Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner share private plane to Shanghai after Beijing epic

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz and their teams boarded the same private plane from Beijing to Shanghai, a flight length shorter than their epic three-set battle in the ATP 500 final just hours before.

It’s one thing to board the same 737 to the next tournament; it’s another thing altogether to share a charter flight with your biggest rival after leaving it all on the line for an ATP 500 title. But once again, the two stars of the current generation of men's tennis prove that their respect for each other on and off the court is to the highest degree.

Sinner's coach, Simone Vagnozzi, shared the snap of 2024's Grand Slam champions traveling to the penultimate ATP Masters 1000 event of the season in style to his Instagram account.

Alcaraz and Sinner met for the third time this year on Wednesday for the Beijing title, and in their first meeting in a final since 2022, delivered a showstopping three-and-a-half-hour match for the ages.

From 3-0 down in the final-set tiebreak, Alcaraz found a level Sinner couldn’t reach, claiming the title with a final score of 6-7(6), 6-4, 7-6(3). He earned the trophy, a ranking boost back to world No. 2, and a continued domination of Top 5 players this year.

Half of the Spaniard’s career wins over the Italian were won in 2024, and he currently leads their head-to-head 6-4.

The two could meet again in Shanghai, but this time in the semifinals as the No. 1 and No. 3 seeds. Firstly, they have to get through Japan’s Taro Daniel and China’s Shang Juncheng, who just won his maiden ATP singles title two weeks ago in Chengdu.

And even after disembarking, the two couldn't stay apart for long: On Thursday, the pair again teamed up, this time for a clinic put on by their mututal sponsor, Nike, with local kids.

"It's a weird thing, but I think tennis is different than other sports because of it," Alcaraz said of their shared commute. "We are fighting against each other, three-hour match, really close, he could win, in the end I got the win, and then two hours later, we are in the same plane, having some laughs, making jokes, talking about life, and we're acting like nothing happened before."