World No.2 Carlos Alcaraz dug deep to beat reigning champion and World No.1 Jannik Sinner to claim his first-ever China Open ATP 500 title on Wednesday. The Spaniard came from a set behind to overcome the Italian 6-7(6), 6-4, 7-6(3). With the title run on Beijing's hard courts, Alcaraz marked up a milestone in series history, which dates back to 2009, as he's become the first player to claim an ATP 500 crown on all three surfaces: hard, clay, and grass.
"He could have won in two, I could win in two, he could win in three. It was a really close match. Jannik, once again, proved why he's the best player in the world, at least for me. The level that he's playing it's unbelievable. It's a really high quality of tennis. Of shots, physically, mentally, he's a beast," said Alcaraz in his on-court interview.
Now, Alcaraz leads the Spaniard the ATP head-to-head series against Sinner 6-4 after triumphing in each of the three encounters this season (Indian Wells, Roland Garros, Beijing). Impresivly, Alcaraz now sports an 8-1 win-loss record this season against top 5 players; his only defeat to one of the elite came against Novak Djokovic in the gold medal match at the Olympics.
But it proved not to be enough as Sinner dug deep and staved off a 2-5 deficit to force a tie-break on the first set.
A bent Alcaraz was indeed pushed on serve at 3-4 in the second set but took a 14-minute game in which he fended off two Sinner break points. He then broke Sinner's serve in the next game and sent the match to a tiebreaker, reports the ATP.
Alcaraz then took his momentum into the final set, going to an early 3-1 lead. But Sinner recovered to force a tie-break and then forged a 3/0 lead, before Alcaraz reeled off seven successive points to come out on top in an absorbing three-hour, 21-minute encounter.
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