Sinner Alcaraz head to head is the rivalry that defines men’s tennis, and a year ago it seemed that the coming seasons would consist of a single match: Sinner vs Alcaraz. In 2025 Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz met six times, and all six were finals. In 2026 they played each other exactly once, in April in Monte Carlo, after which injuries sent them to opposite halves of the calendar. This is a good moment to take a calm look at the numbers: the Sinner Alcaraz record, every match between the pair, the injuries and the rankings.
Sinner Alcaraz head to head record: 10-7
At main-tour level they have played 17 matches, and Alcaraz leads 10-7 in the Sinner Alcaraz head to head. The first meeting came at the Paris Masters in 2021: the 18-year-old Spaniard, then ranked 35th, won 7-6, 7-5. After that the score swung one way and then the other, but the overall picture of the Sinner Alcaraz head to head is consistent:
- Hard: 7-3 to Alcaraz — including the US Open final and quarter-final and two Indian Wells semi-finals.
- Clay: 3-2 to Alcaraz. He won the 2024 French Open semi-final and the 2025 Rome and Paris finals; Sinner won the 2022 Umag final and Monte Carlo 2026.
- Grass: 2-0 to Sinner — Wimbledon 2022 and the 2025 Wimbledon final.
- Finals: 5-4 to Alcaraz, nine finals in total — the Sinner Alcaraz finals record.
- Grand Slam tournaments: 4-2 to Alcaraz, and he also leads all three of the pair’s five-set matches — the Sinner Alcaraz head to head in grand slams record.
The last line is arguably the key one. In long matches on the biggest stage the Spaniard still reliably finds extra reserves — as he did in the 2022 US Open quarter-final and especially in Paris in 2025. The 2025 French Open final lasted 5 hours 29 minutes: it is the longest final in the history of the Paris tournament, and everything was decided by a fifth-set tie-break that the Spaniard won 10-2. Sinner is still stronger on grass and in Turin: at Wimbledon he has never lost to the Spaniard, and he won the 2025 ATP Finals final in straight sets.
Sinner and Alcaraz: head-to-head stats, all 17 matches
| Year | Tournament, round | Winner | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Paris, round of 32 | Alcaraz | 7-6 (1), 7-5 |
| 2022 | Wimbledon, round of 16 | Sinner | 6-1, 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-3 |
| 2022 | Umag, final | Sinner | 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-1 |
| 2022 | US Open, quarter-final | Alcaraz | 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-7 (0), 7-5, 6-3 |
| 2023 | Indian Wells, semi-final | Alcaraz | 7-6 (4), 6-3 |
| 2023 | Miami, semi-final | Sinner | 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2 |
| 2023 | Beijing, semi-final | Sinner | 7-6 (4), 6-1 |
| 2024 | Indian Wells, semi-final | Alcaraz | 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 |
| 2024 | French Open, semi-final | Alcaraz | 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 |
| 2024 | Beijing, final | Alcaraz | 6-7 (6), 6-4, 7-6 (3) |
| 2025 | Rome, final | Alcaraz | 7-6 (5), 6-1 |
| 2025 | French Open, final | Alcaraz | 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10-2) |
| 2025 | Wimbledon, final | Sinner | 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 |
| 2025 | Cincinnati, final | Alcaraz | 5-0, Sinner retired |
| 2025 | US Open, final | Alcaraz | 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 |
| 2025 | ATP Finals, final | Sinner | 7-6 (4), 7-5 |
| 2026 | Monte Carlo, final | Sinner | 7-6 (5), 6-3 |
Sinner vs Alcaraz 2026: six finals out of six in 2025
Last season was the peak of their rivalry. Alcaraz won the finals in Rome, at the French Open, in Cincinnati (Sinner retired through illness at 0-5) and at the US Open. Sinner responded with the Wimbledon 2025 title, where he beat his rival in four sets, and victory in the final of the ATP Finals in Turin — 7-6, 7-5. The top ranking changed hands several times at the end of the year: Sinner lost it after the US Open final, regained it for a week after the Paris title, but in Turin Alcaraz won all three group matches and secured the year-end World No. 1 spot — the second time after 2022.
Sinner vs Alcaraz 2026: one meeting and two injuries
Sinner vs Alcaraz in Monte Carlo: the season’s only match
The final in Monte Carlo on 12 April was the pair’s only meeting this season. Sinner won 7-6 (5), 6-3, coming back from 1-3 down in the second set, and reclaimed the top ranking. After the match Alcaraz told his rival: ‘What you are achieving right now is impressive.’
Carlos Alcaraz in 2026: career Grand Slam and a wrist injury
The Spaniard began the season as he had never begun one before. On 1 February he won the Australian Open, beating Novak Djokovic in the final, and at 22 years and 272 days became the youngest man with a career Grand Slam. It was his seventh major. Then came the title in Doha and the final in Monte Carlo.
In April in Barcelona Alcaraz felt pain in his right wrist: he won his first-round match after taking a medical timeout, and the next day withdrew from the tournament. The Alcaraz injury wrist was later identified as tenosynovitis — inflammation of the tendon sheath. Withdrawals from Madrid, Rome and the French Open, where he was the two-time defending champion, followed, and then from Wimbledon too. He returned to the court almost five months later, only at the US Open, and reached the quarter-finals, where he lost to Ben Shelton on a fifth-set tie-break — the match finished at 3:33 in the morning, later than any other in the tournament’s history. By mid-September Alcaraz had 26 wins and 4 defeats for the season, and on 16 September he qualified for the ATP Finals for the fifth year in a row.
In early October the Spaniard defended his title in Tokyo: on 6 October he beat Jiří Lehečka in the final 7-6 (4), 6-4 and became the first man since Pete Sampras in 1993-1994 to win the tournament twice in a row. It was his third trophy of the season and the 27th of his career. But on 12 October, in the third round in Shanghai, Alcaraz lost to world No. 39 Zizou Bergs — 7-5, 7-6 (4) to the Belgian.
Jannik Sinner in 2026: an unbeaten spring and a knee injury
Sinner won all five Masters 1000 events played before the French Open in a row: Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome. No one before him had managed to take the season’s first five Masters 1000 titles. The win in Rome completed his collection of all nine Masters 1000 events — the so-called Career Golden Masters; before Sinner only Djokovic had assembled it. He also became the first Italian to win the Rome title since Adriano Panatta in 1976.
The 30-win streak ended in the second round of the French Open, where Sinner was seemingly undone by cramps: he led Juan Manuel Cerúndolo by two sets and 5-1 but lost in five. A month and a half later he defended his Wimbledon title — his fifth major and sixth title of the season. Sinner did not play again in 2026. First he withdrew from Cincinnati, on 21 August from the US Open because of a right knee injury, and then he missed the Asian swing as well. On 6 October his team announced that the season was over and Turin would not happen: the Italian is undergoing treatment for inflammation of the knee, and the exact diagnosis was not officially disclosed. His year ended with 44 wins and 3 defeats.
Sinner ranking and Alcaraz ranking: Sinner first, Alcaraz third
In the ATP Rankings of 19 October Sinner is first with 10,950 points, followed by Alexander Zverev (10,070) — this year’s French Open and US Open champion. Alcaraz has dropped to third in the rankings with 5,610 points: almost five months without tennis took their toll. By the start of October Sinner had spent 92 weeks at the top — the tenth-best figure in history, just behind Andre Agassi (101) and Björn Borg (109). Alcaraz has 66 weeks at No. 1. We explained how the points are calculated and why an injured Sinner is still first in our piece on the ATP and WTA rankings.
Sinner and Alcaraz: age, titles and a comparison
Sinner and Alcaraz — age, titles and weeks at the top in one list:
- Age: Sinner was born on 16 August 2001 and is 25; Alcaraz was born on 5 May 2003 and is 23.
- Grand Slam titles: Alcaraz has seven (Australian Open 2026, French Open 2024 and 2025, Wimbledon 2023 and 2024, US Open 2022 and 2025), Sinner has five (Australian Open 2024 and 2025, US Open 2024, Wimbledon 2025 and 2026).
- All ATP titles: 30 for Sinner, 27 for Alcaraz.
- Masters 1000: 10 for Sinner, 8 for Alcaraz.
- Year-end World No. 1: Alcaraz — 2022 and 2025, Sinner — 2024.
- 2026 season: six titles and 44-3 for Sinner, three titles for Alcaraz.
Alcaraz already has the career Grand Slam, while Sinner needs the French Open for it — the only major he has yet to win. We looked in detail at the season of the four tournaments in our 2026 Grand Slam round-up.
What it all means
The Sinner Alcaraz head to head 2025 record favours Alcaraz, the 2026 season favours Sinner: six titles against three and records at Masters level. But the main conclusion is different. Both players missed several months during the year, and the question for 2027 is not ‘who is stronger’ but ‘which of them can play a full season’. If both stay healthy, the 10-7 score will almost certainly keep changing — they meet in finals too often for it to freeze for long.
Frequently asked questions about the Sinner and Alcaraz rivalry
What is the Sinner Alcaraz head to head record?
10-7 to Alcaraz after 17 matches. In finals the Spaniard leads 5-4, at Grand Slam tournaments 4-2.
Who won the last Sinner vs Alcaraz match?
Sinner: on 12 April 2026 in the Monte Carlo final he won 7-6 (5), 6-3 and returned to the top of the rankings.
What is Alcaraz’s injury?
A right wrist injury — tenosynovitis, sustained in April in Barcelona. It forced Alcaraz to miss almost five months, including the French Open and Wimbledon.
What is Sinner’s injury?
Sinner injured his right knee, officially announced as inflammation. It caused the Italian to miss the US Open and the Asian swing, and on 6 October he announced that his 2026 season was over and he would not play the ATP Finals.
How old are Sinner and Alcaraz?
Sinner is 25 (born on 16 August 2001), Alcaraz is 23 (born on 5 May 2003).
Who is the current World No. 1?
Jannik Sinner: in the ATP Rankings of 19 October 2026 he has 10,950 points. Alcaraz is third.
