If there are games that mark a before and after in sport, the Carlos Alcaraz-Jannik Sinner Thursday morning may be one of them. It has been one of the best matches in living memory on this court and, perhaps, the dawn of a new era in tennis, after the dominance of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the last two decades.
“As long as Rafa, Djokovic and Federer are there, they will be the best and their rivalry will always be the first,” Alcaraz said at a press conference, his body shaken after five and a quarter hours of battle. “But today we have shown that we are the present and that we have a long career ahead of us”; he told him about his confrontation with Sinner.
The Italian had become his black beast this season. He knocked him down at the end of Umag (Croatia) and stopped him in the second round of Wimbledon. Another loss in New York would have been a decisive blow in the comparison between the two most exciting tennis players today. “We are going to play many times together and we are going to show our level,” predicted the Spaniard.
What both showed in New York was a tennis splurge. “The level has been incredible, spectacular,” Alcaraz later acknowledged. «High quality of tennis, high concentration capacity. Mentally and physically we have pushed ourselves to the limit.”
The Murcian tennis player assured that it had been the best game of his career. “Definitely. From the first ball to the last, there has been an immense quality, both in Jannik and in me. There has been no downturn on either side. In all the sets there have been points. We have both been very close to winning. He and I will always remember him.”
