Novak Djokovic has declared Jannik Sinner as the best player of the last few years ahead of their French Open semi-final. Sinner and Alcaraz have battled for the sport’s biggest prizes and the world No. 1 berth over the past couple of seasons, but Djokovic insists that the Italian is currently the best player.
Having served a three-month ban over a doping scandal, Sinner has been in excellent form on his return to the circuit. His defeat against Alcaraz in the Italian Open final was one of only two occasions on which he has dropped sets in his 11 matches since returning to competitive action. A comfortable 6-1 7-5 6-0 victory over Alexander Bublik has landed the 23-year-old a semi-final clash with Djokovic. The 24-time Grand Slam champion believes Sinner has been the stand-out star of the last few years.
“Jannik is in tremendous form, and he has been the best player for the last couple of years, deservedly. He’s been playing some terrific tennis, attacking tennis, and just super strong from every aspect of his game,” Djokovic said.
“I haven’t played him now in quite some time, and, you know, we always had some exciting matches. At one point, I think we played three or four matches in a very short amount of time on hard court, but I don’t think — we played maybe once I think on clay in Monte-Carlo years ago.
“Yeah, it’s going to be semi-finals of a Grand Slam against the No. 1 in the world. There is no bigger occasion for me, so I’ll try to do my best to step it up and perform as well as I did tonight.”
On-fire Sinner has scored three bagels at the French Open so far. Of the 15 sets he has played in his five matches, the three-time Grand Slam champion has conceded more than three games only five times.
Asked how to cope against a player in such good form, Djokovic said: “It really depends on the given day and how you feel on the court. I know what to expect from Jannik. He’s going to play on a very high level, as he did basically every tournament that he played in the last year and a half.
“But these matchups and challenges extract the best out of me. Playing best-of-five, late stages of a Grand Slam against the world No. 1 is… You can’t get more motivated than that for me at this age. How am I going to stop him? I don’t think about that. I think about how I am going to execute what I want on the court and feel how I want to feel.”