has claimed his rivalry with is bringing new fans to tennis. But the Spaniard superstar admitted his contests with the Italian world No.1 cannot yet be compared to the battles between the Big Three - or Bjorn Borg against .

The and champion beat the world No.1 for a fourth consecutive time last weekend to claim the Rome Masters title for the first time. He now leads their head-to-head 7-4. But the top two players are again on collision course at the French Open, which starts on Sunday.

Asked about his Sinner rivalry compared with others in tennis history, Alcaraz said: "Well, I'm not gonna put myself or the great rivalry that I have with Jannik at some level that those legends. But I think for the people, for the tennis fans, I think it's great to have a matchup from some players that made them excited about watching that match.

"It was Borg-McEnroe, Rafa [Nadal]-Roger [Federer] or [Novak] Djokovic, the big three against each other. Right now I think the people are excited every time that I'm facing Jannik. Our matches I think are really high quality tennis. I think for the people and probably the people who don't like watching tennis, I think it is something or a match that because of that has started to watch tennis.

"Let's see in the future how it's gonna be. Right now for sure I'm not going to put ourselves into that table of rivalries, but I think people are excited about watching our matches."

Alcaraz won his first title here last year by beating Alexander Zverev in five sets to become the youngest ever player - at the age of 21 years and 21 days - to win Major titles on three different surfaces.

"It feels great to be back here in Paris, in Roland Garros," he said. "It reminds me a lot from last year, living again that feeling that I had last year. It's great, having the practices here.

So I'm just trying to get, you know, ready as soon as possible and to have a great level to start the tournament."

Alcaraz who is now ranked No.62. "Honestly, I'm really excited about facing Nishikori for the first time," he said. "I watched him play a lot when I was young. I was really happy when he came back again on tour. I know that he has been struggling physically the last year, you know, a lot of injuries that kept him away from playing for a bit. Yeah, I just excited. I know when he play good tennis, really tough to beat. So I have to be ready for that, for the first round. Yeah, I'm excited to play against a legend like Nishikori."

Roland Garros now stages night matches from the opening Sunday - and the second men's semi-final will be an evening session for the first time on June 6.

"Honestly, I prefer to play during the day because I don't really like the cold, honestly," Alcaraz smiled. "And obviously when you finish, you finish the match much early, to have a lot of things to do after the match, which is great.

"During the night sessions when you finish, everything is super late, treatment, having dinner, and then probably you go to bed 2:00, 3:00 a.m., which is super late.

"I don't know how strong my preference is. I just give them my feedback what I like to play, and obviously they decide. There are a lot of players who give the tournament the preference, and they have to have a balance to the players. I know that I will play at night some matches, and I have to be ready for that, but I think everyone wants to play during the day."