Carlos Alcaraz’s crushing 7-6(5) 6-1 victory over home favourite Jannik Sinner in Rome makes him odds-on favourite to win the upcoming French Open
The Spaniard saved two set points when down 6-5, 15-40 in the first set before winning it on a tie breaker 7-6 (5) and cruising through the second set 6-1.
The Italian’s last loss to Alcaraz, a third-set tiebreaker was at the China Open.
Alcaraz leads the career series against Sinner 7-4, having won four straight head-to-heads.
Alcaraz took just one-hour and 43-minutes to make him the fifth man in history to win all three of the clay-court Masters 1000 tournaments, and prevent Sinner the from becoming the first male Italian champion in Rome since Adriano Panatta almost 50 years ago
On court afterwards Alcaraz said “I’m just really happy to get my first Rome [title], hopefully it’s not going to be the last one,”
“The first thing I want to say is that I’m just really happy to see Jannik back at this amazing level. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for him coming back after three months and making the final of a Masters 1000 in his first tournament [back]. It’s something insane, so I have to congratulate him.
“I’m proud of myself, with the way I approached the match mentally. Tactically, I think I played pretty well from the first point until the last one. I didn’t do a rollercoaster … I maintained my good level throughout the whole match, so I’m really proud about everything I did today.”
Alcaraz was also the first player to beat Sinner in straight sets since 2023
Main photo:-Carlos Alcaraz with Rome Masters trophy – by ISF Ltd
