Jannik Sinner sheikh of Arabia: Carlos Alcaraz beaten in comeback
Six Kings Slam: Jannik Sinner-Carlos Alcaraz 6-7 6-3 6-3
Jannik Sinner triumphs in the first edition of the Six Kings Slam. On the indoor concrete of Riyadh, the South Tyrolean defeated rival Carlos Alcaraz in the very final with a score of 6-7 6-3 6-3, after an extraordinary battle that lasted two hours and twenty-one minutes of play.
L'azzurro got off to a rocket start immediately finding the break in the third game and flying on a promising 4-1 lead. However, the Murcian does not give up and in the seventh game he recovers the disadvantage and brings the match back to parity. The balance held until the tie-break, where è Alcaraz raised the level and immediately took a 5-2 lead. Sinner, for his part, reacted and made a comeback, but in the crucial stages of the set he failed to be incisive enough and the Spaniard took advantage to win the partial 7-5, after 66 minutes of play.
In the second set è Sinner again found the break first in the third game. Alcaraz, however, does not give up and in the sixth game restores parity, which is short-lived, as the world number one places a partial of three consecutive games, winning the second act in 39 minutes of play.
In the third and deciding set, both players play very high tennis and manage to deftly hold their respective turnovers. The watershed of the match, however, came in the eighth game, where Alcaraz committed as many as two double faults that gave Sinner the decisive break at 5-3. In the next round of serve, the world number one è was relentless and held serve to zero, also ending the match and thus cashing the record $6 million award.