By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday March 31, 2023

When Jannik Sinner lost to Carlos Alcaraz two weeks ago at Indian Wells, he knew exactly what to do: meet with his team, figure out what he needed to work on, then put in some hard yards.



“I think I changed a couple of things from Indian Wells to here, which I had to, and they went my way. So I'm happy about that,” he said on Friday night in Miami after edging Alcaraz to reach his second Masters 1009 final.
What exactly did Sinner change? A reporter wanted to know…

“I don't say this,” Sinner said. “But as I said, we changed something.”

Sinner says that it’s common, the way that the pair get inspired by facing each other, and pick up new information each time they play.

“I think also he recognized it, and the next time he's gonna also change something, so I have to be prepared for this. But I'm not gonna say what exactly we changed…”

Sinner likes to keep it close to the vest, in general, but he did dish out some intel, telling reporters that he commenced working on alterations to his game about a day after his semifinal loss to Alcaraz at Indian Wells.

“The day after, we left to come here,” Sinner said. “I had one day off, and then I started to practice. From the first practice session, we tried to improve some things, to mix up the game a little bit better, to prepare for the next possible match against Carlos.”

Both Sinner and Alcaraz have repeatedly talked about the fact that facing the other makes them better players. The Italian’s loss to Alcaraz at Indian Wells was clearly a learning tool for him. He said the aspects of his game that he worked on in preparation for his next match with Alcaraz has made him a better player in general.

He’s 21, a fast learner, and extremely ambitious – we shouldn’t be surprised.

“I think the whole tournament I played till now, it was something good for me, because I tried to put in some new things, and that's all about at the moment and happy about that.,” he said.