After eight and a half hours of breathless cross-channel duelling, Carlos Alcaraz ran out of miracles. Jannik Sinner had the trophy within reach in Paris but it was snatched away; 35 days later in London the world No1 seized the Wimbledon title and this time his grasp did not waver.
The Italian won his first Wimbledon title, inflicting Alcaraz’s first ever defeat in a Grand Slam final and ending the Spaniard’s run of five straight victories in their personal duel.
A low-key men’s event has felt like a prelude to the inevitability of this final. We came expecting a sequel to the five and a half hour French Open final, in which Alcaraz saved three match points to win. This match did not stack up for drama – the standard was extraordinarily high of course – and that was down to the relentless brilliance of Sinner.
Aside from a four-game flash of genius from Alcaraz to go from 2-4 to 6-4 and take the opening set, Sinner was a cut above, winning 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
These two are the first to contest finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same year since Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in 2008, but in styles this matchup owes more to Federer vs Novak Djokovic.
Alcaraz has Federer’s graceful footwork and wondrous hand skills, while Sinner is souped-up version of Djokovic – the freakish flexibility, the endless precision, the expertise on return of serve. As we saw in his destruction of the 38-year-old in the semi-finals, Sinner is a carbon copy of Djokovic: except he does everything faster and harder.
Jannik Sinner won the Wimbledon title for the first time as he overcame Carlos Alcaraz
Sinner managed to get the better of Alcaraz with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory
Alcaraz had won the past two editions of Wimbledon but he was beaten on this occasion
And the way this played out was similar to those three finals in which Djokovic got the better of Federer. Alcaraz creativity was smothered by the depth and accuracy of the Sinner groundstrokes.
Alcaraz was looking ragged by the end. The man of limitless ingenuity had run out of ideas.
This was the result this rivalry needed. Had Alcaraz won a sixth straight match, taking a 9-4 head-to-head lead, this would have felt like a rivalry in name only.
Sinner is 4-5 down in their personal Grand Slam contest and will be a favourite in the hard court Slams in New York and Melbourne to come.
What a rivalry this is turning out to be, and the players’ choice of warm-up court offered a neat illustration of their contrasting personalities. Sinner was on the Aorangi practice courts away from prying eyes; Alcaraz was at the epicentre of Wimbledon on a court 14 which was absolutely packed with fans.
Alcaraz is a man of the people, partying in Ibiza after winning the French Open and playing golf on his days off here at Wimbledon. Sinner is all business. A stone-cold killer. The unsmiling assassin.
As the man who had won their last five meetings and the last two titles in a row here, Alcaraz ought to have been the more relaxed competitor; the onus ought to have been on Sinner to step up.
In reality it was the reverse: it felt like Alcaraz was over-pressing the whole match. He landed just 53 per cent of his first serves, pushing for more speed than was comfortable: he twice hit the fastest serve of his career, at 139 and then 140mph. He hit eight double faults, too. If all this was down to a fear of the Sinner return then that fear was well justified.
It felt like Alcaraz was over-pressing the whole match – he landed just 53 per cent of his first serves
This was the result that this rivalry needed, with Sinner showing what he is capable of
With this performance, Sinner confirmed himself as the heir to Djokovic as the greatest returner in the world.
Early on Sinner was out-Carlosing Alcaraz. He won four of his first five net points and wove a brilliant drop-shot-volley combination.
At 4-2 ahead Sinner had Alcaraz pinned back with his relentless depth; it is tough to reach for your box of tricks when your hands are up fending off blows.
But Alcaraz flicked a switch and entered a state of Nirvana.
Off a net cord he dummied to drop shot then slid the ball deep instead, following it up with a backhand volley dinked inches from the net.
As Sinner served for the sethe was dumped on his backside, slipping after being wrong-footed by the first Alcaraz drop shot of the match. That gave Alcaraz a set point, and after a missed return Sinner gifted him another with a double fault.
On set point Alcaraz engaged god mode. Sinner lasered what looked like a certain forehand winner down the line but Alcaraz launches himself to his left and hacks a backhand, skimming low for a winner. He held a finger to his ear, urging the crowd on.
Alcaraz began the second set with a double fault and was broken.
Sinner confirmed himself as the heir to Djokovic as the greatest returner in the world
After losing to Alcaraz in the French Open final, Sinner showed great quality to win this time
Sinner held for 2-0, saving break point with an extremely rare ‘C’mon’ and celebrating the hold with a big fist pump – he usually restricts himself to a shake of the racket in the direction of his team.
Alcaraz’s concentration was wavering. He went for a couple of over-elaborate drop shots, some injudicious net approaches.
Just as in the first set, the second was won with a sublime rally. Sinner skated out to his backhand side at full stretch then hurtled the other way and setting off on a slide, whipping a forehand cross court for a winner.
Sinner and coach Darren Cahill focussed in their grass-court training camp on developing a slide – an ability upon which Novak Djokovic had a monopoly on this surface. That work has transformed his movement on the lawns and that shot was a prime example – he moved as if on the clay of Roland Garros.
As Sinner moved 3-1 ahead in the fourth set, the question was whether Alcaraz could pull a Paris again, and whether Sinner’s physiological wounds from that match – not so much scar tissue as an open sore – would affect him.
When Alcaraz held to keep it to 4-3 the crowd came alive, sensing something. And in his next service game Sinner played three poor points to go 15-40 down – my word, was it really happening again?
Sinner held firm. At 5-4 he went 40-0 up, three match points – just like in Paris. That was on the Alcaraz serve though and Sinner had the balls in hand this time, slamming down a big serve on his second match points. He stood with legs wide and arms outstretched: a colossal who bestrides the tennis world.
