The world’s third – ranked player, Carlos Alcaraz, won his first Roland-Garros tournament on Sunday in Paris, beating Alexander Zverev (4th) in the final 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 after 4 hours and 19 minutes of an eventful match.
The Spaniard, who succeeds Serbian Novak Djokovic in the prize list and will take second place in the ATP rankings on Monday, wins his third Grand Slam title, after his triumphs at the 2022 US Open and 2023 Wimbledon.
A monster of precocity, he is at 21 years and 1 month the youngest winner of Majors on the three reference surfaces (hard, clay, grass), ahead of Rafael Nadal (22 years and 7 months). All this after having been the youngest world number 1 in history at 19 years, 4 months and 6 days.
He arrived in Paris as a favourite, despite doubts surrounding his physical condition, with a right arm suffering from muscular edema that forced him to take it easy for several weeks. But Alcaraz has assumed this status.
His fortnight was fairly quiet, until the hard-fought semi-final duel against his generational rival, the Italian Jannik Sinner (2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3).
His final was of the same ilk against Zverev, a valiant opponent who made life difficult for him.
The German appeared in great shape, following his victory at the Masters 1000 in Rome preceding the tournament. Mentally strong, he survived two marathons in five sets, navigating the tournament with also, in the back of his mind, the trial for domestic violence taking place in parallel in Berlin and which finally ended on Friday with an amicable agreement.
“Let’s go!”
But for his second Grand Slam final, after the bitter loss at the 2020 US Open against Dominic Thiem after being two points away from victory, Zverev came up against the Alcaraz rock.
The Spaniard started the match better, managing to break the opponent’s serve three times to lead the score.
But the German knows how to react after losing the first set, he has proven it the three times it has happened to him in this tournament. And like Tallon Griekspoor, Holger Rune and Casper Ruud, Alcaraz paid the price, folding under the first ball found by his rival.
And in the third set, trailing 5-2 by the Spaniard, Zverev found the resources to turn the situation around, winning five games in a row.
Alcaraz quickly responded in the 4th set , taking advantage of a drop in form from Zverev to escape 4-1, but he had to call the physiotherapist to massage his left thigh. This did not handicap him too much, quite the contrary…
His fifth set was stunning. A defensive monster to discourage any Panzer, he managed to seize his rival’s serve twice, but he also managed to erase five break points.
The Murcian played like a Martian, and his liberating ” Vamos !” lying on the ochre to celebrate his triumph was furiously reminiscent of that of an illustrious predecessor named Rafael Nadal.
