As Carlos Alcaraz sat down in the early hours of Thursday morning, time was running out and he knew it. In his short career, the 19-year-old has established a reputation for taking defeats with perspective and a smile on his face, but this time he had nothing. He had generated enough chances to win in straight sets and he had mostly played incredibly well, but never when it really mattered. He found himself down 4-3 in the fourth set to Jannik Sinner, two games from defeat.
His composure momentarily gone, Alcaraz spent the entire change of ends ranting towards his distinguished coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, about the one weakness that had handcuffed him all night: “Where do I serve to? I don’t know how to serve,” he shouted. Ferrero did not respond.
Even by that point, it was an absurd match. Alcaraz and the 21-year-old Sinner had spent four hours utterly destroying the ball, flitting from side to side and using every inch of the court. Alcaraz’s movement alone is unlike anything else in the world right now and he soaked up so much of Sinner’s destructive power. But he pairs his athleticism with his own brutal shotmaking and his extravagant all-court style.
As usual, Alcaraz produced enough outrageous shots to fill several highlight reels. One time he slid into the splits while chasing down a ball, then fell, got up and calmly threaded a backhand down the line past Sinner. And that was not even his best point of the day. Not long after he somehow sweetly struck a behind-the-back shot, then slid into the forecourt and rolled a backhand passing-shot winner. He constantly orchestrated the crowd, which despite waning as the match wore on, chanted his name until the end.
In the face of Alcaraz’s total tennis, Sinner was competitive for just under four long sets. He did not always serve well, but he sure did when he needed to. Down triple set point at 6-5 in the second set, he produced four unreturnable serves that Alcaraz could not touch. He has fewer layers to his game than Alcaraz, but he strikes the ball more cleanly and purely than anyone in the world right now. For most of the first four sets, Sinner attacked without hesitation anytime the moment required it.
As the match fell away from him, Alcaraz had completely lost his composure. His most impressive feat was how, in his very last stand, he regained it. He saved a match point on Sinner’s serve, then forced a fifth set. Even with nearly five sets and hours in their legs, nobody broke down. Both players chased after the ball at full sprint until the very end, and Alcaraz had to snatch the win for himself.
In the end, it was a five hour 15 minute show of physical and mental excellence alongside the stratospheric level, with Alcaraz winning 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-7 (0), 7-5, 6-3. They finished at 2.50am, the latest ever finish at the US Open. After conducting his on-court interview, tossing his shoes into the crowd and then signing autographs for fans, Alcaraz finished his press duties at 3.40am. He surely did not sleep until hours later.
This was a moment particularly because of what had preceded it. Alcaraz spent much of this year breaking records as he broke through, winning titles for fun, beating Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic back to back, and rising to No 4 in the rankings. But during this summer the reality of being a top player struck.
He had an enormous target on his back and every young opponent seemed to rise up and play their best tennis the moment they saw him in the draw. Sinner himself has beaten Alcaraz twice over the past few months. Alcaraz has taken a lot of punches, but mostly taken them with a smile, content that at some point he would be in the position to punch back. He finally was.
The match carried the tension of a slam final, and one day this pair will probably contest one together. Now Alcaraz will contest his first grand slam semi-final. Ten hours earlier, Frances Tiafoe achieved the same feat with far less effort, beating Andrey Rublev in 7-6 (3), 7-6 (0), 6-4. “I just hope they play a marathon match, super-long match, and they get really tired come Friday,” said Tiafoe, smiling, of Alcaraz and Sinner. His wish was granted.
Few sports in the world spend as much time obsessing over its relevance as tennis, with pundits and even players constantly debating whether certain players or events are “good for the game”, particularly as the ageing legends begin to depart. But as a 19-year-old and 21-year-old produced an instant, undeniable classic, battling into the morning in the biggest tennis stadium in the world, it was an opportunity to sit back and be content with whatever is to come.