What makes Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner different from a man who has faced them both

Sam Cooper 19 Sep 2025 9:00 PM

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are the clear two best male players in the world.

The differences in Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz’s playstyles have been described by a man who has faced them both on the ATP tour.

The Italian and Spaniard are the best of the current crop by some margin and have contested all but one of the Grand Slam finals this year, a stat that looks likely to continue in 2026.

Pedro Martinez, who has faced Sinner twice and Alcaraz once, has described the differences in playstyles between the two highest-ranked players in the men’s game.

“I think they have completely different games,” Martinez exclusively told Tennis365. “Sinner is more like he’s playing always 80, 90%. His speed of the ball is normally very high, and he’s putting pressure all the time on your side.

“So you play fast. He plays fast. You play slow, he plays slow. You make him run, he goes across. So you always feel the pressure of his shots, forehand and backhand are very similar. Always putting pressure and that makes it very difficult.

“With Carlos, it’s a little bit different, because he has more variation in his game. Maybe the rhythm from the baseline is not that high, but when he changes the rhythm, I think with the forehand, he has maybe one more step of speed than Sinner.

“So you can play him on the volley, but when he has time and he takes the forehand, it’s like he’s stopping time. He’s preparing the shot, and you don’t see where it goes with the forehand.

“He can go angle, he can go line, he can go full, he can make a drop shot, he can approach you to the net, he can play high, he can do everything.

“Sometimes you have the chance to attack more to Alcaraz than to Sinner, but he also is making incredible defense because he’s really fast, so it’s very tough for the other player to win a point.”

Martinez’s one meeting with Alcaraz on the ATP Tour came during the quarterfinal of Rotterdam earlier this year with the former winning 6-2, 6-1. Whereas Martinez has faced Sinner twice, first in Rome in 2022 and then in the Wimbledon Round of 32 this summer, losing in straight sets on both occasions.

Despite that, Martinez was even told by Alcaraz that he “played a perfect match” and that ultimately, it is sometimes impossible to beat them.

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“I think I played against them on their very good days,” the 28-year-old said.

“Carlos beat me in the quarterfinals in Rotterdam and then at the end of the match, he said I did a perfect match, and then he won the tournament.

“And then I played Sinner in Wimbledon, and it was the third round, but I already had some pain in the shoulder. But anyway, I had a moment where I was playing good, but he was on another level, and then he played unbelievably.

“After that, he won the tournament as well. So I mean, I think I played them when they were playing really good tennis as well.”