{"id":95822,"date":"2026-01-15T13:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T18:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=95822"},"modified":"2026-01-15T13:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T18:11:08","slug":"roger-federer-discusses-sinner-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/15\/roger-federer-discusses-sinner-matchup\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHow I Would Play Against Jannik\u201d: Roger Federer Discusses Sinner Matchup Ahead of Australian Open Return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roger Federer is back. Well, sort of.<\/p>\n

For the first time since his semifinal loss to Novak Djokovic in 2020, the 20-time Major champion will return to the Australian Open this year, more than three years removed from retirement, to take part in a \u201cBattle of World No.1\u2019s<\/a>\u201d event during the first-ever Australian Open main draw opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

How Federer would play Sinner<\/h3>\n

In the build-up to the event, Federer held a press conference at Melbourne Park, where he was asked a wide range of questions. One of the most intriguing moments came when he was asked how he would have game-planned against two-time defending Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner.<\/p>\n

Federer admitted<\/a> that while he had not previously thought deeply about the matchup, watching Sinner\u2019s Wimbledon encounter with Grigor Dimitrov<\/a> gave him a clearer tactical picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Wimbledon, when Grigor was playing against Jannik and I was sitting there, that made it easy to think how it could\u2019ve been because Grigor plays very similar to how I played. I think it was one of the first times I thought how would it have been to play Jannik in a match situation. When I saw Jannik play against Novak in Shanghai, I didn\u2019t feel that way. I was just watching great tennis because they both played very different to how I play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Federer Relates More to Alcaraz<\/h3>\n

Expanding on the idea, the Swiss legend explained<\/a> that stylistically, he relates more to Carlos Alcaraz than to Sinner. Both Federer and Alcaraz favor attacking tennis, variety, and creativity, rather than the more linear power-based style that defines Sinner\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put myself more in Carlos mindset and skin when I watch him. Now with Sinner at one time I thought Okay, now I understand how I would probably play against Jannik.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Whether or not one agrees with Federer\u2019s assessment, one thing is difficult to argue: if there is a proven playstyle capable of troubling Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s blueprint appears to be the closest thing to it.<\/p>\n

Despite how difficult it is to execute, the Spaniard remains the only player on tour to have consistently beaten Sinner since 2024, winning seven of their last nine meetings. That record alone underlines just how effective Alcaraz\u2019s disruptive, high-variation approach can be against the Italian\u2019s baseline dominance, and one which Federer sees would have been the way to go had he ever faced the Italian.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit Syndication: The Enquirer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roger Federer is back. Well, sort of. For the first time since his semifinal loss to Novak Djokovic in 2020, the 20-time Major champion will return to the Australian Open this year, more than three years removed from retirement, to take part in a \u201cBattle of World No.1\u2019s\u201d event during the first-ever Australian Open main […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5608,"featured_media":88567,"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":[7,1735,3,2,9],"tags":[43454,205,5729,5862,114],"class_list":["post-95822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-open","category-all-time-best","category-atp","category-featured","category-news","tag-2026-australian-open","tag-australian-open","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-jannik-sinner","tag-roger-federer"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95822","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\/5608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95822"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95863,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95822\/revisions\/95863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}