Inspired by Nadal, Cahill, respect abounds in Alcaraz-Sinner rivalry

Victory speeches made by athletes shortly after great wins range from the anodyne to the disarmingly sincere, and there’s no doubt about which category Jannik Sinner’s words fell into following his win in the recent ATP Finals over Carlos Alcaraz.

“If another player than me (is going to win), I always choose you,” Sinner said calmly, glancing toward his beaten rival. “You really deserve it [success]. You are definitely a player I look up to. You give me a lot of motivation, I need this for every practice session with a big purpose [to keep up with you].”

Never mind that mere days earlier, Alcaraz had destroyed Sinner’s hopes for finishing the year as the No. 1 ranked player, claiming the title for himself. Forget that Alcaraz had prevailed over his 24-year old rival last previous meeting, the US Open final. Instead of false humility, macho posturing, or bittersweet wise cracks, Sinner showered Alcaraz with praise. Any more heartfelt and Sinner would have had to write Alcaraz a poem.

It takes two to keep a scene like that from appearing mawkish or even patronizing, and Alcaraz did his part. Having lavished similar praise on Sinner moments earlier, the Spaniard, aged 22, stood there beaming as Sinner spoke. If you didn’t know the outcome it would have been hard to tell the winner from the loser, guaranteeing the scene a place in the annals of good sportsmanship.

“Both of these guys are quite incredible with what they are doing and how they are handling themselves,” Darren Cahill, who’s been a co-coach of Sinner since July of 2022, wrote to me in an email after returning home for a few weeks off. “They are both fiercely competitive but they are also showing that you can exist in the same space with a great friendly respect for each other. I don’t really think they treat each other any differently to the way they treat everyone else, and that’s also important.”

A number of factors helped advance the resurgence of sportsmanship in these fraught and hectic times. After all, Sincaraz both grew up in stable families, enthralled by the heroics of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal—champions and friends who redefined the meaning of rivalry in our time.

Alcaraz was a de facto protege of Nadal in many of the ways that really count. Sinner had no comparable countryman to provide what you might call a moral (with a small “m”) education. What he did have as he evolved into a Grand Slam champion, though, is Cahill.

There’s a through-line in the education of Jannik Sinner that runs from Cahill all the way back to the great Australian players of yore, icons like Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, and John Newcombe.

Those men were celebrated for their sportsmanship and obvious camaraderie as well as their Grand Slam achievements. They were formidable role models for all Aussies.

Cahill’s father John, now 85-years old, is a legend in Aussie Rules football. He was renowned for his sportsmanship as well as his hard-nosed play in one of the most physical of all sports. Darren himself was a solid if injury-impaired player for a decade ending in 1995. After last Sunday’s match, Sinner spoke about the shaping influence Cahill has had on him.

“We had this conversation a bit with Darren,” Sinner told the media, “He used to play back in the day. The players used to go to dinner together because the teams were not as big. It was maybe just a player plus one. [That way] you tend to be a bit more together. You open up yourself. You tell stories in the locker room.”

Sinner believes the atmosphere is becoming a little more like that these days on the tour. Like most players, he gravitates to his Italian compatriots, but he also counts Jack Draper and Reilly Opelka among his closer friends, the guys with whom he “speaks a bit in different ways.” Sinner’s collegial relationship with Alcaraz must have an impact on the overall tone in the locker room, but it isn’t like they are pouring their hearts out to each other in nightly rap sessions.

“He (Carlos) has great friends, and I do too,” Sinner said, conceding that his relationship with Alcaraz is “a bit different” because of the boundaries imposed by their professional rivalry. Nonetheless, he said, “We do respect each other in a very healthy way. . .It’s a good harmony.”

Cliff Drysdale, recently retired as an ESPN analyst, was part of that pioneering generation of great sportsmen. He doesn’t believe that the fraternal nature of the tour in the 1950s and 60s can—or should be—revived. But Drysdale does see something a little different about Sinner that makes him stand out among his peers, something he calls a “thoughtfulness quotient.”

For Cahill, that thoughtfulness is expressed as “self-awareness” as well as by one of his foundational virtues, the “respect” he shows for others. It is the default setting for how he sees people, although it is often disabled in others by fame and fortune. Having been weaned on Nadal’s humility and respect for others, Alcaraz also knows the value of respect.

“Everyone is trying to accomplish the same things in tennis,” Cahill said. “Respecting the person on the other side of the court, those in the locker-room, and everyone that works in tennis only makes the journey that much easier, and more enjoyable.”

All this may lead you to wonder if the secret sauce in the out-and-out dominance of the field by Sinner and Alcaraz is this in-common ability to keep the sport, and their role in it, in perspective. The cliche reminds us, “It’s lonely at the top.” The relationship between Sinner and Alcaraz suggests that maybe it’s a little less lonely when you’ve got a friend up there with you.