Carlos Alcaraz ‘really happy' after battling Jannik Sinner for French Open glory

The Herald Scotland

3 days ago

It was the first time in his career that Alcaraz had overturned a two-set deficit as he claimed his fifth major crown at exactly the same age as his idol Rafael Nadal did, aged 22 years, one month and three days old.
Alcaraz has now won all five grand slam finals he has played – and this was the first to be played between two players born this century.
It was also the first grand slam final meeting of the two young superstars of men's tennis, the best players on the planet, who have now shared the last six major titles.
And it is one that will go down as a cast-iron classic, a final for the ages, a high-quality, no-holds barred box office smash which finished 4-6 6-7 (4) 6-4 7-6 (3) 6-4 (10-2) to the man from Murcia.
Alcaraz said: 'This one was the most exciting match that I've played so far, without a doubt.
'I think the match had everything, really good moments, really bad moments. I'm just really, really happy. I'm proud about how I deal with everything today.
'I mean, it wasn't easy. The first match that I came back from two sets to love down. I think it was in a better occasion to do it in the final of a grand slam.'
Italian Sinner, on a 20-match winning streak at the slams, looked certain to add the French title to his US and Australian Open crowns when he forged two sets ahead.
He had lost his previous four matches against Alcaraz – the most recent in the Rome final last month, his first tournament after serving a three-month doping ban.
Some loose hitting from Alcaraz gave Sinner a break in the first game of the third, but perhaps being short of matches after his enforced absence was beginning to tell as last year's winner clawed back the deficit to force a fourth.
That ended a run of 31 consecutive sets won by Sinner at grand slam tournaments, stretching back to the Australian Open fourth round.
Alcaraz has wriggled out of some scrapes in big matches before, but none tighter than finding himself facing three championship points on his own serve.
But he gathered himself on the baseline, took a deep breath, and served nervelessly, saving all three before breaking back to force a tie-break, and subsequently a decider.
Sinner has never before won a match lasting longer than four hours – mainly because rarely has to – but he was guzzling the pickle juice at the changeover to try and find more energy.
But Alcaraz, having clinched an early break, served for the set – only for Sinner to somehow chase down an outrageous drop shot to level a roller-coaster match again.
A 10-point tie-break was needed to separate them, an early-evening shoot-out to decide the champion, and by now Alcaraz had his eye in.
Jannik Sinner had three championship points (Thibault Camus/AP)
A glorious winner, a drop-shot and volley and some wayward swats from Sinner helped him race ahead and a final, spectacular forehand winner sealed an unbelievable victory.
Sinner said: 'Of course, I'm happy to deliver this kind of level, and happy about the tournament still. But obviously, this one hurts.
'There's not so much to talk right now. But again, I'm happy how we are trying to improve every day and trying to put myself in these kind of positions.
'It's a very high-level match, that's for sure. So I'm happy to be part of this. But yeah, the final result hurts.'