ATP
Sinner seals his Alcaraz revenge with Wimbledon title
Jannik Sinner took his Grand Slam revenge on rival Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday, delivering a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 comeback triumph to win his first Wimbledon title five weeks after a painful French Open finals loss.
The Italian playing in his fourth straight final at a major won his second Slam trophy of the season after backing up his 2024 Australian Open title six months ago in Melbourne.
Alcaraz lost his chance for a Wimbledon hat-trick after winning the previous two editions.
Sinner had dropped five consecutive matches in the series with his fellow 22-year-old and now becomes the first Italian to lift the trophy here.
Last month in Paris, Alcaraz rallied from two sets to love down, overhauling Sinner while saving three match points in a five-and a half-hour thriller which meant heartbreak for the loser.
But the emotions were reversed on the grass of SW19.
“It was a tough loss mentally in Paris,” Sinner said, “But at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. We understood what was wrong and we worked on it.
“We accepted the loss, but kept on working – that’s why I’m holding the trophy here today.”
Day 14 Jannik Sinner( ITA) celebrates as he wins Men’s Singles Final beating Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) By Roger Parker
Sinner’s box was filled with his parents and brother which Spain’s king also attended to support his payer.
The winner said that closing out the win is always a challenge.
“In the last game I served really well. In best-of-five every moment can change the match.
“I’m happy I held my nerve.”
Sinner grabbed a break for 3-2 but became undone two games later with a break-back from Alcaraz, with the Spaniard capturing the opening set in 45 minutes as he won four straight games.
The Italian began the second set with a break as he worked to recover. The plan worked to perfection as Sinner squared the sets at one apiece with a running cross-court winner of set point..
Sinner took it in his stride when a champagne cork popped form a bottle and landed on the court as he was set to serve drew a rebuke to the Centre court crowd from the chair.
“That’s why we love playing here,” he joked post-match after being presented his trophy by Catherine, Princess of Wales, who watched along husband William, the prince.
“It’s a very expensive tournament.”
The top seed who will remain world No. 1 in Monday’s rankings took a tighter grip on the contest in the third set, frustrating his opponent with a break for 5-4 before serving into a two-set-to-one set lead.
The Alcaraz tension surfaced in the fourth set, with the Spaniard holding a nervous dialogue with his coach box as his momentum and body language faded slightly.
Sinner kept up the pressure with a love game for 1-all before breaking 2-1 with a return winner down the line.and following up with a second love game for a 3-1 lead.
The Italian top seed did not let up, threatening from 0-40 down as Alcaraz held on, 2-3 before Sinner took a 4-2 lead.
Sinner escaped a mini-crisis as he rescued two break points to climb to 5-3 before serving out on his second match point after three hours of play
“I would never have thought to be in this position” the player from Italy’s German-speaking north said.
“When I was young this was just a dream, it was so far away form where I’m from .”
Sinner’s win ended a 24-match win streak for Alcaraz and the Italian claimed his third Grand Slam title form the last four majors.
“It was difficult to lose, but I have to congratulate Jannik once again for a well-deserved trophy,” Alcaraz said after losing his first Grand Slam final out of six played.
‘I’m happy and proud of everything I’ve been doing. At the start of the season I struggled on and off the court.
But now I’m happy on court again, I feel excitement when I step on. it’s been a great journey so far and I want to keep it going,” the world No. 2 added.
Main photo:- Jannik Sinner lifts his first Wimbledon Trophy – by Roger Parker ISF
Two-time champion Casper Ruud had to work for more than two and a half hours to overcome Jaime Faria, the Portuguese who put out Stan Wawrinka in the first round at the Gstaad Swiss Open on Thursday.
Faria was riding the momentum from Tuesday’s defeat of three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka, set to retire this season and beaten in an opening match at his home venue.
Faria had his eye on a second upset as he faced Ruud, who lifted the trophy at this elite alpine village in 2021 and 2022.
Ruud ahd to dodge a bullet and mount a comeback to get through the second-round test against the Portuguese.
After dropping the opening set in a tiebreaker, Ruud played patiently as Faria saved five break points in the sixth game of the second set before failing on the sixth.
Ruud then pulled away for a 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-2 victory, his first since Roland Garros.
“Sometimes it is hard to say when you get a good feeling and you start to win some games in a row,” the winner said.
“You try from the first game to the last, but suddenly something clicked in the middle of the second for me, luckily.”
He added: “I had to really fight hard and if I played one bad game in the second and he serves well, it could be over and it would be time to go home. But luckily I can extend the stay.”
The Scandinavian could join Spaniards Sergi Bruguera and Alex Corretja as three-time winners in the Alps, with Ruud now standing 10-1 here over his career.
Stefanost Tsitsipas said he slept soundly prior to finishing off a darkness-interrupted match on Thursday as he eliminated local Jerome Kym at the Gstaad Swiss Open.
The Greek who once cracked third in the world and the 186th-ranked Swiss returned to the clay after darkness on Wednesday night left them hanging at 5-all in the third set.
Tsitsipas revved up his game from the resumption to emerge into the quarter-finals 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5).
The second seed now standing 85th in the world after several poor seasons and a split with his father as his coach, said getting his rest was not a problem after the interruption.
“It was strange going to bed and not being finished. I visualised what I wanted to do, my shot patterns.
“It worked out pretty well.
“I had a good night’s sleep, I was not too stressed and I recovered to get ready for the continuation.”
After saving break points in the first game on Thursday, Tsitsipas triumphed in the final-set tiebreaker
“I’m relieved I was able to save a couple of break points.. I put my game together and made it )victory) happen again.”
The Greek now faces off against Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech for a semi-final spot.
“I’m expecting a lot of big serves, the altitude (1050m) helps. I’ll try to build consistency around my own serve.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas was handed a reprieve due to fading light with his second round match at the Swiss Open Gstaad stopped with the Greek deadlocked with local Jerome Kym 6-4, 6-7 (2), 5-5.
The math had to be halted as night fell and electronic linecalling computers could not read the path of the ball on the clay in contrast to humans who could have carried on for a few additional minutes..
The 27-year-old Tsitsipas was taking the worst of it in the concluding stage after a promising start.against a journeyman opponent ranked 186.
Tsitsipas, his ranking down to 85th after once standing third in the world, lashed out verbally in the last few games, apparently frustrated with his racquet reactions.
The Greek was quick to make his point of an overnight stoppage to the chair umpire while Kym – who reached 5-all with a love service hold – left the court with a defiant fist pump for his public in this alpine resort village.
The cutoff came after just over two hours of play, with the contest to be concluded on Thursday. The winner reaches the Friday quarter-finals.
Tsitsipas produced his last notable result in April with a fourth-round showing at the Madrid Masters,
He is aiming for his second quarter-final of the season after Doha in February and his 2025 Barcelona 15 months ago.
Tsitsipas stands 10-1 vs. players ranked outside the top 100 this season with a sole loss to No. 104 Italian Matteo Arnaldi at the Roland Garros second round.
History repeats for Argentine spoiler in Gstaad
Ruud survives a scare to secure Gstaad quarters
Tsitsipas finishes off Kym after overnight pause
-
Berlin4 weeks agoSabalenka finds her “little tiger” to fend off Czech challenge
-
Top Story3 weeks agoRaducanu takes a kicking as injury-boot drama flares
-
Adelaide International4 weeks agoEx-Wimbledon champion slammed with anti-doping ban
-
ATP4 weeks agoDe Minaur ambushed by Queen’s outsider Nakashima
-
Berlin4 weeks agoEala stuns Rybakina in Berlin blitz
-
ATP4 weeks agoFritz squeezes Sascha to book first-time Halle final
-
ATP4 weeks agoBadosa unloads on ex-tennis boyfriend Tsitsipas
-
Top Story3 weeks agoRaducanu withdraws on eve of Wimbledon