Rafa Nadal has a certainty about Carlos Alcaraz: message also reaches Jannik Sinner

The rivalry that marked the tennis of 2025, with as many as six direct finals clashes played in the span of a single season, came to a sudden halt in 2026. Come mid-year, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz faced each other only once, in the Monte Carlo final won by the Italian 7-6(5), 6-3. Then the silence. Or rather: absence.

The heavy wrist injury forced Alcaraz to miss all subsequent tournaments, including Roland Garros and, shortly, Wimbledon, interrupting one of the most fiery rivalries in modern tennis. Sinner, meanwhile, kept running, consolidating the world No. 1 position despite what happened in Paris. Still, there are those who have no doubt that the duel will return soon, and that someone is Rafa Nadal.

On the sidelines of a charity golf tournament in Mallorca, the tennis legend spoke of the Murcian with a confidence that has gone around the world. “I’m sure Carlos will recover in the best possible way from his injury, he’s too strong not to. Even now, despite being very young, he is one of the best players in the history of tennis,” Nadal said, hinting that a return to the highest level is not a possibility, but a certainty.

Heavy words, especially since they come from someone who knows like few the highs and lows of a career at the highest level, and who at the same time recognizes in Alcaraz a talent destined to mark an era. Sinner has so far taken advantage of his friend-rival’s absence to stretch in the rankings and extend his own dominance, but world tennis awaits the return of the dualism par excellence of recent years: a challenge destined to be rekindled soon, at least in the hope of fans.