Jannik Sinner singles out Carlos Alcaraz as rival skips Shanghai Masters | Tennis | Sport
Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic will both be in action at the Shanghai Masters on Sunday, playing their third-round matches back-to-back on the main stadium court. They faced off in last year’s final, won by Sinner, and could meet in the semi-finals this time around.
World No. 2 Sinner is the highest-ranked man in the draw, as Carlos Alcaraz withdrew from the tournament after “struggling with some physical issues”. But his absence is definitely being felt by his rivals, as Sinner singled out the Spaniard when asked about his exciting double-header with Djokovic on day five of the tournament.
The reigning champion in Shanghai is excited to give the fans some great tennis to watch when he and Djokovic headline the night session, but Sinner still believes it’s a shame that Alcaraz isn’t at the tournament.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s great. Obviously, you know, Novak coming back here to play, it’s great for the fans. I’m very early in my career still, but I’m very happy to play after Novak,” Sinner said of the day five schedule.
“It’s great for the fans, it’s great to hopefully watch some good tennis in both matches. Yeah, it’s very unfortunate that Carlos is not here also, you know.
“I feel like Carlos is the man who people want to see in tournaments, so it’s very unfortunate he’s not here. But, you know, it’s still great to have Novak and me and many other players.”
Alcaraz sparked concern when he fell and injured his ankle during his opening match at the recent ATP 500 event in Tokyo, but he played on and went on to lift the title at the end of the week.
The world No. 1 later announced that he would not be heading to Shanghai
“Unfortunately, I’ve been struggling with some physical issues and, after discussing with my team, we believe the best decision is to rest and recover,” he said in a statement.
“I was really looking forward to playing in front of the amazing fans in Shanghai again. I hope to be back soon and see my Chinese fans next year.”
Alcaraz is expected to return to action at the Six Kings Slam exhibition event in Saudi Arabia later this month. He will be joined by Sinner, Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz, and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
While the Spanish star enjoys some time at home, Sinner and Djokovic will be busy battling it out in Shanghai. Defending champion Sinner takes on No. 27 seed Tallon Griekspoor on Sunday, while Djokovic meets Yannick Hanfmann.
And Djokovic is keen to face Sinner later in the tournament, having lost six of their last seven matches. “I would love to have a chance to play Jannik. That means that I’ll reach the semi-finals, which will be great,” he laughed.
“We’ll see. Obviously, I mean, he’s been winning most of the matches that we played against each other lately. We played finals last year here, it was a good match, so hopefully I get my chance again.”
