Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz will face Jannik Sinner in the final of the Monte Carlo Masters, with the winner taking the world number one spot.<\/p>\n
The pair both came through Saturday’s semi-finals in straight sets, with Sinner defeating third seed Alexander Zverev 6-1 6-4 and Alcaraz ending the run of home favourite Valentin Vacherot 6-4 6-4.<\/p>\n
Sinner, the tournament’s second seed and world number two, becomes the first man to reach the first three Masters 1000 finals in a season since Novak Djokovic in 2015, having already triumphed at Indian Wells and Miami.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old is on a 21-match winning streak at the Masters 1000 level and was in superb form against Zverev, converting all four of his break chances and never facing a break point as he won in 82 minutes.<\/p>\n
“I’m very happy. We came here trying to give myself some feedback [on clay] and now finding myself in the final means a lot to me,” said Sinner, who completed his eighth straight tour-level victory against Zverev.<\/p>\n
“When you are a break up straight away, it changes the dynamic of the match. I have nothing to lose. Coming here and making the final means a lot to me, so of course I will try to push as much as I can tomorrow on the last day,”<\/p>\n
World number one Alcaraz holds a 10-6 lead in matches with Sinner, whom he will meet for the first time since the Italian’s victory in straight sets in the ATP Finals championship match last November.<\/p>\n
The Spanish top seed reached the final in 84 minutes, converting three of four break points against Vacherot, who became the first Monaco native to reach the semi-finals at Monte Carlo.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s the dream spot for everyone I would say. I’m fighting for a second Monte Carlo title, he’s fighting for his first one,” said Alcaraz, who will look to seal his third title of the 2026 season on Sunday.<\/p>\n
“The number one is on the line, which will make tomorrow even more special.<\/p>\n
“I’m just happy to win this really difficult match against Valentin. He’s playing great tennis with a lot of confidence right now, playing in his home town. It was really tough to get the win, but I’m really excited about my first meeting with Jannik in 2026.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz will face Jannik Sinner in the final of the Monte Carlo Masters, with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-525869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}