Rome attends an power exhibition that concludes with Carlos Alcaraz crowned, shining and even more reinforced. It is the first time in the Italic forum. And Jannik Sinner nods, without batteries after losing the first set. There was no possibility of any return for him: “You are the strongest on land,” the Spanish is directed sincerely, rather than happy after having broken 7-6 (5) and 6-1 (after 1h 43m) to number one, overflowed by the triple pathway: physical, technical and tactical. The test came too soon. Not so for this hegemonic Alcaraz that travels as a rocket on the sand, having completed at 22 years the stairs of success – Montecarlo, Barcelona, Madrid and Rome – and Plethoric in the direction of Roland Garros, which is already coming.
“A lot of confidence in the face of going there,” says the winner, with 19 titles already in the file, only one from Carlos Moyà. The demonstration of yours before a diminished synner once the first set, scarce already of gasoline and closes a sequence of 26 consecutive victories; 30 Accounting the El Palmar this season, in which he adds the Roman joy to those of Róterdam and Montecarlo. He did not rounded in the Godó, then weighed by a small muscle break, but does not fail this time. Every time you face a wingspan final, it shows the fangs. Four of four in the large and seven of eight in the thousandswith five titles of the nine possible in your pocket; All correspond to the first five of the calendar.
“Tactically, I would say it is the best game I’ve ever played,” Valo Alcaraz values. “When I play against him, everything goes on a strategy, and I think I have done it very well from the first to the last point,” adds the champion, the eighth Spanish that reflects the record after Nadal (10), Manuel Orantes, Emilio Sánchez Vicario, Àlex Corretja, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Félix Mantilla and Moyá. “I am missing games, but there are no excuses,” says Sinner then, “but in general, I am very happy. After three months (sanctioned), this result means a lot to me. I have played the maximum of matches (6). To raise the level I must make some changes, especially in the movements. It is the surface that costs me the most, but it is the first tournament.”
It is not the Netherlands, it is Rome. Colorful tier, with many orange followers to wrap his boy, the redhead, his deity, the robot that is back and measures each and every one of his balls, as well as Alcaraz. Tennis control, a lot of tanteo, little fire. Do not allow another to take the initiative and leave the best for the end, so it is that there, to the resolution of the first set, it is when both give a twist and release the handbrake, they squeeze more. Until that moment, calculate for one part and another and all very measured, very anesthetized; Without unleashing the least because Roland Garros approaches, one week seen, and the great game of chess is already underway. Seventy minutes of poker in the Italic forum, actually.
Machine gun without bullets
This is not the Sinner that dictates from the background, nor the Alcaraz that competes to the chest discovered. The Murcia maintains the line of these days – more seriousness and more seriousness – and Guerrea all the time restrained, tempered, without entering the heat zone that he likes so much, but with a lot of sense. For another day the fireworks. Intelligence, it is said. Instead of searching the melee slowed, remove speed into the ball and thus the bomber cannot find that rhythm that he likes so much, that of that Thompson that brings more and more shots in the form of a sweep. The Italian is not completely comfortable, who loses lucidity as the stopwatch progresses, before the definitive crumble. It has been three months in the reserve and lack of physique freshness and ideas in the final episode.
Alcaraz, on the other hand, grows little by little. Emanates tranquility and builds from order, with criteria, giving the ball height or cutting when he considers it more appropriate, as if he knew that the one in front will be broken at one time or another. They are already known. Therefore, the guard does not go down at any time. Within the balance, of those 70 minutes of equity, a pair of badly touched balls penalize Spanish at an extremely inopportune moment, but immediately corrects and saves the fire; Avoid the double option of the rival to take the manga and the tiebreaker, impose a punch and clarity: two ACES To start and straight line towards the award. Sinner, just, the bulb is definitely melted. It cracks. The final is over.
From there, number one loses the spark and delivering because, simply, it is not enough for more. It only signs seven winning shots. It was enough for adversaries of intermediate profile and even to pay a specialist like Casper Ruud, victim of lightning, but against Alcaraz it is different. Another scale. To the search for information and conclusions both, the Roman episode reflects clear where one and the other are today, and Sinner must make a considerable level jump if you want to have options in Paris. Today, on clay it is far from the Murcian, which reinforces his aura for the great French and teaches the tooth. Dominant on the tour, despite not having been able to intervene in Madrid for the injury, rise the trophy and throw a message: here I am, the last mandamás of the Earthlings.
“I have not lost concentration”
AC
The triumph in Rome thick the superiority of Alcaraz at the crossings with Sinner; Now, 7-4 in his favor, with four consecutive bingos. Three signed them last year-Indian Wells, Roland Garros and Beijing-and this last unbalanced the pulse on Earth (2-1).
Although the Murcian has trimmed 350 points in the ranking, Sinner will continue to the front, what happens in the Boulogne Bois. Its current rent is 1,530, to which is added the fact that Alcaraz will defend 2,000 points in Paris and another 2,000 in Wimbledon, where he also won last year.
With five 1000 masters of nine in his hands, the Spanish equals Marcelo Ríos, Pete Sampras and Alexander Zverev. And in terms of finals, only the extraordinary episode of Cincinnati was resisted in 2023, in front of Novak Djokovic. Only the Danish Holger Rune-in the outcome of Barcelona-has been able to with him during the present tour (16-1).
“I know how to play Jannik,” he said. “But I am sure that he will go better, that he will feel better in Roland Garros,” continued the winner, while the statistics reveal that the Italian has lost nine of the ten duels he has played against Top-5 In sand. His comfort was the UMAG final (Croatia) in 2022.
Beyond the victory, Alcaraz’s journey from Montecarlo – also the premiere in El Palmarés – describes a very solid competitor, capable of turning the stage despite the slips that, before Sinner, disappeared completely. Not a single lapse: “I have not lost concentration.”
For more updates, visit our homepage: NewsTimesWire
