Jannik Sinner beats Carlos Alcaraz – former British No 1 makes bold Indian Wells prediction
Carlos Alcaraz has started 2026 in sparkling fashion and heads into the Indian Wells Masters as the man to beat, but former British No 1 Greg Rusedski believes the tide may be about to turn in the favour of his biggest rival.
Jannik Sinner’s stunning form over the last couple of years made his defeats against Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open and a loss against Jakub Mensic in Qatar somewhat surprising, yet any suggestion that the world No 2 was ‘in crisis’ have been banished by Rusedski.
Speaking on the latest edition of his Off Court with Greg Rusedski podcast, the 1997 US Open finalists threw his support behind Sinner to win his first title of the season at Indian Wells as he backed him to beat Alcaraz in the final.
“I’m going to go with Sinner to win Indian Wells just because of the fact that he hasn’t won a title this year is something to prove, even though Carlos is the hottest player on the tour,” said Rusedski.
“I think the conditions are perfect for him. You know, the ball gets up high, it kicks, it flies through the desert air goes through the air.
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“Then on the court, the ball on the surface is quite slow, so he’s going to have enough time.
“The problem he has is that Carlos Alcaraz prefers these courts more so than he does. And that’s the final everybody’s expecting. Sinner vs Alcaraz, that’s what we want to see.
“Carlos hasn’t lost a match this year. He’s been absolutely brilliant. And Sinner wants to say, OK, don’t forget about me. It’s a little bit of a blip right now. I mean, these two guys have just think Sinner’s gonna announce himself.
“I think he’s gonna be back in the final here. I think we’re gonna get the repeat of Alcaraz vs Sinner, whatever part it is now because they’ve played so many times. It’s gonna happen again in Indian Wells, even though there are other players to look out for, I’m backing Sinner to win.”
Sinner will face challenges at Indian Wells before he can think about a final against Alcaraz and according to former British No 1 Tim Henman, the tactics needed to beat the Italian are tough to execute.
“The way to play Sinner is very easy when you talk about it. Your serve aces and you hit winners,” said Henman, speaking exclusively to Tennis365.
“That is easier said than done, of course, and the reason there is a gap between Alcaraz and Sinner is that their level is so consistently high.
“What we saw at the Australian Open was the difference between Alcaraz and Sinner in their two matches against Novak Djokovic.
“Sinner has been the best player on hard courts for the last couple of years and even when Djokovic was pushing him, he didn’t change his game. He backed himself to win and he came up short.
“He tried to fight fire with fire and was just going for it. If anything, that played into Djokovic’s hands.
“Then you look at the final against Alcaraz and when Djokovic wins the first set 6-2, you are thinking maybe this can happened and Grand Slam No 25 is coming for Djokovic, but Alcaraz did have the variation in his game to change his tactics and he turned the match around.
“He started playing with more height on the ball, used his slice backhand and found a way to win.”
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