Alcaraz knocks out Sinner in impossible match to reach his first Roland Garros final | Relief

Paris.- It smells like a changing of the guard at Roland Garros.. With Rafael Nadal knocked out in the first round (and shot like he’ll never come back) and Novak Djokovic recently having knee surgery, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner They fight at Philippe Chatrier. Not since the 2008 US Open featuring Nadal and Murray has tennis seen two such young players in the semi-finals of a major tournament. Your future and your presentno matter how much they insisted otherwise this Friday.

Because the long-awaited Sinner-Alcaraz does not live up to expectations and is disappointing. No one is able to explain what is happening. It’s a holiday of mistakes and cramps. Roller coaster. You won because it makes me laugh. The one who holds back the laughter and wins is Alcaraz, who wins by 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 and 6-3 (four hours and eight minutes) in the strangest semi-final in Paris memory. . Only the fifth set was saved. Maybe someday EBAU exercise in Murcia aims to analyze what happened this Friday June 7th.

Now this can only be understood by the nerves and tension before the Roland Garros final.. It will factor into future statistics and be remembered for the round and the result, but this Alcaraz-Sinner game will surely go down as one of the worst games of their rivalry. Those who played this Friday weren’t the best in the world at one-on-one.

But as if no one understood anything, The prize is the same regardless of the show: a ticket to the grand final on Sunday.. And the one who will be there will be Alcaraz. His opponent will be the winner of the next match between Alexander Zverev and Kasper Ruud.

When he turned 21, Alcaraz is the youngest player to reach three Grand Slam finals on three different surfaces.. So far, only six players have won major titles across the three floors: Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

Alcaraz starts in the locker room

Alcaraz takes over 20 minutes to land on Philippe Chatrier, and he pays dearly for it. He is nervous, his hand is numb and there is a lot of tension: his balls are short, he hits, he doesn’t command with his right hand.. And on the other side of the net it’s the complete opposite: The Sinner is on fire from the moment he emerges from the locker room tunnel, brave, at the top of the court and not letting his guard down for a second.

The result of all this is that Sinner goes 4-0 up in 18 minutes, to everyone’s surprise. What’s wrong with Alcaraz? Something similar to last year: tension. If those nerves turned into cramps against Djokovic in 2023, this time they caused his right hand to tighten.

When he sees his defeat with a score of 4:0, he reacts timidly and begins to change his strategy. You can beat Sinner not by punching, but by varying heights, cutting and topspin forehands, lifting him off the baseline, moving him… Carlitos goes from 4-0 to 4-2 and shows his fist. Finally he smiles and tells his bench to calm down. Don’t worry, I’m already here– he seems to be saying to his team.

But it’s too late for the first set, which Sinner wins 6-2 and breaks early in the second. Alcaraz against the ropes. “It’s a long time coming, but you’ll have to look,” he tells her. Juan Carlos Ferrero. And Sinner begins to fail. He performs his service and begins to deflate. He misses the opportunity to strike him and instantly opens the door to the Murcian. Carlitos enters like a bull: attacks.

A game as strange as few others, a bug fest far from expected, changes completely. Now it is the Sinner who suffers and fails. And Alcaraz is the one who dominates. “You have to believe, you have to believe, you have to continue the good work,” Ferrero insists. “Let it happen”.

And they pass, pass. Of course, things happen. It’s as if Sinner is starting to tense up more than necessary. His hand is shaking. He stretches it. Ask a physical therapist. And he walks as if it cost him the world. When he puts the ball in play, it costs him the world to move it, and at any given moment he plays the winner.

But WithSince the coincidence is completely impossible to decipher – some astrophysicist will be able to explain it – Sinner comes to life. and goes from 2-0 in the third set to 5-2. The physiotherapist returns and this time massages her thighs. He wins the third set, looking half dead.

Sanity seems to return to normal in the fourth set. It seems because Strange things keep happening. How Carlitos accelerates from first speed 210 km/h to 160 km/h. Does his arm hurt? Who knowsbecause five minutes later he is hitting the rackets again with a score of over 200.

“I swear!” shouts Alcaraz as he breaks the deciding game to take the set 6-4 and send the match into fifth place.. And then, finally, the Murcian appears: freed from tension and nerves, he takes his right hand out for a walk, his hand flies, his thoughts flow. He breaks Sinner’s serve and rushes to victory, to the Roland Garros final.