03:25 PM
The Spanish anthem sounded again in the central Roland Garros: Carlos Alcaraz He won the French Open for the first time in his career, where Rafael Nadal became a legend, by defeating the German in five sets in the final this Sundayn Alexander Zverev 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1 and 6-2.
This success will allow him to rise in the next ATP ranking to number 2, only surpassed by the Italian Jannik Sinner (new number 1) and overtaking the Serbian Novak Djokovicchampion last year on the clay in Paris and who left due to injury this time before the quarterfinals.
“As a child I used to run from school to go watch the games on television. Now I am lifting the trophy here,” Alcaraz was excited at the ceremony in which he received the long-awaited Musketeers Cup.
Third Grand Slam
At 21 years old, Alcaraz has already accumulated three Grand Slam tournaments since he had previously been crowned on hard court in the US Open in 2022 and on grass in Wimbledon in 2023.
He is the youngest player to score three majors on different surfaces, all evidence of his versatility. But above all he managed to register his name in the tournament where Spanish tennis has traditionally achieved its greatest feats: It is the 27th title of a Spanish tennis player in the individual draws at Roland Garros and 23rd in the men’s category.
Alcaraz thus joins his name to those of Spanish tennis myths such as himself. Nadal (record 14 titles), Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (3) or Manuel Santana (2). But also that of Juan Carlos Ferrero, his coach, who in 2003 was the last Spaniard to win the men’s category at the Philippe Chatrier before the ‘Nadal era’.
The clay court season ends for Alcaraz in the best way despite the fact that during it He had barely been able to play due to an injury on his right forearm, where he wore a special bandage in his seven games towards the title in the French capital.
Four hours and 19 minutes
On a sunny spring afternoon, Alcaraz started the match with solvent and effective tennis, multiplying the drop shots, in the tone of the fifth set that had allowed him to win on Friday in the semifinals against Sinner.
After an exchange of ‘breaks’ in the first two games, Alcaraz was much more solid with his serve while getting two more breaks of the German’s serve, to take the opening set 6-3.
In the second he reacted Zverev, who did not miss his service at any time. Two blows in the form of breaks, first for 3-2 and then 5-2, allowed him to score that set by 6-2 and get some oxygen.
Alcaraz then let the third set slip out of his hands: he led 5-2 but there he saw how Zverev chained five games in a row to win the set 7-5. The Spaniard’s reaction was an attack of rage, signing an unappealable 6-1 in the fourth.
Fifth sets are good for Alcaraz and was faithful to tradition, with two breaks along the way, He closed the duel with 6-2, after 4 hours and 19 minutes of vibrant battle.
Germany will continue waiting
It was the second Grand Slam final he reached Zverev and the second that ended in defeat, after the 2020 US Open against the Austrian Dominic Thiem.
Germany still has no men’s titles at Roland Garros in the ‘Open era’, where the only ones the country achieved were the six of Steffi Graf, but in the women’s team. The last German Grand Slam title in the men’s category dates back to the one achieved by Boris Becker at the 1996 Australian Open.
Before the men’s final, the women’s doubles final had been played on the same court, in which the American Coco Gauff and the Czech Katerina Siniakova They defeated the Italians Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani 7-6 (7/5) and 6-3.
Paolini thus lost his second final in two days. On Saturday she had fallen in the individual draw against the Polish Iga Swiatek.
