The Italian and the Spaniard trained together a few hours before the highly anticipated Indian Wells semi-final
Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz will face each other in the blunderbuss semifinal of the BNP Paribas Open. If Sinner were to beat his young Spanish rival, he would become the first ATP No.2 of Italian tennis.
The Italian and the Spaniard have not faced each other in an official match since October 3, 2023 and it seems like a really long time ago. In over 5 months, Sinner and Alcaraz have almost exchanged roles on the ATP Tour.
While the Spaniard has struggled and continued not to win a tournament since Wimbledon 2023, Jannik improved greatly match after match and triumphed at the Australian Open. Sinner was instrumental for Italy in winning the Davis Cup and reached the final of the Finals in Turin.
Despite this type of scenario, the two young athletes reached the semi-finals of the ATP Master 1000 in Indian Wells in perhaps identical conditions.
In the meantime, a few hours before the start of the highly anticipated semi-final, Sinner and Alcaraz trained together, as evidenced by a video shared by the @giovannipelazzo X account, which you can see below:
Carlos Alcaraz 🇪🇸 e Jannik Sinner 🇮🇹 si allenano insieme prima della semifinale di domani ad Indian Wells 🫂❤️pic.twitter.com/JFC5hvbXRJ
Both the Italian and the Spaniard defeated the competition and earned the opportunity to play for their place in the final. Sinner didn’t concede a single set to his opponents and immediately seemed in shape right from the second round match.
The young Spaniard only suffered in the first set against Matteo Arnaldi, before leaving a total of 16 games.
The great battle between the two, great friends outside of competition, will give away second place in the ATP world rankings after the Californian event.
It will be a direct clash to determine who will be behind Novak Djokovic before the Miami Open.
Sinner and Alcaraz will take to the court in the first match of the day, which will then be followed by the second semi-final between Daniil Medvedev and Tommy Paul.