French Open LIVE: Carlos Alcaraz torn apart by tennis icon as Novak Djokovic snubbed

Mats Wilander believes Carlos Alcaraz has an advantage over Jannik Sinner in their pursuit of the French Open.

Both players - the world Nos. 2 and 1, respectively, are the favourites to win at Roland Garros.

Wilander thinks Alcaraz’s speed and strong forehand always prove a problem for Sinner.

“The main reason why Sinner struggles against Alcaraz is he is so fast at doing everything,” Wilander told Tennis365. “The other reason Jannik doesn’t like playing against him he has a big forehand and that can knock you off balance.

“The big thing with Sinner is he strikes the ball so hard and also the way he can strike it early, without making too many mistakes. That is too much for a lot of people, but Alcaraz is so quick that he can get to a lot of the balls other players cannot reach.

“When Sinner has a forehand and time to hit it, the other players have to guess left or right to have a chance to get it. Carlos doesn’t have that problem so much as he is super fast.

I was in the front row watching their Rome final a few weeks back and for the first half an hour it looked like Alcaraz was struggling to hang with Sinner. Then he started to absorb the power coming at him and found a way to swing it in his favour.

“Okay, Sinner could have won the first set of that match and it could have been a different result, but you could see that Alcaraz was getting used to absorbing the pace and when he then got Jannik doing things he didn’t want to do, the match turned in his favour.”

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