Epic final: Carlos Alcaraz wrestles Jannik Sinner down

After his title defense in the longest finale in French Open story, Carlos Alcaraz (E/World Ranking position: 2) dropped completely invalidated on the red ash. Then he hugged the beaten Jannik Sinner (I/1) and ran to his team in the stands.

Spain’s tennis star was in a high-class and dramatic final Sinner with 4: 6, 6: 7, 6: 4, 7: 6, 7: 6 and celebrated the fifth Grand Slam title of his career.

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. 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.

Treatment brings Alcaraz out of rhythm

Sinner and Alcaraz showed in a spectacular finale from the first rally, why they are currently the two best tennis players in the world. They did not give themselves anything on the Court Philippe-Chatrier sold out with 15,000 spectators, showed world-class strokes 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.

A while later, Alcaraz made the first sign and took the service to 3: 2. But Sinner stayed cool and immediately managed the rebreak. 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 secondary ranking of the world ranking immediately lost its service in the second round, from then on desperately ran behind. 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.

First sentence 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 ‘. 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 Rebreak promptly succeeded in the Spaniard, with his hand on his ear he asked the audience for more support. 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 Sinner’s 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

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 no longer 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.