The new hairstyle of Carlos Alcaraz may have caused a commotion in the opening days of the US Open 2025, but the ‘Buzzcut’ of the Spaniard has a controversial defender in his great rival Jannik Sinner.
Fans, commentators and Frances Tiafoe were among their thoughts about the hair of Alcaraz on Monday in New York. The American star Tiafoe may have described it lightly as ‘terrible’, but no. 1 in the PIF ATP ranking the sinner was measured more in his assessment.
“No, [I wouldn’t want one myself]But to be honest, I think everything suits him, “Sinner said on Tuesday after he raced by Vit Kopriva 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 in his New York opener. “It grows very fast, so it will all be aligned in two days. But it fits him. Even that’s how it looks good. Even if he has longer hair, it fits.”
With Sinner and Alcaraz both safe in the second round, the potential remains for a third consecutive grand finale between the couple alive at Flushing Meadows. Their only earlier collision at the US Open came in 2022, when Alcaraz Match Points saved to prevail in a quarter -final thriller of five set that dramatically escalated the hype around their rivalry.
“Three years ago I felt that we got to know each other clearly and in different ways, but we also did not know exactly what we could expect in the future,” Sinner said, when he was asked how he now thinks about that 2022 meeting. “It’s the same now … I feel that when we were very, very young, it was a kind of match where you just go on the field and just hit. Now I feel that we have to prepare tactically, we also have to prepare it emotionally and mentally.
“It’s all different, because in the past three years we have confronted each other many times, and every game we play it is different, if we look at the tactical side. So we make adjustments. But it was certainly an important match to see that our peak is also very interesting to see from outside. It was certainly one of the most important competitions, even when we were very young.”
The road to a repeat begins
Defender @Janniks Moves past Kopriva in the first round of the #Usopen @Usopen pic.twitter.com/WQQEAMUQWE
– ATP Tour (@atptour) August 26, 2025
Alcaraz currently has a 9-5 Lexus ATP Head2head series ahead against Sinner, but the Italian will not quickly concentrate on reducing that shortage. He will have to win five more games before a potential matchup with Alcaraz, and after beating Kopriva he also gave some insight into how he developed a Grand Slam -for the past.
“I used to practice two hours on days off, in court,” said Sinner, who is four -time big champion. “Now I understand that if you feel the ball and everything, it is better to rest, to have as much energy as possible than for the next day before the competition, so that you are not empty.
“All these things, whether you have a physio in the hotel or here, how much time you want to spend on location here or you want to leave as quickly as possible. I learned that I just come to work and then leave here, because it can sometimes be very long. So I don’t learn everything and I am not perfect, but I learn.”
Sinner’s second round opponent in New York will be Alexei Pophin. The powerful Aussie, which Novak Djokovic made up a year ago in the third round, won his only earlier meeting at Tour level with Sinner on the Madrid Klei in 2021.
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