Jannik Sinner says his tennis was too predictable against Carlos Alcaraz after losing in the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday.
The Italian world No.3 entered the clash on a 19-match winning streak and looked to be on course to extending this tally after clinching the first set before defending champion Alcaraz came fighting back to win 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. It is the first time Sinner has been beaten this year with his last defeat occurring six months ago at the Shanghai Masters.
“I was too predictable at some points. I was doing the same things over and over again, which in my mind let me down.” A reflective Sinner said afterwards.
“I was playing really good the first set. Then when you see your opponent struggling a little bit, I tried to stay solid instead of trying to move around.’
“I was too predictable at some points. I think that’s the lesson for today. We will work on certain things and hopefully I will get better.”
The Australian Open champion said his coach, Darren Cahill, also agreed that the tennis player’s predictability cost him in the match. Cahill is one of two people mentoring Sinner. The other is Simone Vagnozzi who wasn’t at Indian Wells this year.
“I missed a lot of forehands where usually I try to be aggressive. I made the mistakes. We have to understand why and that’s it. I think it was still a great match. I think we both played really good. There were some entertaining rallies.”
Despite his defeat, the Italian will still be high in confidence given his start to the season which has seen him register 16 straight wins on the Tour. Since 1990, only Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Pete Sampras have enjoyed better starts to their seasons than him.
Sinner will be hoping to bounce back at the Miami Masters which will get underway next week as long as he is physically fit to do so. Against Alcaraz, he was seen flexing his left leg, suffered a scare with his left wrist after having a tumble at the net and then said during his press conference that he felt his elbow a little bit as a result of that fall.
“I’ve been positive throughout this winning streak. Even now because I lost in the semis of Indian Wells, which is still a great result.” He said.
“The next tournament is Miami. So I’m focused already on Miami.’
“For sure it’s tough that it has to end like this here (in Indian Wells) because for me this is a really special place to play but I feel grateful for what I’m doing.”
Sinner’s loss to Alcaraz means he has missed out on the opportunity to rise to number two in the ATP rankings on Monday.
