World No. 2 Jannik Sinner has the chance to complete a three-peat of titles at the Australian Open, doubles specialist Todd Woodbridge believes, ahead of the year’s first slam beginning at Melbourne Park on January 18.
World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz has six major titles to his credit, two more than Sinner, but the Spaniard has yet to hold aloft the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup. In fact,
the 22-year-old has never gone beyond the quarter-finals in Melbourne.
“Well, I’m going to stick with a three-peat for Sinner. His year was obviously brilliant and so was Carlos’s. But I look at the back end of the year and how their preparation was, the ability to maybe recharge, the ability to have that pre-season to get ready for the Australian Open. The court surface, as we’ve seen the last couple of years, really suits Sinner.
“It’s a comfortable scenario for him. So between the two, I’m going to go for Sinner,” Woodbridge said during a virtual interaction.
Sinner won the ATP Finals in November, but Alcaraz held on to the top ranking.
Asked whether the split between Alcaraz and his long-time coach Juan Carlos Ferrero would affect his game in Melbourne, the Australian former world No. 1 doubles player said: “He’s got to make some adjustments. It may be difficult for Alcaraz because Ferrero will not be in the corner anymore. But in sport it’s inevitable that there are going to be changes.
“However, this was very unexpected, and I think it’s going to make the start of the season more challenging
for Alcaraz.”
Asked what makes the Alcaraz-Sinner rivalry so compelling, he said: “It is the intensity… The two have increased the level of tennis to something I didn’t think was possible for their age.
“And so early in their rivalry, they are playing at a level that we only saw between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and then Novak Djokovic came into the mix.
Alcaraz and Sinner have set the bar high for this generation of their peers, their own age bracket.”
Asked if there were others beyond the top two who might catch the eye at the Australian Open, he said: “Well, I’m very much excited about what Joao Fonseca can do. You’ve also got a few guys that we know can go deep into a major, like Casper Rudd and Taylor Fritz.”
The ATP’s extreme heat rule from the 2026 season will allow players on the men’s tour to take a 10-minute cooling break during best-of-three sets. The Australian Open has allowed heat-induced breaks for some time now.
Asked if he thought the ATP was slow to catch up and think about the safety of the players, he said: “I think for best-of-three sets most of the players are fit enough to get through that. “I think heat rules are important at a certain level. The Australian Open uses the heat and the wet bulb for humidity.”
The Australian Open
will be broadcast live on Sony Sports Network from January 18
