Indian Wells – Jannik Sinner was cruising along during Saturday’s BNP Paribas Open semifinal with Carlos Alcaraz, seemingly headed for a 20th consecutive win, but he lost the plot early in the second set and never recovered as the Spaniard took over the match by producing a stunning array of variation to win in three sets, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.
After the match Sinner came to press to talk about the match, and explained that he felt he didn’t do enough to keep Alcaraz off balance in sets two and three.
“What I have missed today was that I was too predictable at some points,” Sinner said. “I was doing the same things over and over again, which in my mind let me down.”
Sinner, riding a 19-match winning streak into the match, admitted he was thrown off by changes that Alcaraz made tactically. The Spaniard changed his return position, moving back in the court, and started to play more drop shots and rush to the net. He dictated tactics and didn’t allow Sinner room to breathe, and gradually took over the match.
“I was playing really good in the first set,” Sinner said. “Then after, when you see your opponent struggling a little bit, I tried to stay solid instead of trying to move around. So I was too predictable at some points.
“I think that’s the lesson for today. We will work on certain things, you know, and hopefully I will get better.”
Sinner says that he got the same input from his coach Darren Cahill when he talked to him after the match.
“What I said he agreed, no? That I was a little bit too predictable,” he said.
After dropping to 4-4 lifetime against Alcaraz, and losing from a set up against him for the first time, Sinner vowed to improve the next time he faces the Spaniard.
“Today sometimes I made the mistakes,” he said. “We have to understand why, and that’s it. I think it was still a great match.”