{"id":102244,"date":"2026-04-13T15:26:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=102244"},"modified":"2026-04-13T15:27:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:27:41","slug":"jannik-sinner-complete-career-slam-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/04\/13\/jannik-sinner-complete-career-slam-in-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"After Winning Monte Carlo, Jannik Sinner Looks Set To Complete Career Slam in Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the world of men\u2019s tennis, Monte Carlo is almost a mini-Paris: the perfect and perfectly picturesque start to the European clay-court season, which of course culminates at Roland Garros at the end of May. And if the events of the 2026 Monte Carlo Masters are a guide to what will happen at the 2026 French Open, increasingly it looks like Jannik Sinner will gain revenge for his loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the classic 2025 final<\/a> and emulate his greatest rival by completing the Career Slam.<\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner Looks Set To Complete Career Slam <\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cSincaraz\u201d Might Be The Only Show In Town \u2013 But It\u2019s a Truly Great Show <\/strong><\/h4>\n

Because of their domination of the ATP Tour and in particular the Majors over the last two seasons, Sinner and Alcaraz (or \u201cSincaraz\u201d, to use the compound word created to describe their duopoly) sometimes appear to be the only show in men\u2019s tennis. And that impression was further confirmed in Monte Carlo by the fact that the man who has probably been the third best story in men\u2019s tennis over the past year, Valentin Vacherot<\/a>, made the semifinals at his home event but then was relatively routinely beaten in straight sets by Alcaraz, 6-4 6-4.<\/p>\n

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However, if \u201cSincaraz\u201d really is the only show in town, then at least it\u2019s a truly great show, one that is constantly evolving and developing as these two friendly but none the less fierce rivals continually have to improve their game if they are not to be left behind by the other. In effect, they are locked together in a sporting arms race, which is the only remotely enjoyable arms race in our increasingly dangerous world.<\/p>\n

Sinner\u2019s Improvements Since The 2025 US Open <\/strong><\/h4>\n

Currently, it is Sinner who seems to be moving ahead of Alcaraz, despite the fact that it was the latter who completed the Career Slam at Melbourne in February<\/a>, in the process becoming the youngest male tennis player ever to do so. Indeed, given everything else that has happened since Alcaraz convincingly defeated Sinner in last year\u2019s US Open Final, Alcaraz’s Australian Open triumph earlier this year increasingly looks like an outlier or an exception to the rule, the rule being that Sinner has made the greatest improvements to his game since that loss last September.<\/p>\n

In the press conference immediately after the US Open final, Sinner spoke freely and eloquently about the need to make his game more varied and versatile in order to continue to compete with Alcaraz, who is without a doubt one of the most complete men’s tennis players ever. In particular, he talked about being more aggressive and coming to the net more, rather than simply dominating the baseline, as he is able to do against virtually everyone except Alcaraz.<\/p>\n

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Sinner has hardly evolved into a serve-volleyer, but there have still been significant improvements to his game since last September. Perhaps the two biggest are in his serve, which was positively Federer-esque in his completion of the Sunshine Double last month<\/a>, and in his vastly increased use of the drop-shot<\/a>, which of course is an especially potent weapon on clay. And both that superior serve and increased deployment of the drop-shot were very much in evident in Monte Carlo, even in the final against Alcaraz, which he won in straight sets (7-6 6-4) to claim his first Monte Carlo Masters title and reclaim his position as World #1.<\/p>\n

Now Sinner Has The Momentum Going Into The Clay Season<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Perhaps most importantly in the run-up to Roland Garros, Sinner also now has all the momentum in the “Sincaraz\u201d rivalry. Since completing the Career Slam at the Australian Open, Alcaraz has played well, winning one other title in Qatar, but Sinner has played supremely. The Italian has now won the last four Masters events in succession (including the Paris Masters at the end of last season), in the process easily transitioning from indoor hardcourt in the French capital to outdoor hardcourt in the USA to the red dirt or clay of Monte Carlo.<\/p>\n

In that context, his surprise loss to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semifinal<\/a>, when he squandered numerous break-point opportunities in the final set and was playing against an all-time great on their favourite court (albeit one diminished by age), can be seen as a rare aberration that has apparently only increased his desire to win every other tournament he enters.<\/p>\n

Sinner is only likely to add to that momentum over the coming weeks, as the European clay-court season wends its way through the great cities of southern Europe and the Mediterranean, making it arguably the most beautiful part of any sporting tour anywhere on the planet. Last year, of course, he missed the bulk of the clay-court season because he was serving the ban belatedly imposed for doping offences in 2024. He only returned at his home tournament in Rome, but was hugely impressive from there on in, culminating in his taking a two-set lead over Alcaraz in the French Open final. Consequently, it is surely only logical that with a full clay-court season under his belt this year, he will be in even more impressive form by the time he reaches Roland Garros in 2026.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz Will Respond, But Will Loss Of Coach Finally Catch Up With Him? <\/strong><\/h4>\n

Of course, Alcaraz will inevitably respond to the loss of both his title in Monte Carlo and his world #1 crown. He has already demonstrated that numerous times throughout his rivalry with Sinner, most notably after losing the Wimbledon final last summer and then dominating the US Open final less than two months later.<\/p>\n

However, it is also possible that the split with his long-time coach and indeed mentor, Juan Carlos Ferrero, at the end of last season will finally catch up with him. For all of Alcaraz\u2019s natural brilliance as a tennis player, it was superbly augmented by Ferrero\u2019s tactical acumen and perhaps also by Ferrero’s sheer drive to win as many Majors as possible as a coach after his own playing career was stymied by the arrival of his compatriot Rafael Nadal.<\/p>\n

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By contrast, and with all due respect to Alcaraz\u2019s new head coach Samuel Lopez (who was promoted to the top job after the split with Ferrero), Sinner has arguably not one great coach in his box but two, in Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi, the coaching double-act that has been so instrumental in his spectacular rise over the last two and a half years. While he was in Monte Carlo, Vagnozzi gave an interview to Sky Sports Tennis in which he explained how Cahill had changed his mind to stop coaching Sinner at the end of last season and, even more crucially, how well the pair of them work together, with Vagnozzi in charge of tactics and technical elements while Cahill is the supreme motivator, especially during finals.<\/p>\n

In comparison with the coaching \u201csuperteam\u201d in Sinner\u2019s box, Alcaraz\u2019s coaching set-up currently looks a little underpowered, or at least under-manned, with only one main coach instead of two. And that may yet prove to be a further hindrance to him as he attempts to stop Sinner\u2019s incredible momentum from sweeping him to the Career Slam in Paris. Right now, Sinner looks lazer-focused on achieving that feat and Alcaraz will have to make significant improvements himself, in a short window of time, to stop him.<\/p>\n

Main photo credit: Susan Mullane-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the world of men\u2019s tennis, Monte Carlo is almost a mini-Paris: the perfect and perfectly picturesque start to the European clay-court season, which of course culminates at Roland Garros at the end of May. And if the events of the 2026 Monte Carlo Masters are a guide to what will happen at the 2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":993,"featured_media":84734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1735,3,15913],"tags":[43702,2806,5729,5862,896],"class_list":["post-102244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-time-best","category-atp","category-opinion","tag-2026-french-open","tag-atp-monte-carlo","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-jannik-sinner","tag-roland-garros"],"modified_by":"Jim Smith","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/993"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102244"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102370,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102244\/revisions\/102370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}