CHINA OPEN

October 4, 2023

Jannik Sinner

Press Conference

J. SINNER/C. Alcaraz

7-6, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: With a very late match yesterday and everything that happened, how do you see your victory tonight?

JANNIK SINNER: For sure it was a great match from my side. Never easy playing against Carlos. He's an incredible player. I think we both have a lot of respect for each other.

Today I felt like maybe the important points went my way a little bit. These match, always a couple of points make the difference. Today was me.

Let's see, hopefully in the future we can play many times again against, then we see how it goes.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I'm not sure if you know you're the only one player who beats Carlos four times. Do you have any experience on doing that?

JANNIK SINNER: I know that I've beat him before, but I'm not watching how many times I beat him or how many times I lost against him.

That what I can say is every time we play against, it's a good match, a good matchup. We try to play on our limits. I think also today we have done this, no? The level was really high.

Yeah, as I said, I'm more happy about the performance I played than all the rest, no? Hopefully I can take this confidence into tomorrow's final, then we see how the match will be.

Q. Could you share a little bit more about how you were feeling as you moved through the second set. You looked to be playing with some real confidence. Obviously in the end broke Carlos three times.

JANNIK SINNER: Yeah, the first set was a little bit different than the second set. In the first set there were a lot of breaks happening. In the second set I had the chance to break him immediately. Then he had many, many break points. When I was up 1-0, when I was up 2-1, I was Love-40.

There are couple of points who can change the momentum completely. I managed somehow to win these kind of moments today, which obviously helped me in the following games to stay very calm mentally and playing with a lot of confidence, which I think I've shown. The first set can go either way. Tiebreak, it's always tough to play.

Yeah, that's it.

Q. Both you and Daniil have strong serves. Do you think the key to decide the champion is the serve?

JANNIK SINNER: For sure. The serve is important in every match you play. Here the balls are quite slow. It depends, no?

For sure I try to change a couple of things because I never won against him. It's going to be a huge challenge for me, but I'm looking forward for it, no?

I have another chance to play against him. I put myself in this position, which I'm proud of. Hopefully tomorrow I can show some good tennis.

Obviously the serve is very important. Also how I play from the back of the court. There are going to be a lot of long rallies.

We see how it goes. I'm happy and excited to play one more time against him.

Q. Can you talk about your Carote Boys. Do we have some chance to see them in China?

JANNIK SINNER: No, they are not coming. They're not coming. I met them before come to here. That was a good moment for me and also for them, to get to know each other a little bit better.

I don't think they are coming here in China. I'm sure they are coming for some events in end of the year, for sure. They are good in the work that they are doing. Most important they are nice people, no? They are very normal people in the normal life. It's nice that I have the chance to talk with them a little bit.

Let's see where we can see them again.

Q. You are now No. 4 in the rankings. You will be the highest ranked male or female player in Italy. What are your thoughts on this? What have you done this year to improve technically and mentally?

JANNIK SINNER: First of all, I think it's a great achievement for sure. In the other way, I'm more proud about how I improved the level this year, mentally especially. I felt like or I feel that I'm much stronger. Also physically I know that I have to work a lot, so this is an aspect where we are going to push a lot in end of the year, especially for the next year then.

But I felt like I was playing really consistent tennis throughout the whole year. When you do this, also a lot of points are coming in for the ranking and everything. I'm not watching so much about this.

No. 4 in the world, which is really good, but most importantly tomorrow I have a final to play which hopefully I can play some good tennis, be very focused. Hopefully it's going to be a good day.