Sinner: ‘More Questions Will Be Answered On This Surface’

Jannik Sinner completed his set of all six hard-court ATP Masters 1000 titles when he claimed his maiden Indian Wells trophy last month. But the Italian, who completed the ‘Sunshine Double’ by also winning Miami, is still looking for his first ATP Masters 1000 crown on clay.

He hopes that it will come here at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

“I do like to play on clay, but it’s not my favourite surface,” Sinner said during his pre-tournament media conference Saturday. “I do believe I can play some good tennis.

“I haven’t won any [Masters 1000 clay events] yet, but I’ve been close here a couple of times. I can’t predict the future, but it would be nice to win here… It’s a tournament I love to play and I’m happy to be here.”

Sinner held three championship points against Carlos Alcaraz in last year’s Roland Garros final. He also fell to Alcaraz in the 2025 Rome championship match, his only Masters 1000 clay-court final. He reached the Monte-Carlo semi-finals in 2023 and 2024. He has not been beyond the quarter-finals in Madrid.

But the man who has spent 66 weeks atop the PIF ATP Rankings during his career believes a renewed focus on fitness will help him during the gruelling clay-court swing.

In late February he arrived early to the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells to work on his conditioning in the heat. There was immediate payoff with his sixth and then seventh ATP Masters 1000 titles in California and Florida.

“We did a lot of work there and the work we did paid off… I felt the long sessions in the heat in Indian Wells really helped and I didn’t struggle in the U.S. But more questions will be answered on this surface,” Sinner said.

“This is a different surface; we all know it’s more physical. Last year I played some good tennis on this surface, so let’s see what’s going to come out this year.”

Second-seeded Sinner, who has a bye in the first round, awaits the winner of Frenchman Ugo Humbert and 17-year-old French wild card Moise Kouame.

Sinner must reach the semi-finals to have a chance to reclaim World No. 1 from Carlos Alcaraz. If they meet in the final, the championship match will determine which player is No. 1 on Monday, April 13.

With Alcaraz defending more than 4000 points during the clay swing, Sinner has a strong chance of returning to No. 1 at some point before he begins his Wimbledon title defence. But he said that he’s not preoccupied with the battle for No. 1 this coming week.

“I’m aware of the scenarios… but when you’re a top player you aim to win trophies,” he said. “I watch more the Race as that shows you how someone has been playing during the year.”