‘I didn’t know what to do’ Carlos Alcaraz says he had no answers to what Jannik Sinner did in the second set of their Wimbledon final

“Sinner, from the second set onwards, raised his level from the baseline. At that point, I didn’t know what to do; I felt that he was being more complete than me,” Alcaraz said. ”
“Champions learn from their – I’m not going to say failures – but they learn from the losses. I knew at the beginning that he was going to learn from that final, not going to make the same mistakes as he did in the French Open final. The way he played today, it was really high. I knew he was going to play like this.”

There was another aspect to the game that stood out from Sinner’s perspective – his return of serve. He repeatedly would climb on to Alcaraz’s second serve, reeling out several splendid backhands down the line that had the defending champion gasping.

Alcaraz struggled with his first serve, getting it in just 53% of the time, and Sinner repeatedly pounced. “He was pushing me to the limit in every point,” Alcaraz said.
“Mentally, sometimes it’s really tough to maintain the good focus during the whole match when you see the opponent just playing such great tennis.”

Sinner’s coach Darren Cahill talked about the importance of this win. “He needed that win today,” Cahill, said. “So he knew the importance of closing this one out when he had the opportunities. I think you saw a bit more energy from him in the big moments and a bit more focus to knuckle down and make sure that when he had his nose in front, that he kept on closing the door against Carlos.”

Alcaraz also talked about how the rivalry with Sinner is helping him push his game to another level.

“We push each other to keep improving. First of all, just really happy about having this rivalry with him. I think it’s great for us, and it’s great for tennis.Every time we play each other, I think our level is really high. We don’t watch a level like this, if I’m honest with you… I don’t see any players playing against each other having the level that we’re playing when we face each other. This rivalry is becoming better and better. We’re building a really great rivalry, because we’re playing the final of a Grand Slam, final of Masters… it means the best tournaments in the world. It’s gonna be better and better.

“I’m really grateful for that. It gives me the opportunity to just give my 100% every practice and every day. Thanks to that. The level I have to maintain and raise if I want to beat Jannik is really high. I’m just really grateful for that,” Alcaraz said.