New York, Sep 8 Jannik Sinner entered the 2025 US Open as the tournament's defending champion and the world No. 1. After a defeat to Carlos Alcaraz in Sunday's final, the Italian leaves New York stripped of both titles.
Sinner discussed a few changes he hopes to make in his game as he learns from this loss, which dropped him to 5-10 all-time against his great rival. But that's not the only change he focused on.
"Something new is now I'm not No. 1 anymore, so it also changes a little bit that you chase. It's different," Sinner said.
The Italian also touched on struggles with his serve, both throughout the tournament and in the final. He was able to overcome those issues all fortnight, dropping just two sets en route to the final, as per the US Open website.
"He has improved. I felt like he was a bit cleaner today. The things that I did well in London, he did better today. I felt like he was doing everything slightly better today, especially serving, both sides, both swings very clean... I give lots of credit to him, because he handled the situation better than I did. Yeah, he raised his level when he had to,” he added.
The 22-year-old Alcaraz outhit Sinner by 42 winners to 21 and dropped just nine points behind his first serve in a clinical two-hour, 42-minute display. Broken only once in the match, Alcaraz finished his US Open run having won 98 of 101 service games.
He is the second Grand Slam singles champion to drop three or fewer service games en route to a title since 1991, after Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 1994 (103 of 106 service games won) and 1997 (116 of 118), as per ATP.
Sinner said he will risk losing matches from hereon out in order to change his game and become a better tennis player.
"One thing is when the scoreline, you know, matches before are comfortable, but you always do the same things," he explained.
"For example, during this tournament, I didn't make one serve-volley, didn't use a lot of drop shots, and then you arrive to a point where you play against Carlos where you have to go out of the comfort zone.
"So I'm going to aim to, you know, maybe even lose some matches from now on, but try to do some changes, try to be a bit more unpredictable as a player, because I think that's what I have to do, trying to become a better tennis player," said Sinner.
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