In an exclusive interview with Tennis365, Patrick Mouratoglou highlighted the differences between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Which between the young Spaniard and the Italian is the new great rivalry in the world of tennis. The two players split the four Slams of 2024, setting the stage for the post-Big 3 era.
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"Alcaraz and Sinner are by far the two best right now and Carlos can do everything. Everything he does he does perfectly. His forehand is incredible, his backhand is incredible. I don't see any weaknesses in that backhand. He can play flat, slice, his drop shots are incredible, his net game is incredible, he can serve and volley, he serves incredibly well for a guy his height and physically he is a beast. If you look at the package, he is incredible, he almost always has too many options and sometimes he can lose his way, he is super aggressive and because of that he makes a lot more unforced errors than Sinner," he analyzed.
Mouratoglou then went deeper into his analysis, explaining: "Sinner is a machine. He does less things than Alcaraz and at the moment he is trying to add new weapons to his game. He is not as good as Carlos in many areas, but what he does is incredible. To take the ball early like he does, to hit it with incredible force, with so much confidence because he doesn't make mistakes and the movement is amazing, it's crazy. That's why in the head-to-head matches they are very close: because every time Carlos drops a little bit, Sinner is always at the same level, from the beginning to the end."
Naomi Osaka's coach and former coach of Serena Williams then stopped to see the differences between Alcaraz and Sinner and the Big 3 Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, especially on the speed of the ball, the serve and the forehand: "Maybe it's possible, I wouldn't call them that. Alcaraz and Sinner are much more than just hitting the ball hard. Tennis is lucky to have two new heroes ready to take the sport into a new era of the game."
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Instead, in an interview with Talking Tennis, the French coach was asked which player among the Big 3 he would like to coach. Mouratoglou chose Djokovic, explaining that the Serbian's fitness and high level of motivation are the reasons behind his choice.
"His body is healthier than the bodies of the other two. There has always been a perception that his motivation to become the greatest is great and if you look at how many Grand Slams he is winning you have the answer. Novak Djokovic has sometimes not been aggressive enough in his game," he said.
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Asked what he would improve in the 24-time Grand Slam champion's game, Mouratoglou said that the Serb is sometimes not aggressive enough.
"I think he could have done better, which is hard to say because he is the greatest of all time. But sometimes I feel he is not aggressive enough in his game. He is probably the guy who covered the court the best. He has always relied on his return skills and a strong baseline game to overcome his opponent on power in long rallies. Only in the last few years has he worked on his serve, drop shots and volleys to close points earlier than he used to," added Mouratoglou.
