Patrick Mouratoglou takes stock of 2025 by Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz
On his Linkedin profile, 55-year-old French coach Patrick Mouratoglou analyzed the rivalry that is gripping tennis fans, that between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz: “The 2025 season ended exactly as it was supposed to: with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner battling for the last title. Alcaraz ended the year as world number one, but Sinner lifted the ATP Finals trophy. And this final summed up the entire year. A rivalry cemented in four major finals in 2025: Roland Garros, Wimbledon, US Open, and now the ATP Finals. Two wins apiece. Four major stages. But four very different matches.”
“Apart from the Roland Garros final, which was incredibly close, the other three challenges were more lopsided. At Wimbledon Sinner was clearly better. At the US Open Carlos was markedly better. At the ATP Finals Sinner was again significantly better. The question is, why? The serve decided everything. The highlight of this week in Turin is simple: Sinner served at a completely different level, the best in the entire tournament. And not just the serve itself, but the serve plus the third shot and the ability to take control right away. At the US Open, Carlos’s serve made all the difference. After that final, if I had been asked who had the best serve I would have said, Alcaraz. Today, after Turin, there is no doubt: Sinner has the best serve right now.”
“There is a moment that explains everything. The set point against him in the ATP Finals in the first set. Second serve. Jannik hits 187 mph in the corner, pure risk. After the match, he said, ‘I had three options. I chose the riskiest one. If I had to lose the set, I had to do it on my own terms.’ This is the elite mentality. The mentality needed to win these finals. And that is exactly what he learned after the US Open. Carlos did not play his best. Too many unforced backhand errors. Moments of lapses in concentration on the forehand. Maybe late-season fatigue, maybe he simply lacks the same indoor confidence.”
“But the answer is clear: if he wants to dominate in 2026, he has to start improving his first two strokes: his serve and his response. Alcaraz has to raise the bar because Sinner is currently number one in the world in serving and response. He is unique. We’ve had players dominate one side of the equation-Roger in serve, Rafa and Novak in response-but never both. This is something new in the history of tennis. The year 2026 is already shaping up to be incredible,” concluded Mouratoglou, a coach who has coached, among others, the likes of Serena Williams, Simona Halep, Holger Rune, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and, most recently, from whom he parted ways last summer, Naomi Osaka.
