{"id":128457,"date":"2025-09-08T09:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/128457\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T09:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:10:07","slug":"carlos-alcaraz-beats-rival-jannik-sinner-at-the-u-s-open-for-a-6th-slam-title-and-the-no-1-ranking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/128457\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz beats rival Jannik Sinner at the U.S. Open for a 6th Slam title and the No. 1 ranking"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 So maybe the first U.S. Open<\/a> final between young, elite rivals<\/a> Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner wasn\u2019t as long, riveting and dramatic as their matchup to decide the championship at the French Open. Perhaps it wasn\u2019t as seemingly meaningful and plot-driven as their showdown for the Wimbledon trophy.<\/p>\n

Still, what the No. 2-seeded Alcaraz\u2019s<\/a> 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over No. 1 Sinner on Sunday did do was significant. Alcaraz reasserted his superiority over the defending champion<\/a>, wrested away the top spot in the ATP rankings and left tennis fans eager for whenever their next clash will come.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

They are the first two men in the sport\u2019s history to face each other in three consecutive Grand Slam finals within a single season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m seeing you more than my family,\u201d Alcaraz joked during the trophy ceremony, eliciting a grin from Sinner. \u201cIt\u2019s great to share the court, to share the locker rooms, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

This 2-hour, 42-minute win gave Alcaraz, a 22-year-old from Spain, leads over Sinner, a 24-year-old from Italy, of 10-5 in their head-to-head series, 6-4 in total Grand Slam trophies, and 2-1 in U.S. Open championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI give lots of credit to him, because he handled the situation better than I did,\u201d said Sinner, who lamented that his own play was too predictable<\/a>. \u201cHe raised his level when he had to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The match\u2019s start was delayed for about a half-hour while thousands of fans<\/a> were stuck outside Arthur Ashe Stadium going through extra security because President Donald Trump<\/a> sat in a sponsor\u2019s suite.<\/p>\n

Under a closed roof because of rain earlier in the day, Alcaraz was stronger, faster, more well-equipped for the occasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were better than me,\u201d Sinner said. \u201cI tried my best today. I couldn\u2019t do more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz finished with twice as many winners, 42-21, and his coach, 2003 French Open champ Juan Carlos Ferrero, called the performance \u201cperfect.\u201d Alcaraz’s view of that assessment? \u201cHe’s right. I think I played perfect. … If I want to beat Jannik, I have to play perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

This hard-court matchup followed Alcaraz\u2019s victory over Sinner<\/a> across 5 1\/2 hours after erasing a trio of match points on the red clay at Roland-Garros in June, and Sinner\u2019s victory over two-time reigning champ Alcaraz<\/a> on the grass at the All England Club in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe things … I did well in London,\u201d Sinner said, \u201che did better today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz took a week off after Wimbledon and then immediately got to work, spending 15 days with Ferrero focusing on one thing and one thing only: beating Sinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI studied that match,\u201d Alcaraz said.<\/p>\n

During his defeat at Wimbledon, Alcaraz was caught by a camera telling his team in Spanish: \u201cFrom the back of the court, he\u2019s much better than me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Perhaps that\u2019s why Alcaraz was so aggressive Sunday with his sledgehammer of a forehand. Whenever the smallest opening presented itself, Alcaraz barged through with that shot.<\/p>\n

Sinner had dropped a total of one service game in his preceding three matches, but Alcaraz broke right away Sunday and five times in all.<\/p>\n

These guys have combined to collect the past eight Slam trophies \u2014 four each \u2014 and 10 of 13. Novak Djokovic, the 24-time major champ eliminated by Alcaraz on Friday, took the other three.<\/p>\n

Both Sinner, who had won his past 27 hard-court matches at majors, and Alcaraz offered glimpses Sunday of why they are so good, although it was rare that both were at a peak simultaneously.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

An hour and 20 minutes in, it was a set apiece, after Alcaraz ceded one for the first time all tournament.<\/p>\n

As Sinner worked his way into things, he would celebrate points by pumping a fist toward his guest box, which included Olympic champion ski racer Lindsey Vonn.<\/p>\n

Ah, but it was Alcaraz who appeared to have more ticket-buyers on his side.<\/p>\n

They regaled him with standing ovations. For one particularly magical volley at a hard-to-believe angle struck just before the ball hit the court \u2014 even Alcaraz himself liked that one, saying \u201cWow!\u201d and breaking into a wide grin. For one special overhead smash to a corner with the tailing movement of a firefly.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

And so on.<\/p>\n

Sinner, needless to say, wasn\u2019t as pleased by those sorts of strokes.<\/p>\n

He bounced his racket off the ground and caught it after one lost point. He exhaled and shook his head after another.<\/p>\n

Sinner simply doesn\u2019t see that sort of stuff from anyone else.<\/p>\n

And these numbers say as much about Alcaraz as they do Sinner: Over the last two seasons, Sinner is 1-7 against Alcaraz \u2014 and 109-4 against everyone else.<\/p>\n

That one win for Sinner over Alcaraz came at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

Less than two months later, Alcaraz reversed the result to cap what he called \u201cthe best tournament so far that I have ever played.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Howard Fendrich has been the AP\u2019s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https:\/\/apnews.com\/author\/howard-fendrich<\/a>. More AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n

Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 So maybe the first U.S. Open final between young, elite rivals Carlos Alcaraz and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,619,615,70502,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-128457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","11":"tag-jannik-sinner","12":"tag-juan-carlos-ferrero","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}