Jannik Sinner admits his marathon loss to Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open will ‘hurt’ for a while after being on the brink of booking a place in his first Grand Slam semi-final.
The world No.13 had a match point in the fourth set of the titanic encounter that lasted five hours and 15 minutes. Making it the second-longest match to have ever been played at the tournament, as well as the latest to finish at 2:50 am. However, Sinner was unable to convert and ended up losing four games in a row. Then in the decider, he failed to capitalize on an early break in his favour as Alcaraz went on to clinch victory.
“I had some tough losses, for sure. This is in the top list,” said Sinner.
“I think this one will hurt for quite a while. But when I wake up, I will try to somehow take only the positives.
“But it’s tough, for sure. Maybe next time I can win this.”
Sinner, who has beaten Alcaraz in their two previous meetings earlier this season, can take some comfort in the quality of his latest performance during what has been a mixed US Open run for him. He has dropped at least one set in four out of five matches played at the tournament.
“The first week here I didn’t play my best tennis, for sure,” he reflected.
“But today I raised it because he’s the kind of player who makes you raise the level.”
The 21-year-old has reached the quarter-finals at three out of the four Grand Slam tournaments this season for the first time in his career. At the Australian Open, he was defeated by Stefanos Tsaitsipas before losing to Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon. He has also previously reached the quarter-finals of the French Open back in 2020 on what was his debut.
Sinner says he will speak to his team about what went wrong in his latest match before switching his attention to the upcoming Davis Cup competition. Italy will play Sweden, Croatia and Argentina on home territory.
“I will next play in the Davis Cup. Before I want to practice again in the best possible way, trying to improve. Maybe next time I can win,” he said.
“This kind of level was very high for sure. It was a good match.”
