first set tie break, (he) chose to hit the drop shot, did not hit a good one. Jannik runs up, wins the point, gets a mini break and then runs away with it.”
Sinner and Alcaraz are next scheduled to participate in the Madrid Masters, which takes place from April 22 – May 3.
