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Jannik Sinner has responded to Roger Federer after the Swiss icon urged tournament chiefs to change court speeds in the interests of variety. During the Laver Cup, the event he co-founded in 2017, the 44-year-old appeared on Served with Andy Roddick to discuss the characteristics of modern tennis courts. He expressed a desire for playing surfaces to be tweaked to bring in different elements of the game.
Federer also accused tournament chiefs of intentionally managing surface speeds to maximise the chances of Sinner and Alcaraz playing against each other in finals. He explained that on a slow court, a weaker player would need to hit 'extra amazing shots' to beat opponents with a higher skill level. On a quicker court, lower-ranked players could 'blast a few at the right time' and cause upsets.
"I understand the safety net tournament directors see in making the surface slower," said Federer. "For the weaker player, he has to hit extra amazing shots to beat Sinner.
"Whereas if it's quick, he can only maybe blast a few at the right time and he gets past. That's why tournament directors [like] having Sinner and Alcaraz in the finals, it kind of works for the game."
Sinner, who has played Alcaraz in three of the last four Grand Slam finals, was quizzed on Federer's comments ahead of the upcoming China Open and took his opportunity to wade into the debate.
"The hard courts, they are at times very similar," he said. "At times, there are some small changes, a couple of changes. One tournament that comes up a bit is Indian Wells because the ball bounces very high
"It’s a bit different how the ball reacts with the court, but yeah, if not, we have more or less similar game situations on the court. This is how it has been for a long time, like this. I don’t know if there is going to be a change or not.
"I’m just a player who tries to adapt myself in the best possible way. I feel like I’m doing a good job in this, but let’s see what the future can give us in every tournament."
Sinner was beaten by Alcaraz in the final of the US Open and will be hoping to bounce back by winning in China over the coming weeks. He faces Marin Cilic in the first round of the ATP 500 event on Thursday.
"We are working on new things, we are changing a lot of small things that I’m thinking of now," said the Italian. "The amount of mistakes at the moment is for sure a little bit higher, but I hope that this recovers in a very positive way.
"It’s just a question of time. Let’s see how long I take it. I don’t know how much I’m able to do it on the actual match court because one thing is practice and one thing is a match. It’s great to work on something new, then we’ll see how this ends up."
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