Jannik Sinner triumphs, Carlos Alcaraz bows: "You are impressive"

Jannik Sinner also won the Monte Carlo tournament, his fourth consecutive Masters 1000, at the end of a thrilling final against eternal rival Carlos Alcaraz. Relations between the two are notoriously good, so much so that the Spanish star took his hat off to his fellow South Tyrolean’s new exploit. And, despite simultaneously losing the No. 1 ATP ranking, in the immediate aftermath of the match he unabashedly extolled the gifts and qualities of the San Candido outfielder.

“I have to necessarily start with Jannik,” Alcaraz said just after losing the Monte Carlo final to Sinner. “To see how much you are managing to achieve is impressive. Since the Open has existed, only Novak Djokovic had managed before you to win the Sunshine Double in a row and then Monte Carlo. A figure that clearly makes it clear how difficult it is to achieve such a feat. So I congratulate you on the work that you, together with your team, manage to do. And it makes me really happy to see you win so many trophies in front of your family.”

The final of the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 ended with a score of 7-6, 6-3 in favor of the South Tyrolean, at the end of a hard-fought match affected by the wind. In the first set Sinner suffered an immediate break in the second game, but reacted quickly by counter-breaking Alcaraz in the third. The set then slipped all the way to the tie-break, where the Italian touched 5-2, saw the Spaniard come back up to 5-5, and then close on 7-5. In the second partial, after going down by a break in the third game, Sinner found the counterbreak in the sixth game and the decisive break in the eighth, taking home the title.

Alcaraz, in addition to his compliments towards Sinner, however, also wanted to focus on his performance in Monte Carlo. “It was not the finish we wanted, but we enjoyed every single day we spent here,” he said. Then he added, addressing his own team, “I always feel at home with you because of the work we do together. And we will definitely come back here, this is one of the most beautiful tournaments that exist.”

“This tournament means so much to me – Sinner himself said instead on the heat -. We arrived in Monte Carlo trying to accumulate as many matches as possible to get feedback on clay. I felt close to Carlos Alcaraz in the response games, and today there were ups and downs for both of us. Coming back No. 1 in the world is an incredible achievement and is important to me, but the ranking is secondary. I’m happy to have finally won an important tournament on this surface.”