Carlos Alcaraz dethrones Jannik Sinner in Beijing | ATP Tour

Beijing

Alcaraz dethrones Sinner in Beijing

The Spaniard won his fourth ATP Tour title of the season

October 02, 2024

When the draw of an ATP Tour tournament crosses the paths of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, tennis smiles and fans enjoy. And they both once again starred in an ode to this sport in the final of the China Open, which brought together the two main seeds of their lineup in another exciting duel of the rivalry that opted for the Spaniard.

Alcaraz managed to beat the No. 1 favorite in the PIF ATP Rankings by 6-7(6), 6-4, 7-6(3) in three hours and 21 minutes to dethrone the current champion in Beijing and add his fourth ATP Tour title of 2024.

“He could have won in two, I could have won in two, he could have won in three. It was a very tight match,” Alcaraz said after the match. “Jannik, once again, showed that he is the best player in the world, at least for me. The level at which he is playing is incredible. It is a very high level of tennis: strokes, physically, mentally, it is a beast.”

The Murcian won the fourth crown of a brilliant course in which, in addition to the ATP 500 in Beijing, he has also been proclaimed champion of Wimbledon, Roland Garros and the ATP Masters 1000 in Indian Wells (he defeated Sinner in the semifinals of these last two tournaments ). He also won the silver medal at the Paris Olympic Games.

Players with the most titles in 2024
Jannik Sinner: 6

Carlos Alcaraz: 4

Matteo Berrettini: 3

Alcaraz also became the player with the most victories this season against rivals in the Top 10 with a record of 11-3, while against the Top 5 his performance improves even more, leaving a balance of 8-1 in 2024. This Wednesday he defeated a world No. 1 for the second time in his career, just as he had done before at the ATP Masters 1000 in Madrid 2022 with Djokovic.

“Throughout the week I have played great tennis,” Alcaraz acknowledged about his performance in Beijing. “Probably sometimes luck was on my side a little bit in the games. But, in general, I felt very good on the track, also outside with my team.”

For the 21-year-old from Murcia it is the first title of the year in the ATP 500, a category that Sinner had dominated without dispute in recent times. The Italian reached the final in Beijing with a record of 24-0 in tournaments at this level, reaching five consecutive finals. But Alcaraz broke his rival’s spectacular streak.

Since he suffered a painful defeat in the second round of the US Open against Botic Van de Zandschulp, the Spaniard arrived with the confidence of having won his eight most recent matches. He had led Spain to the Final 8 of the Davis Cup (2-0) and Team Europe to win the Laver Cup in Berlin (2-0), before reaching the last round in Beijing.

On the other side of the net was another player who arrived with an impressive streak: 15 consecutive victories to chain the Cincinnati and US Open crowns. In addition to another final to try to defend their trophy from the previous year in Beijing.

The title match on the Asian hard court witnessed the tenth chapter of the rivalry, the second final that both played face to face (at the ATP 250 in Umag the title had gone to Sinner). But this time the balance tipped in favor of the Spaniard, who left the Lexus ATP Head2Head with 6-4 in his favor.

It was the third time this season that the two main seeds of a tournament met in the final, as happened before in Brisbane with No. 1 Holger Rune and No. 2 Grigor Dimitrov, as well as at the Paris Games with the No. 1 Djokovic and No. 2 Alcaraz.

Although Alcaraz entered the match better, he was unable to take advantage of his momentum in the opening set. The Italian, from less to more, escaped from the first dangerous situation with 1-0, 0/40 for the Spanish. He could not do the same with 1-2, 30/40, where he saw his rival escape until 4-1. From then on, Sinner tried to go point by point, gradually raising the level. Until in the ninth game he prevented Alcaraz from closing the set with his serve (5-5).

Without any further setbacks with their serves they reached the tiebreak. Once again, the Spaniard seemed to have the situation in hand with two set points and 6-4 in the tie-break. Sinner saved the first with his serve and the second, with a huge return. He ended up adding four points in a row that gave him the lead on the scoreboard 6-8.

Alcaraz did not suffer the disappointment of having missed his opportunities, although it was difficult for him to dominate again on the court until in the seventh game he found a way to hurt the rest with 3-3, 15/40 in his favor. However, the Italian not only came out on top but in the next game he pushed the Spaniard to the limit with two break opportunities and eight deuces (4-4).

Finding the escape route to resist in the match gave life to the Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion this year who, immediately afterwards, scored the only break of the set to close blank with his serve (6-4), taking the I meet the decisive sleeve.

The script became more and more similar to the one at the beginning of the game. The second seed took five of a possible six games to lead 3-1 in the third set, taking advantage of his third break opportunity in the third game. He was close to expanding his lead with 3-1, 15/40, but once again Sinner raised the level again to prevent disaster and rescue the lost distance (4-4).

In a heart-stopping tie-break, Alcaraz managed to turn around an initial 0-3 deficit with seven points in a row and ended up becoming the first player in China’s capital to win an ATP 500 title on all three possible surfaces since 2009: dirt beaten (Rio 2022, Barcelona 2022-23), on grass (Queen’s 2023) and hard court (Beijing 2024).

“I never lost hope… honestly, I knew that every tie-break with Jannik is almost his,” added the Spaniard. “I think in the third set, I’m not going to fool you, at 0-3, two mini-breaks for him… I didn’t lose hope, but I thought I had to give everything I had to try to give myself the opportunity to get closer.”

“I played three great points to equalize 3, then I just thought about going for it. If he lost, at least he would go for it. So that’s all I thought at that moment,” Alcaraz added.

Alcaraz is now in the Top 2 of the PIF ATP Live Rankings, surpassing Alexander Zverev in that position, for the first time since last June.

Did you know that…?

Carlos Alcaraz is the youngest champion at the China Open since Marcos Baghdatis won the title in 2006, also at the age of 21.