Breaking: Sinner’s Personal Records at Risk After Loss to Alcaraz
An epic battle of almost 3 and a half hours of play between the two players who did not hold back and gave life to a beautiful and emotional match: The 10th challenge between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner – at the China Open in Beijing – showed why at the moment the Italian and the Spaniard are the best in men’s tennis.
The victory in the decisive tie-break of the third set allowed the Spaniard to obtain the 4th title of the year and beat for the third consecutive time in the season the Italian rival, who suffered his 6th defeat in 2024.
This result did not upset the Italian’s domination in the ATP world ranking and in the ATP Race, with about 4000 points distance in both rankings, but it allowed the Spaniard to erase a series of records and consecutive victories set by the ATP No. 1
The 23-year-old Italian played the 7th final of the season and, after a 6/6, he lost for the first time in the final of a tournament, in 2024. It’s also ended the streak of 15 consecutive victories, started from the Cincinnati Open and continued at the US Open and in Beijing.
Sinner hadn’t lost a match in ATP 500 tournaments since Halle 2023, when he retired in the quarterfinals in the match with Alexander Bublik: the Italian won last year’s China Open, Vienna, Rotterdam, Halle and surrendered in the final again in Beijing (24-0).
His tie-break record remains important: since the quarterfinals in Halle, Jannik has played 20, winning 18. In addition to the one lost at Wimbledon by Daniil Medvedev, the fatal one with Alcaraz in the final has now been added. Furthermore, the ATP No.1 has seen his rival Alcaraz catch up with him in ATP titles won: they are now tied at 16, but 4-2 in the Slams in favor of the 21-year-old Spaniard.
