“I was very predictable today,” Jannik Sinner said after losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open final two and a half months ago. “Now it’s going to be on me if I want to make changes or not.”
For the vast majority of tennis players, “making changes” at Sinner’s age—24—is not as simple as it sounds. By that point, it can take many months of work, typically during an off-season when you’re not competing, to add even a modest new element to your game. At a certain point, you are who you are, and you have to live and die with what you do best.
Sinner, of course, is not like the vast majority of players. This fall he made his drop shot—especially the forehand crosscourt version—a staple of his game, and he did it without sacrificing his results. Since the Open, he’s 21-1, with four titles in five events.
Despite all of those victories, though, it wasn’t until Sunday that we found out whether Sinner’s adjustments had been a success. That’s when he took his final exam, against Alcaraz in the season-ending match at the ATP Finals in Turin. Throughout 2025, these two learned from their losses to each other, and turned the tables back around in their next important encounter. That pattern held true to the end, as Sinner lived up to his post-Open vow to “make changes” the next time he faced the Spaniard. .
Sinner’s adjustments weren’t huge or obvious. For the most part, he won the the way he has always won, with blistering pace and clinical precision from both ground-stroke wings, and some clutch serving when necessary. He and Alcaraz red-lined from start to finish, and neither wasted any time playing it safe during the rallies. But Sinner’s well-timed variations surprised Alcaraz just enough to give him the edge.
The first of those change-ups came on what would turn out to be the biggest moment of the match.