Jannik Sinner held nothing back as he avenged his Roland Garros heartbreak, rallying past Carlos Alcaraz to capture his first Wimbledon title on Sunday.
Just five weeks after Alcaraz saved three match points in a French Open thriller, the world No. 1 flipped the script on Centre Court – digging deep to outlast his Spanish rival 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in a gritty, three-hour battle.
Sinner, now the first Italian to win a Wimbledon singles crown, delivered a performance brimming with poise and purpose, finishing the job nearly 2 1/2 hours quicker than their marathon in Paris.
“I think this is the part I’m the proudest of because it really has not been easy,” said Sinner, who returned to the tour in May after serving a three-month doping ban.
“I always tried to be honest with me and had the self-talk too – what if, what if? I always tried to accept it. Things can happen.
“I believe if you lose a Grand Slam final that way, it’s much better like this than someone kills you. Then after, you keep going, keep pushing.
“I did a lot of intensity in every practice because I felt like I could play very good. That’s why I also said after Roland Garros that it’s not the time to put me down, because another Grand Slam is coming up, and I did great here.”
The victory puts their rivalry back on a knife’s edge, with the 23-year-old now trailing Alcaraz only by five Slam titles to four and snapping a five-match losing streak against the Spaniard.
It is also Sinner’s first Slam title away from his favored hard courts, while Alcaraz suffered his first major final defeat, unable to summon the same magic that had brought him back from the brink on clay.
A penny for the thoughts, meanwhile, of Grigor Dimitrov, who led Sinner by two sets to love in the fourth round – only for his body to give out.
Australian Darren Cahill, who has coached Sinner for the past three years, said: “We didn’t speak about Roland Garros within 24 hours after the match, because the way he played, the attitude that he had on court, the effort that he gave – it was faultless – and he was just beaten by a better player in the end.
“I think you could see from the first match he played that he wasn’t carrying any baggage from Roland Garros.
“That’s not easy to do. It’s easy for us to say that in words – to put it to one side – but for the player to wipe it away and be able to come here with the mentality that he had is 100 percent credit to him.”
Alcaraz said he expected Sinner to reset quickly and come at him again.
“He didn’t surprise me at all. Champions learn from the losses,” Alcaraz said. “I knew at the beginning that he was going to learn from that final, not going to make the same mistakes. The way he played today, it was really, really high.”
There was an audible buzz around Centre Court as the pair warmed up – the sound of 15,000 people who couldn’t believe their luck at having secured one of the hottest tickets in sports.
Alcaraz fought back from 4-2 down to win the opening set, finishing it with a classic point where he turned defense into attack and somehow scrambled a backhand winner.
But most of the champagne moments came from Sinner, who, at one point, was nearly struck by an errant cork.
After breaking in the opening game, Sinner closed the second set with three outstanding winners. In the third, he stunned the crowd with a tweener drop volley.
Alcaraz was left on the floor as Sinner broke through in the third to lead 5-4, and he had one hand on the trophy after moving further ahead early in the fourth.
The crowd willed Alcaraz to conjure a Paris-style recovery, and the 22-year-old had two chances at 4-3, but this time it was Sinner’s day.
“Today was important not just because it was a Grand Slam final, not just because it was Wimbledon, and not just because Carlos had won the last five matches against him,” Cahill said.
“He needed that win today. Today’s match I think was a match of moments – of just who was going to step up in the big moment and make something happen. At Roland Garros it was Carlos, and today it was Jannik. So we could not be more proud of him.”
Like Sinner five weeks ago, Alcaraz found the positives.
“It’s always a bad feeling losing matches. I think it’s a little bit even worse when you lose in a final,” he said. “Overall, I’m just really proud about everything I’ve done the last four weeks on grass here in London. I left the court with my head really, really, really high because I did everything that I could today.”
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