Alcaraz wrestles Sinner in Paris
After his title defense in the longest finale in French Open story, Carlos Alcaraz dropped to the red ash. Then he hugged the beaten Jannik Sinner and ran to his team in the stands.
Spain’s tennis star in a high-class and dramatic final was the world ranking listener Jannik Sinner from Italy with 4: 6, 6: 7 (4: 7), 6: 4, 7: 6 (7: 3), 7: 6 (10: 2) and celebrated the fifth Grand slam title of his career. Last year Alcaraz in Paris prevailed in five sets against Alexander Zverev in the final. This year Zverev had already left the quarter -finals.
After his triumphs at the US Open in New York and the Australian Open in Melbourne, Sinner had to surrender for the first time in a Grand Slam final. Alcaraz converted his first match ball in the Stade of Roland Garros after 5:29 hours. In the fourth set, he had already fended off three match balls from Sinner.
Alcaraz is just the sixth player who still wins the title in Paris after a 0-2 set deficit in the final. Sinner, for whom it was only the second tournament after his three-month doping lock, had not lost a single sentence until the final in Paris. He has not yet won a game that lasted more than four hours.
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner deliver spectacular finals
Sinner and Alcaraz showed in a spectacular finale from the first rally, why they are currently the two best tennis players in the world. « Like every sport, tennis needs special rivalries. I think that between Carlos and me could be one, » the Italian had said before the final.
In fact, Sinner and Alcaraz have just hung up the rest. Alexander Zverev as number three in the world currently looks a lot behind the new top duo of the tennis scene. The two are scheduled to succeed the big three to the Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, which has now resigned, and Novak Djokovic, which are still playing.
From the beginning, Sinner and Alcaraz gave nothing on the Court Philippe-Chatrier, sold out with 15,000 spectators, showed world-class beats every minute. The first service of the South Tyrolean lasted twelve minutes, then Sinner took the lead 1-0 after defense against three break balls.
Treatment brings Alcaraz out of rhythm
A while later, Alcaraz made the first sign and took the service to 3: 2. But Sinner stayed cool and immediately managed the re-break. A little later, Alcaraz had to be treated briefly because he had got something in the eye. The game was briefly interrupted at 5: 4 for Sinner, the Spaniard got out of rhythm – and suddenly the Italian won the first set after 62 minutes with 6: 4.
Alcaraz looked a bit perplexed after the sudden loss of the first set. The world ranking second in the second round immediately lost its impact game, from then on desperately ran afterwards. The spectators tried to support the Spaniard with « Carlos, Carlos » response choirs and were therefore successful. Sinner served at the stand of 5: 3 to win the set, but Alcaraz struck again and made the break.
Franch Open final: First set loss for Sinner
Suddenly the Spaniard was full again. Alcaraz clapped his fist, took the audience with them and reached the tiebreak. But Sinner stayed calm and got the second set after 2:11 hours. When Sinner then opened the third round with a break, the endgame expected with such great excitement seemed to be decided early.
With the mute of despair, however, Alcaraz fought against the defeat. The Spaniard promptly succeeded in re-breaking, with his hand on his ear he asked the audience to support more. And the spectators felt like more tennis and push Alcaraz forward.
Sinner now made his first weak phase of the game, Alcaraz pulled away to 5-2 and got sentence number three. It was his first set loss at a Grand Slam tournament since the round of 16 against Holger Rune at the Australian Open. After that, Sinner won 31 sets in series in Melbourne and Paris.
Alcaraz turns the game against Jannik Sinner
Alcaraz now sensed his chance. But Sinner took the lead again and had three match balls at the 5: 3 stand at Alcaraz. But the Spaniard defended all three, afterwards Sinner also took off the service and then clearly won the tie -break.
At the latest now the audience could not be kept, danced completely detached to the song “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond on the stands. Sentence five had to make the decision in this epic finale. And there Alcaraz had the larger strength reserves. Sinner now seemed a bit tired, the lack of match practice because of his doping lock was noticeable. But the Italian got everything out of himself and came back. In the tiebreak, Alcaraz then played even better than before – actually impossible, but true. (dpa)
