Sawt Falasteen - Alcaraz thriving on Sinner rivalry heading into Australian Open

The 21-year-old clinched both Roland-Garros and Wimbledon last year and is preparing to take Melbourne Park by storm and lift the Australian Open to complete a career Grand Slam of all four majors.

With the retirements of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic in his twilight years, world number three Alcaraz's rivalry with 23-year-old Sinner has taken over at the summit of the game.

"When I'm facing him, I just know that I have to play my best if I want to win. That's it. Probably if I have a bad day against Jannik, it's 99 percent that you're going to lose," said the Spaniard.

"That's what is in my mind every time that I'm going to play against him.

"The good thing for me is when I'm seeing him winning titles, when I'm seeing him in the top of the ranking, it forces me to practise even harder every day," he added.

"In the practice, I'm just thinking the things that I have to improve to play against him.

"That I think is great for me, having him, have such a great rivalry so far, just to give the best of me every day."

Despite Alcaraz and Sinner becoming the Grand Slam kings by sharing the four major titles last year, the Italian raced away as world number one due to his greater consistency through the season.

Alcaraz has tweaked his serve, and has a lighter racquet, in a bid to up his game this year, knowing he needs to play better for longer.

"After the US Open for me is kind of difficult to stay at a high level. I mean, is kind of when I'm tired, I've played a lot of tournaments, a lot of time outside home," he said.

"So for me is difficult, that part of the year. Last year I did much better than 2023. So hopefully this year is going to be better."

While ousting Sinner as top dog remains a key goal, winning more Slams is his focus.

"For me the goal is try to win Grand Slams, Masters 1000s. That's for me the most important tournaments of the world," he said.

"Obviously the ranking is up there in the goals, as well, trying to get as close as I can to Jannik or try to pass (world number two Alexander) Zverev as well.

"But mainly for me it is Grand Slams, try to win as many Grand Slams as I can. That's my main goal."

Q.Bulbul--SF-PST