TURIN, Italy \u2014 The final installment of the \u201cSincaraz\u201d rivalry for 2025 went to\u00a0Jannik Sinner.<\/p>\n
The second-ranked Sinner beat top-ranked\u00a0Carlos Alcaraz\u00a07-6 (4), 7-5 for the\u00a0ATP Finals\u00a0trophy on Sunday in the sixth meeting this year between the two players who are dominating men\u2019s tennis.<\/p>\n
Sinner defended the title before his home Italian fans for only his second victory over Alcaraz this year after also beating the Spaniard in the\u00a0Wimbledon final.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an incredible season,\u201d Sinner said. \u201cTo finish it this way, before my Italian fans, is very special for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alcaraz had already secured the year-ending No. 1 ranking\u00a0and was contesting his first final at the event for the year\u2019s top eight players.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz still leads his career meetings with Sinner, 10-6.<\/p>\n
Sinner and Alcaraz have met in the last three Grand Slam finals. Alcaraz beat Sinner in a\u00a0fifth-set tiebreaker to win the French Open; Sinner gained a measure of revenge at Wimbledon; then Alcaraz again came out on top at the\u00a0U.S. Open.<\/p>\n
They also clashed this year in the\u00a0Italian Open\u00a0final (won by Alcaraz) and the\u00a0Cincinnati Open\u00a0final (won by Alcaraz when Sinner retired due to illness).<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope you are going to be ready for next year because I will be ready to hopefully play more finals against you,\u201d Alcaraz said during the trophy ceremony.<\/p>\n
To which Sinner added that he hopes they have \u201cgreat, great battles ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinner also won the\u00a0Australian Open\u00a0\u2014 beating Alexander Zverev in the final \u2014 so he and Alcaraz each won two majors this year.<\/p>\n
In all, Alcaraz has won six majors and Sinner has won four.<\/p>\n
Already early in the first set, the pro-Sinner crowd chanted its customary \u201cOle, Ole, Ole, Ole; Sin-ner, Sin-ner.\u201d<\/p>\n
One fan even held up an image of Sinner depicted as a saint.<\/p>\n
Sinner saved a set point at 5-6 in the tight first set with a big second serve that Alcaraz couldn\u2019t return. Then the Italian took control of the tiebreaker by running down a drop shot and responding with a lob that led to an overhead put away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m extremely happy with how I handled the situation,\u201d Sinner said of saving the set point.<\/p>\n
Added Alcaraz, \u201cHe came up with a second serve 185-190 kph (115-118 mph) that surprised me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alcaraz had his right thigh treated by a trainer on two occasions \u2014 and got it wrapped after the first set.<\/p>\n
\u201cDidn\u2019t affect me too much, to be honest, because I could run well,\u201d Alcaraz said.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz broke Sinner\u2019s serve in the opening game of the second set but Sinner then evened it at 3-3.<\/p>\n
Sinner then got the crowd going again in the next game when he won a long rally and held his finger to his ear \u2014 signaling for more noise inside the Inalpi Arena.<\/p>\n
Sinner broke Alcaraz again to close it out when the Spaniard missed a backhand wide \u2013 then fell down to the court on his back in relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a huge emotion,\u201d said Sinner, who was banned for three months earlier in the year after settling\u00a0a doping case.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz led 28-25 in winners but also had more unforced errors, 26-24.<\/p>\n
Sinner said he wanted to improve his serve after the loss to Alcaraz at the U.S. Open and he led 8-5 in aces but also had five double-faults to Alcaraz\u2019s none.<\/p>\n
It was Sinner\u2019s 10th straight win at the finals stretching back to his loss to Novak Djokovic in the 2023 final. What\u2019s more is that Sinner hasn\u2019t lost a set in that stretch.<\/p>\n
Sinner also extended his winning streak on indoor hard courts to 31 matches.<\/p>\n
In the doubles final, Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten beat Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski 7-5, 6-3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TURIN, Italy \u2014 The final installment of the \u201cSincaraz\u201d rivalry for 2025 went to\u00a0Jannik Sinner. The second-ranked Sinner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-287590","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-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287590","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=287590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}