Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have pretty much owned men’s tennis for the past two years. But tennis legend Justine Henin thinks the Spanish superstar still has some serious work to do when it comes to playing indoors.
And she’s got a point.
After that shocking loss to David Goffin at the 2025 Miami Open, Alcaraz went on an absolutely incredible tear. He reached nine straight ATP finals, winning seven of them.
| Name | Age | Points | Stats 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlos Alcaraz | 22 | 68,791 | 25 - 5 |
His only losses during that amazing run? The 2025 Barcelona Open and Wimbledon.
But then everything came crashing down at the 2025 Paris Masters – an indoor tournament. Cameron Norrie took him down in three sets, and it wasn’t pretty. Alcaraz made error after error, which was pretty surprising considering how well he’d been playing since the clay season.
Here’s the thing though – if Alcaraz was going to have a bad day, an indoor hard court was the most likely place for it to happen.
He’s always struggled more in those conditions than anywhere else. Want proof? He’s never even reached the semifinals at the Paris Masters.
The six-time Grand Slam champion seemed way more confident about playing in slower conditions this year. Last year, he’d complained about how fast the courts were. But this time around, he didn’t win a single match indoors.
That’s gotta sting.
Henin sees the potential but knows there’s work to do
Henin talked about Alcaraz’s indoor struggles with Eurosport France. The former world No. 1 thinks he’s got what it takes to succeed at the 2025 ATP Finals (which is always played indoors), but she’s not sugarcoating the challenge ahead.
"I think there are still some questions for Alcaraz in indoor conditions, even though he seems to have a lot of potential to perform well in those conditions. There’s no way around it, it’s still a hurdle to overcome."
She’s also worried about the timing. It’s late in the season, and even though Alcaraz has had some rest, the pressure’s really on.
"He’ll have to manage the fatigue from the whole season, the pressure of the Masters. It’s a tournament where he’s never been able to shine as he would have liked, knowing that Sinner will arrive in top form."
And that’s the real kicker – Sinner is absolutely dominant indoors.
Sinner’s indoor dominance is pretty scary
Sinner starts as the clear favorite for the ATP Finals, and it’s not hard to see why. He won last year’s tournament, it’s being held on home soil in Turin, and he’s been the best indoor hard-court player in the world for years now.
He just won that recent tournament in Paris too.
But here’s what really tells the story: Sinner beat Alcaraz in both the 2024 and 2025 Six Kings Slam finals on indoor hard courts. Sure, those were exhibitions, but still – that’s a pretty stark contrast to Alcaraz winning seven of his last eight matches against the Italian when they play outdoors.
The surface really does make that much difference.
Whether Novak Djokovic will play at the ATP Finals is uncertain
Things got interesting when Angelo Binaghi, the Italian Tennis Federation chief, said Djokovic would definitely show up at the 2025 ATP Finals. Fans got excited – after all, the 24-time Grand Slam champion skipped last year to rest up for the Australian Open.
But Djokovic shut that down real quick.
The very next day, he basically said Binaghi was talking nonsense. Djokovic made it clear he hasn’t decided whether to compete in Turin and that he and his team will make the call after the Athens Open wraps up.
If Djokovic pulls out, Lorenzo Musetti and Felix Auger-Aliassime would get the call-up to the year-end championships.
Right now, nobody knows for sure who’s actually going to show up. But one thing’s certain – if Alcaraz wants to prove he belongs with the very best indoors, this is his chance to finally break through that barrier.
