{"id":92845,"date":"2025-08-18T21:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T21:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/92845\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T21:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T21:59:07","slug":"carlos-alcaraz-wins-cincinnati-open-after-jannik-sinner-retires-through-illness-after-5-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/92845\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz wins Cincinnati Open after Jannik Sinner retires through illness after 5 games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Alcaraz won the Cincinnati Open<\/a> title in a little over 20 minutes Monday afternoon, after his nearest rival and world No. 1 Jannik Sinner retired through illness down 5-0.<\/p>\n

Sinner fought back tears as he was forced to quit the match, which was poised to be another instalment in the most compelling current rivalry in tennis.<\/p>\n

Sinner was struggling badly in sweltering conditions in Mason, Ohio, and as he sat down after losing his serve for a third time in a row, he admitted defeat. \u201cI tried, I can\u2019t,\u201d he said to medical staff who had come on to treat him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel so sorry for the fans,\u201d Sinner said as he fought back tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom yesterday, I didn\u2019t feel great,\u201d he explained in his on-court interview. \u201cI felt that I would improve during the match, but it came out worse. Super sorry to disappoint you (the fans). I tried to come out, trying to make it at least a small match, but I couldn\u2019t handle more, so I\u2019m very, very sorry for all of you. I know that maybe some of you on Monday, they had to work, they had to do something else. So I\u2019m really, really sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also apologized to his team, before adding: \u201cBut sometimes it is like this and we have to accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz meanwhile wrote \u201cSorry Jannik\u201d on a camera lens after comforting his opponent at the net, having secured an eighth title at 1,000 level, the rung below the Grand Slams. In his on-court interview, he said: \u201cI\u2019m just going to say, sorry, I know and I understand how you can feel right now. As I said many, many times, you are truly, truly a champion. I\u2019m pretty sure that from this situation, you\u2019re going to come back better, even stronger like you always do, and that\u2019s what a true champion does, and you\u2019re a real one. So, sorry and come back stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sinner came out looking undercooked from the jump, finding it difficult to land first serves and going after every shot at full power. Alcaraz, who had gifted several points to an ailing Alexander Zverev in his semifinal, kept full focus, winning his service games and even retrieving some of Sinner\u2019s hardest-hit shots that would have been winners against anyone else.<\/p>\n

The victory means that Alcaraz not only leads their head-to-head 9-5, but he also closes the gap on Sinner at the top of the world rankings. He will start the U.S. Open as world No. 1 in the live ATP Tour rankings, with Sinner defending 2,000 points as reigning champion against Alcaraz\u2019s 50 following his second-round exit last year.<\/p>\n

The illness also calls into question Sinner\u2019s participation in the U.S. Open mixed doubles<\/a>, where he is slated to partner with Kate\u0159ina Siniakov\u00e1, perhaps the greatest active doubles player in the world. That event begins Tuesday, Aug. 19, in New York, meaning Sinner would have to recover in less than 24 hours to participate.<\/p>\n

The singles draws begin Sunday, Aug. 24, with Sinner and Alcaraz overwhelming favourites to play each other in another final. Though Monday\u2019s blowout was a reminder that nothing can be taken for granted, even with the world\u2019s best players.<\/p>\n

(Photo: Dylan Buell \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz won the Cincinnati Open title in a little over 20 minutes Monday afternoon, after his nearest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-92845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}