Monte Carlo

[jimlosaltos]

And, just because I want to flog the "Sincaraz Duopoly" here's an imagination of their clash today.

Obviously this isn't a realistic image. The two are far too polite to snarl

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[jimlosaltos]

For the 20th time, if Sincaraz enters it wins, but which head of the beast prevailed today?

Video highlights: Carlos Alcaraz & Jannik Sinner's FIRST Final of 2026 Monte-Carlo 2026 Final YT 8:08 min.

Jannik Sinner met Carlos Alcaraz for the 17th time this morning our time in the Monte Carlo final and for the 20th consecutive time, if both enter an event the duopoly won. Jannik was victorious 7-6(5) 6-3 in a match that was closer than the scoreline. Jannik was down a break 1-3 in the second set after winning a first-set tiebreak when Carlos double-faulted, then pulled away winning the last five games. Stats wise, Jannik jumps back ahead in a number of areas.

• Jannik returns to the number one ranking on Monday.
• He'll retake the lead in weeks at number one, since they were tied at 66 each.
• This is Jannik's 27th tour-level title, breaking their tie at 26.
• And, the real odd one, despite Carlos' H2H lead of 10-6 matches coming in, each had won 1,651 tour-level points against the other. Now, Sinner squeaks ahead by 9 points, having a 88-79 margin today.
• This is almost as odd, coming into the match, stats show each player had been on court 5 hours 59 minutes at Monte Carlo. {Holy SciFi, are these guys in a quantum entanglement?}

As for today's match, Carlos managed to do what had seemed impossible of late, he broke Jannik's serve twice across only 11 games. But that wasn't enough since Jannik's great return game had him in Carlos' serve most of the day. Carlos faced 11 BPs and saved eight (8). Carlos won a dismal 58% of his first serve points, less than Jannik's 65% on second serves. Part of the pair's difficulty on serve can be blamed on quite windy conditions. I doubt we can project much about their competition since these weren't normal playing conditions.

Still, it's rarely a good day when a player faces more break points than the number of games he served.

Sinner did have his streak of 37 straight sets won at Masters 1000 events snapped earlier by having to go three sets vs Thomas Machac.

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[jimlosaltos]

This match up is only going to get interesting if we get another couple of players in the mix. I like both players but a two-horse isn't good for the tour. The game is in desperate need for a bad boy. We need a Nastase to turn up and stick two fingers up at these choreographed post match interviews. Wimbledon didn't know what hit them when Nastase turned up...they blushed at his antics and had no clue how to deal with him. Strangely enough, my mother, who is still alive and aged 93, loved Nasty...thought he brightened the whole show up.

Yup. I don't know about a potential "bad boy" ( Holger Rune has potential on the personality side, but bad boys don't bring their mom. Well, Jimmy Connors did but ... ).
As for a third wheel, so far nobody other than Joao Fonseca is on the horizon. He's got a ways to go, but he's still a teen.

[stotty]

This match up is only going to get interesting if we get another couple of players in the mix. I like both players but a two-horse isn't good for the tour. The game is in desperate need for a bad boy. We need a Nastase to turn up and stick two fingers up at these choreographed post match interviews. Wimbledon didn't know what hit them when Nastase turned up...they blushed at his antics and had no clue how to deal with him. Strangely enough, my mother, who is still alive and aged 93, loved Nasty...thought he brightened the whole show up.

[jimlosaltos]

Sincaraz is rolling along on the Monte Carlos clay. I wouldn't give the croupier at the Casino de Monte-Carlo one chip on either of them not making this final, but let's do the scenarios anyway. If Sinner wins Monte Carlo or makes the final and Carlos does not, he moves back to number one. If Sinner makes at least the semifinals and Alcaraz does not, Sinner still takes over number one.

Sincaraz has owned the ATP top ranking for 132 weeks, with the Jannik and Carlos heads of the beast tied at 66 weeks as number one each.

Meanwhile, Matteo Berrettini double bagged Daniil Medvedev (separate thread given the ah, historic nature of this drubbing).

Valentin Vacherot, the "Lucky Loser" that became the first of his ilk, I believe, to win a Masters 1000, his in Singapore last fall, keeps taking advantage of his new seedings. Today, he upset Lorenzo Musetti. V2 or V-Squared should be in the top 20 next week. Awesome.

Here's the odd discrepancy in their otherwise so similar Sincarazian stats - All but one of Jannik's weeks atop the rankings came in one, long streak.
Let's see if I can paste this table and the forum software will politely keep it formatted. Kewl. Except one line disappeared. Fixed


Total Career Weeks at No. 1 (as of April 8, 2026)
Total / Consecutive

Carlos Alcaraz	66	22
Jannik Sinner	66	65

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