Former world No. 2 Alex Corretja has defended Jannik Sinner amid questions over the Italian's start to the 2026 season. Sinner suffered defeats in his first two tournaments, but Corretja attributes this to positive changes in his game. The world No. 2 is set to compete at Indian Wells this week.
Jannik Sinner, the world No. 2, began 2026 with losses in the Australian Open semi-final to Novak Djokovic in five sets and a Qatar Open quarter-final defeat to Jakub Mensik in three sets. Prior to the Djokovic match, Sinner had won his previous five encounters against the Serb and held a 19-match winning streak at the Australian Open, where he claimed titles in 2024 and 2025. The loss to Mensik marked Sinner's first completed defeat to a player outside the top 10 since June 2025.
With rival Carlos Alcaraz remaining undefeated in 2026, some observers have raised doubts about Sinner's form. However, Alex Corretja, a two-time French Open finalist and former world No. 2, dismissed these concerns in an interview with TNT Sports. Corretja suggested that Sinner's early setbacks stem from deliberate adjustments to his playing style aimed at becoming less predictable.
"I don’t think Sinner is having a hard time finding his best version," Corretja said. "Because I think he’s incorporating new things into his tennis to, as he said, not be so predictable. But that has a period in which you have to adapt, you have to incorporate, maybe with more drop shots, going up a little more to the net, looking for more winners in a different way, varying something, but all that has a toll and I think it’s what Sinner is paying for to be more complete as a player from now on."
Corretja described these changes as a worthwhile investment for Sinner to remain at the elite level. "It is a good investment on his part and I think that’s what he has to do if you want to stay at the top by winning Grand Slam titles, which I’m convinced he will continue to do."
Sinner, a four-time Grand Slam champion, enters Indian Wells as the second seed behind world No. 1 Alcaraz. This Masters 1000 event on hard courts is the only one of its kind that Sinner has yet to win; he lost to Alcaraz in the semi-finals in 2023 and 2024. Suspended for three months in 2025, Sinner missed that year's tournament but returns as a title contender. After a first-round bye, he faces world No. 109 Dalibor Svrcina, who qualified and defeated James Duckworth, with his match scheduled for Friday.
