Alcaraz suffers worrying career first as Sinner explains edge over Spaniard

Carlos Alcaraz crashed out of the China Open at the hands of Jannik Sinner on Tuesday, making Sinner the first player ever to get four career tour-level wins over the world No 2. It’s a stat that Alcaraz won’t be happy about as he falls behind in his close rivalry with the Italian. And Sinner has since explained what made the difference in his 7-6(4) 6-1 victory over the top seed in Beijing.

Alcaraz and Sinner renewed their rivalry for the seventh time as they met in the semi-final of the China Open. Ahead of the match, they were tied at 3-3 in their head-to-head but it was the world No 7 who took the edge with his fourth win over Alcaraz – the first player to beat the 20-year-old that many times.

Before defeating Alcaraz in straight sets on Tuesday, Sinner was tied with Felix Auger-Aliassime, who also has three career victories over the Spaniard. In comparison, Djokovic has beaten the two-time Major winner twice in four meetings.

After the match, the 22-year-old explained that he was able to play better in the important moments as he ensured that he took the lead in his rivalry with Alcaraz. “It is clear that it was a great match on my part,” the eight-time title winner said.

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“It is never easy to play against Carlos, he is an incredible tennis player and I think we both have a lot of respect for each other. Today I felt that, perhaps, the important points fell in my favour.”

But Sinner knew that it could be a different story the next time they met, adding: “In matches like these, there are always a couple of points that end up making the difference, and today they fell on my side. We’ll see, I hope that in the future we can play many times again and then we’ll see how things go.”

And the world No 7 hadn’t been paying any attention to the fact that he was the man who now had the most tour wins over Alcaraz. “I know I’ve beaten him before, but I don’t pay attention to how many times I’ve beaten him or how many times I’ve lost against him,” he continued.

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“What I can say is that every time we play each other there’s a great match, it’s a very good matchup. We tried to push ourselves to the limit, and I think that today we achieved it again, the level was very high. As I already said, I am very happy for my level, for my performance, much more than for anything else. I hope to be able to take advantage of this confidence in the future.”

While Sinner downplayed his winning record against the world No 2, Alcaraz explained just what made the 22-year-old such a tough opponent for him every time they met. “He is a very complete player, he did almost everything well, he pushes you to the limit with every shot,” he said.

“You have to hit every ball perfectly if you want to be alive at the point. Even if you think you hit the ball very well, very well, he can even return it harder than yours. This is something he does really well, very well.

“The rest of his game is also amazing and the service from him is very good. It’s really difficult to play against him, I think his mobility is also very good, you have to find a way to beat him or be dangerous for his tennis. It is complicated, that is why he is one of the best in the world.”

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