“It’s Sinner who feels the difference, not me”: Zverev says Alcaraz’s absence changes nothing for the rest of the field
“Jannik is really, really the heavy favourite. Carlos on clay, when he’s healthy, is equal or above him.” Zverev sets the order after his Rome third round win.
Alexander Zverev, Rome 2026 | © Inside / PsNewz
Asked in Rome on Sunday how Carlos Alcaraz’s absence from the clay swing changes the calculus for the other top players, Alexander Zverev, who never won a Slam and lost a French Open final in. 2024, gave an unusual answer: it doesn’t, really, except for one of them.
“I think the biggest difference is probably for Jannik, because he’s now really, really the heavy favourite,” the German world No. 3 said after his straight-sets win over Alexander Blockx (6-1, 6-4) in the third round. “Carlos on a clay court when he’s healthy is equal or even above Jannik in favouritism, just purely on a clay court – especially at Roland-Garros, being a two-time champion there already.”
Zverev is the highest-ranked man left in the bottom half of any draw Sinner doesn’t sit in; on paper, Alcaraz’s withdrawal helps him too. He didn’t take the bait. Asked instead what it changes for his own ambitions, Zverev pulled the focus back onto the work in front of him.
Zverev : “focus on the things that I can control”
“For me, I got to focus on the things that I can control and try to improve again to try to beat Jannik. That’s the important thing. Getting there is also important, right? You can’t talk about someone you might face in the finals before winning the first six matches.”
The message inside the message is clear: Alcaraz’s absence does not, in Zverev’s reading, hand him or anyone else a freer path. It hands the whole tournament to Sinner, already on a five-Masters-1000-titles-in-a-row run, and leaves the rest of the field where it was, chasing him.
The German lost to Sinner in the Madrid final eight days ago and is still looking for his first title of the season. Whatever Alcaraz’s wrist injury changes about Roland-Garros, it does not, on Zverev’s account, change the fundamental hierarchy he and the other contenders are operating inside.
On the match : “much better than I was two days ago”
He was equally measured about who could trouble Sinner from the next generation. “There’s young guys who are playing great tennis. Prizmic is definitely one of them. There are the guys we know about. It will be very interesting between Musetti and Cerundolo, two very good players on the clay court. Last week Blockx was in the semi-finals. He beat everybody, Casper Ruud, Felix (Auger-Aliassime), all the favourites. In tennis you never know. Each week is different. I just focus on the opponents in front of me.”
On the match itself, Zverev beat Blockx 6-1, 6-4 in 74 minutes, the second time in nine days he has dispatched the 21-year-old Belgian in straight sets, after their Madrid semi-final. The German was at his sharpest in a dominant first set, with five more winners (8-3) and four fewer unforced errors (6-10) than his opponent, and produced a stunning drop volley at 4-3 in the second set. It was his 29th match win in Rome, where he is a two-time champion.
“I was much better than I was two days ago,” Zverev said, referring to his opening-round win over Daniel Altmaier. “It was difficult to play pretty tennis from the baseline today because the conditions were not easy, it was very windy.” He next plays the winner of Tommy Paul (No.16) vs Luciano Darderi (No.18).
