How Jannik Sinner Defeated Carlos Alcaraz at Monte-Carlo to Regain World No. 1 Ranking

The first 2026 edition of the Jannik Sinner–Carlos Alcaraz rivalry is officially complete as the 24-year-old Italian overcame a tough obstacle, beating Alcaraz on clay.

The match was full of close points and deuces—the two stars were once again pretty evenly matched on Sunday. Sinner captured the first set in a tiebreak, and then he charged back and won five games in a row in the second set to officially win the Monte-Carlo title for the first time in his career over the defending champion. Sinner now has won seven matches out of 17 meetings between these two superstars.

With the win, Sinner will reclaim the world No. 1 ranking from Alcaraz. Sinner most recently held the top position in November, but he was previously world No. 1 for 65 weeks from June 2024 to September 2025 (when Alcaraz won the U.S. Open title). He ends Alcaraz’s streak of 22 weeks at the top of the world rankings.

“It means a lot to me,” Sinner said after the match. “At the same time, the ranking is secondary. I’m very happy to win at least one big trophy on this surface. I haven’t done it before. It means a lot to me.”

Additionally, Sinner’s win streak now moves to 17 matches in a row as he just won titles at Indian Wells and Miami heading into Monte-Carlo. He’s on fire right now, making him a big threat heading into French Open season. Sinner also holds a streak of 22 consecutive wins at ATP 1000 events. He recently became just the fourth men’s player to reach a streak of 20 wins at these tournaments (not surprisingly behind Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic).

Sinner celebrates his win in a couple wild ways

Sinner had plenty of reason to celebrate on Sunday evening after winning the Monte-Carlo title and regaining the world no. 1 ranking. Unfortunately for him (and luckily for us), cameras caught all the unique and wild ways he celebrated the win.

For starters, Sinner joined all the ball boys and girls to celebrate with them. The kids were jumping up and down while standing basically on top of the top men’s tennis player. He can be seen laughing and enjoying the funny situation he found himself in. At one point, he joined in with the chants and shouting. You don’t see every tennis player doing this.

SCENES 🙌🥹@janniksin #RolexMonteCarloMasters pic.twitter.com/n8v82rGcUb
— ATP Tour (@atptour) April 12, 2026

After this celebration, Sinner then took part in a Monte-Carlo Masters tradition: jumping off a high dive into a pool at the Monte Carlo Beach Club. Alcaraz, who won last year’s title, watched his opponent jump from the same place he did last year.

Sinner looked pretty nervous to make the jump. He was probably questioning his life choices at that moment. After some encouragement from the people standing around the pool, Sinner jumped in from the diving board.

Too cute 🤣 pic.twitter.com/mOQteMW4An
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) April 12, 2026

It probably felt pretty good to jump into a pool after battling closely against Alcaraz in the final on Sunday.

Sports Illustrated tracked all the major updates from the final between the world’s top two men’s tennis superstars on Sunday. Take a look at the biggest moments from the match.