'Everyone loves Carlitos': Alcaraz wins hearts and French Open, Sinner plays second fiddle

Time of India

a day ago

Carlos Alcaraz (Pic credit: Roland Garros)
Popular Alcaraz's personality is gregarious, his style electric. In contrast, the quieter Sinner is all cold steel to his audience
The Times of India at Roland Garros:
Carlos Alcaraz was bathed in the brassy cheering of Court Philippe-Chatrier, some 15,000 spectators singing, 'Let's go Carlos, let's go…' When the 22-year-old was trailing, they cried out, 'Carlitooooossss!' and when he thumped or caressed one of 70 winners he hit in the French Open final, 'Vamos Carlos' they exploded.
A deafening chorus of appreciation.
Anyone thinking Alcaraz was the only one in the middle on Roland Garros's red clay would be forgiven, only that he couldn't possibly be playing himself. There was an opponent, Jannik Sinner, the world No. 1.
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When the volume in the stands dropped as players prepared to serve, a weak strain of 'Janeeeek', 'Janeeeek' could be heard from high up in the galleries.
Outside of his box the Italian had very little support, but the box, with Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi leading the applause that no one else heard, had a whole different vibe to it.
To the 23-year-old, it was like the light of a window at home you see from a distance. It was comforting.
Who's that IPL player?
The city of love wanted Alcaraz to win as much as the 22-year-old wanted to. Odell Beckham Jr was on his feet, pointing at his head, urging Alcaraz to stay strong when the scale had tipped dramatically at one stage.
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Undo
Spike Lee took off his hat, applauding the Spaniard's brilliance.
'Paris you were insane for me,' Alcaraz told the crowd. '(In) today's match, you were important.'
Poll
Who do you think has the more captivating personality on the court?
Carlos Alcaraz
Jannik Sinner
Both are equally captivating
Neither has a captivating personality
The Sinner-Alcaraz rivalry, that pits two men born 21 months apart, in Murcia, Spain and Innichen, Italy, is only 12 matches old. But this clash of opposites in personality and play sparks Rafael Nadal-Roger Federer vibes.
Alcaraz's tennis is electric and his personality gregarious while Sinner internalises, and to the audience, he's all steel.
He's the introvert to Alcaraz' extrovert. Sinner can hold back like he did in the fourth set when he had three match points, but Alcaraz will go for it and let the pieces fall where they may.
'My fear is tennis becomes an obligation,' Alcaraz said in the documentary My Way, worrying that the love he feels for the sport would drain if he simply turned up for practice because he had to.
Earlier this year, Sinner said, 'When he's (Alcaraz) winning, I feel my practice sessions are becoming more intense.'
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In 2019, Federer and Nadal met in the Roland Garros semifinals, their 39th meeting and last on clay. When the Swiss superstar entered the court, having stayed away from the clay-court Major for three years, the fans showed how much he had been missed. Nadal followed Federer on court a minute later and the cheering dropped many levels, by then Nadal was Roland Garros' 11-time champion. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's summation of the Federer effect, fits nicely for Alcaraz too.
'Everyone loves Roger,' the Frenchman had said.
Alcaraz, with his dazzling range and daring shot selection that can make him look like a magician one moment and pedestrian the very next, is winning fans and matches.
In the final, where Sinner, with his howitzer ground game, dominated the short rallies clinching 108 to Alcaraz's 97, Alcaraz surprisingly wrapped up a larger chunk of the longer rallies. In the final set tiebreak, he won seven of eight points in rallies of five shots or more.
It was like he was asking a battling Sinner, show me all you've got, and I've got one more, every time. Before Sunday's 5-hr and 29-min encounter, the longest French Open final was four hours and 24 minutes — Mats Wilander versus Guillermo Vilas in 1982.
Nadal's longest final lasted three hours and 49 minutes against Novak Djokovic in 2012. All this was before the final set tie-break came into play.
The Italian — who tested positive twice last March for the banned steroid Clostebol — served a three-month ban this year.
The stain of the drug violation (even though he had been cleared of wrong doing) may have shrunk Sinner's popularity outside of Italy, but crowds have been fair to him for most part.
At different times of the final, one early and the other late, the duo overruled calls for his opponent's serve when they were not in a good position in the match. Alcaraz for a Sinner serve down the tee that was called a fault by a line judge and Sinner for an Alcaraz wide serve even as Eva Asderaki was getting down from her chair.
While the Spaniard's action is doing the rounds on social media, no one is talking about Sinner. Maybe because the chair umpire may have overruled the line judge anyway, or because… to customise Tsonga's words, everyone loves Carlitos.