Alcaraz Wins US Open 2023: World No. 1

Spike Lee jumped, celebrated Stephen Curry, Bruce Springsteen was amazed, Pep Guardiola was encouraged. Carlos Alcaraz, serving a cold revenge, enjoyed the entire Arthur Ashe, more than 23,000 people, while defeating Jannik Sinner (6-2, 2-6, 6-1 and 6-4) to reconquer the US Open three years later and lift his sixth Grand Slam.

The Murcian, already crowned as the best tennis player in the world number one, avenged the lost final in Wimbledon and bent the Italian on his best surface, in the New York cement, where he had the advantage of playing under ceiling. Not even that initial joy that took, while raining about Flushing Meadows and tried to scare uncertainty about the state of his abdominal, served to impose himself on a Alcaraz on in this US Open. Only a set lost in two weeks, a spectacular level, a tennis made to conquer these great scenarios.

From the beginning of the game it was clear that the level of Spanish concentration was destined to end up raising the silver cup in the Arthur Ashe. It did not take two games to show Sinner that this was not going to be a repetition of what was lived in London two months ago, that this time he was going to raise his racket at an unattainable height. If Sinner wanted to play 90 %, Alcaraz would be 95 %. The lesson was learned.

The first set was impeccable. He only made two undined errors, nailed eleven winning blows and barely lost three points with the service. That 6-2 was a way of marking territory, to tell the Italian that, despite its perfect record on this surface, today it would need one more ‘extra’. An impulse that arrived in the second partial, when Sinner pushed Alcaraz’s mistakes, which reached double digits and closed the bleeding of ‘Winners’. The Spanish could not have fun, who only got five winners and generated a point of ‘break’.

Sinner had managed to plant battle, but as in so many times, the encounter was in the hands of Alcaraz. If the Murcian wanted, he would not have left. Even the artisan who had to sculpt the name of the champion began to rehearse the name of ‘Carlos Alcaraz’. Because he saw the third manga, when Alcaraz unrained the Sinner game.

The one of San Cándido, far from disconnecting, was correct. A winning blow and five uninforced errors. A record that with any other tennis player would mean a safe victory. With Alcaraz it is another story. The Murcia hit ‘smokes’ from the bottom of the track, decorated the network with definitive blows, adorned the track with left and painted lines from side to side. The cluster of stars in the stands could only smile at the exhibition of Alcaraz. There was no sadness for the lack of competitiveness and an extreme final like Roland Garros, there was only recognition of the ability to overcome. In Wimbledon Claudicó, two months later, he destroyed Sinner.

The beating confirmed it in four sets. He failed to be the first tennis player in history to win the US Open without losing a single set, but he didn’t care. The objective was to rise with the silver cup, as three years ago, when he astonished the world with 19 years becoming the youngest number one in history by defeating Casper Ruud.

Different script

This time the script was different. The victim was the best tennis player in cement, number one, Alcaraz’s nemesis. Yes, Sinner was 2-6 on a hard track against Alcaraz, but seen his level these two weeks it was fair to think he was the favorite. El Palmar’s boy demonstrated otherwise.

With two hours and 39 minutes on the scoreboard, Alcaraz headed to take out to seal the game. He jumped and had to stop at the applause and cheers of the public. Sinner erred the first ball, Alcaraz turned to his people and said “come.” The first step to glory. He was followed by a winning right, a point of Sinner and a left that did not reach the Italian. The public exploded. Two party points. In that scenario, Roger Federer, Alcaraz idol, lost two semifinals. The first one escaped the first, also the second with a rest of Sinner.

The nerves began, the memory of what happened in Paris three months ago when it was the Spanish who recovered three party points against. But he got rid of the pressure with a shot and a direct serve, as in the 2022 final. He celebrated it with a ‘swing’, dedicating it to Sergio García, again present in the stands, and caught his bench to melt into a hug with his people. Champion, sixth Grand Slam and number one in the world. Carlos Alcaraz has done it again.