Wednesday night’s U.S. Open quarterfinal between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner was the second-longest match in tournament history at five hours and 15 minutes. It set the record for the latest-ever finish at 2:50 am.
It was every bit as good as it was long, too. A back-and-forth thriller of the highest quality eventually went Alcaraz’s way, as the 19-year old triumphed 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-7(0), 7-5, 6-3. He saved a match point in the fourth set and came back from a break down in fifth to keep his hopes alive for a maiden Grand Slam title and the No. 1 ranking.
However, you can’t blame Alacaraz if he needs some time to recover and reflect before looking ahead to the next tasks–which are a semifinal date with Frances Tiafoe on Friday possibly followed by Sunday’s title match against either Casper Ruud over Karen Khchanov. The Spaniard was already coming off a five-set victory over Marin Cilic in the fourth round before he made a bit of history with Sinner. Their epic battle ended 24 minutes later than the previous U.S. Open record (three matches tied at 2:26 am) and a 1992 semifinal between Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang is the only match at Flushing Meadows that has lasted longer (five hours and 26 minutes).
It was Sinner who had a chance to get across the finish before such records came into play. The 21-year-old Italian brought up match point while serving for victory at 5-4 in the fourth, but he missed a first serve and Alcaraz forced an error with a strong return.
The No. 3 seed also erased a deficit in the fifth. Sinner led 3-2 with a break and led 40-15 on serve with a chance to reach 4-2, but he could not consolidate. A break back for Alcaraz began a match-closing streak of four consecutive games in his favor.
“Honestly, I still don’t know how I did it,” Alcaraz said afterward. “You have to believe in yourself. I believed in my game…. I am going to enjoy [achieving] my first semifinal of a Grand Slam and tomorrow will be the time to think about the [semifinal match].”
For Sinner, it was his toughest loss.
“I (have) had some tough losses, for sure,” the world No. 13 reflected. “This is [on] the top list. I think this one will hurt for quite a while.
“But tomorrow I wake up — or today I wake up — trying to somehow take only the positives, trying to take away the other part. But it’s tough, for sure…. This kind of level was very high for sure. It was a good match–I hope also for the spectators.”
Yeah, I’d say so. A good match? It was nothing less than the match of the year.
Sinner’s problem imo is his fitness. Alcaraz is very fit physically and I feel that helps him to stay focused mentally too.
Sinner started to make more mistakes nearing the end of the match; he had his chances of winning the match but couldn’t hold on to the advantages, esp during his own service games.
Imo, Sinner has a better game than Alcaraz but Alcaraz is more powerful physically and moves very quickly around the court and never gives up on any point!
A fitter Sinner > Alcaraz at this point, but in future when Alcaraz is more experienced and adds more varieties to his game style, Alcaraz maybe the better player (but of course Sinner will most likely improve too). A rivalry in the making.
The mistake Sinner made was to have long matches with inferior opponents. He dropped at least one set every round, sometimes 2, to people he should have beaten quickly.
I reckon that caught up with him.
Alcaraz ha d a long match with Cilic but he stormed through his other matches in straights, frequently demolishing his opponents.
This match was Rafa vs. Djokovic 10 years back. What hitting, what movement. Unreal. hats off to both