Alcaraz downs Sinner in five sets to reach Paris final
Howard Fendrich |
Carlos Alcaraz has battled into his first French Open final by beating Jannik Sinner 2-6 6-3 3-6 6-4 6-3, making the 21-year-old from Spain the youngest man to reach a grand slam championship match on three surfaces.
Alcaraz won the US Open in 2022 on hard courts, Wimbledon in 2023 on grass and now will play for the championship on the red clay at Roland Garros on Sunday against either No.4 seed Alexander Zverev or No.7 Casper Ruud.
Alcaraz kept falling behind in Friday’s absorbing affair but kept fighting to turn things around.
Before dealing with some physical issues that required multiple visits from a trainer, an apparently cramping Sinner led by a set and a break at 2-0 in the second. Alcaraz then took five games in a row and evened things.
Alcaraz was also troubled in the third set, flexing his right hand as it began to cramp, and Sinner went up two sets to one.
But Alcaraz never wavered, often using drop shots – sometimes to win points outright, sometimes to set up curling lobs, sometimes to pave the way for slick passing shots.
In the fifth set, Alcaraz moved out front by sliding until he could reach across his body to snap a backhand passing winner for a break point.
A forehand winner — one of his 30 in the match — made it 2-0 at the three-and-a-half hourt mark, earning a yell of “Vamos!” from his coach, 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Soon, it was 3-0, and Alcaraz was on his way.
Both Alcaraz and Sinner are seen as the future of men’s tennis. The present isn’t too shabby, either.
Even though this was not necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing of their nine head-to-head meetings — Sinner now leads 5-4 — and they combined for 102 unforced errors, there were moments of brilliance that accompanied chants of each man’s first name from the Court Philippe Chatrier crowd.
Sinner entered the semi-finals with a 13-0 record in grand slam play in 2024 after winning the Australian Open in January, and he will move up to the No.1 in the ATP rankings for the first time next week despite his semi-final loss.
Sunday’s final will be the first at Roland Garros for 20 years without any of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer.
Djokovic was the defending champion in Paris, but withdrew before the quarter-finals after tearing the meniscus in his right knee and had surgery this week.
AP
