Going into the final at Wimbledon, it looked like Carlos Alcaraz would win it again for a third straight.
But he could not beat Jannik Sinner, as the Italian played amazing, smashing his forehand, his backhand and serving, too. Yes, the Spaniard had beaten him five matches in a row, including at Roland Garros twice. Yet this time, Sinner changed it a little bit when he played more patiently. Anytime he had a chance to sprint, he decided he could touch the lines. He beat Alcaraz 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 and was totally composed.
“It’s mostly emotional, because I had a very tough loss in Paris,” Sinner said. “But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how you win or how you lose at important tournaments, you just have to understand what you did wrong and try to work on that, and that’s exactly what we did.
“We tried to accept the loss and just kept working. This is for sure one of the reasons I am holding this trophy here. I am just so grateful that I am healthy and have great people around me, and holding this trophy means a lot.”
Now the “new” rivalry is really there, at the Grand Slams and other tournaments. Still, Alcaraz beat Sinner eight times and Sinner has four wins.
Over the past three years, the two players became much better with their serves, their returns and at the net. They can be patient in the backcourts and also hit it very deep with spin, hard drives or soft drop shots.
Alcaraz certainly had a chance to go into the fabulous fifth, but he finally grew frustrated in the fourth set, when he went for his shots too early.
“I think a lot of credit needs to go to his coach Darren Cahill. That dude can coach,” said John Isner , the former top 10 player. “He admitted that something that they did work on a lot was going forward, coming in to the net more and trying to finish points at the net when they first started working. Two or three years ago when they first started doing it he didn’t look as comfortable. But he looked pretty comfortable [here]. Maybe it’s not the favorite part of his game but he looks pretty comfortable going forward. We also talked about how good he is from the back of the court, especially in that match against Ben [Shelton], when they essentially got into a baseline game and neutral ball rallies, Ben didn’t really have any chance. Ben is playing great from the baseline and Carlos even said during the match he was saying, ‘he is much better than me on the baseline, he is playing much better than me’. Sinner right now from the back of the court, you have to say, there is nobody better in the world. That is the reason why he is No. 1 in the world. It’s him, Novak [Djokovic] and Carlos, the three best players from the back of the court, but I think Sinner might be separating himself a little bit.”
Oh, really? Alcaraz will go to practice even more, to improve and volley, too. Just like all the great players, month after month, they will think about it a lot.
Coming up in Canada, Cincinnati, and the US Open, the No. 1 and No. 2 will go deep. We could see them meet in a third straight Slam final.