Carlos Alcaraz has become the youngest male player in history to reach a third Grand Slam final on a third different surface after staging a valiant fightback against Jannik Sinner at the French Open.
The Spanish third seed found himself trailing early on before battling his way to a 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, victory over a Sinner, who struggled with cramping in his hand and had a leg massage during stages of the marathon clash that lasted more than four hours. He has become the second-youngest player to reach the title match in Roland Garros since 2000. The only person to have reached this stage at a younger age is Rafael Nadal.
“You have to find the joy in suffering,” Alcaraz said of his latest triumph in Paris.
“That’s the key. Even more here on clay at Roland Garros. Long rallies. Four-hour matches. Five sets. You have to fight and suffer. As I talked with my team many times, you have to enjoy suffering.”
Taking to the court for their ninth Tour-level meeting, soon-to-be world No.1 Sinner got off to a dream start by surging to a 4-0 lead without dropping a point behind his serve. Throughout the opener, Alcaraz’s undoing was his unforced errors with most of them coming from his forehand side. Enabling the second seed to seal a 6-2 lead with relative ease despite glimmers of good shotmaking produced by his opponent.
It wasn’t until early on in the second frame that Spanish fans finally had something to cheer about with Alcaraz recovering from losing his serve by breaking a faltering Sinner, whose shot intensity started to lessen, two times in a row en route to levelling the match. Prompting flashbacks to his Wimbledon final against Djokovic last year where he lost a one-sided opening set before clinching the match.
The drama continued with Sinner unexpectedly suffering a problem with his right hand, which was likely due to cramping. Prompting him to undergo some brief treatment early in the third set after coming through a 13-minute service game.
“I saw him struggling a little bit. I was (also) cramping… Jannik as well in the 3rd set. We had to fight.” Alcaraz commented.
“I learned from last year’s match against Djokovic when I was in the same position like today. I know in these momentsyou have to be calm and keep going because the cramp is gonna go away. You have to stay there and fight. It was a little weird in the 3rd set.”
Ironically the scare proved to be a blessing in disguise for Sinner, who also had some minor treatment on his right leg during another changeover. Returning to his heavy hitting and making the most of some mistakes coming from across the court, he snatched the third set by winning five out of six games played.
Sinner gave everything he had but it was only fitting that Alcaraz would stage yet another comeback during the showdown as he orchestrated the crowd to motivate him. Breaking at the very end of the fourth set to force a decider.
Relishing the atmosphere, Alcaraz suddenly became rejuvenated on the court as he blasted the ball towards Sinner and hit a series of impressive winners to close in on victory. He failed to convert his first two match points chance due to some courageous hitting from his nemesis but he prevailed on his third after a Sinner forehand shot landed out.
“The toughest matches I’ve played in my short career have been against Jannik,” he said. “The US Open in 2022.. this one.. that shows the great player that Jannik is. The team he has, and the great work he puts in every day…I hope to play many many more matches like this against Jannik.
This was one of the toughest matches I’ve played for sure.”
Alcaraz has now beaten five top-five players in Grand Slam events so far in his career. In the final, he faces a showdown against either Alexander Zverev or Casper Ruud.
