Carlos Alcaraz crushes Jannik Sinner with 'career-best serve' at US Open final: 'I now have to put him in that category'
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner had contrasting days while serving in the US Open final, and it was the thing that decided the match.
The US Open final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner presented an intriguing tactical battle, even though Alcaraz was largely dominant and in control of the final en route to his sixth grand slam victory and return to world number one ranking.
A typical Alcaraz vs Sinner match-up has often been a battle of who returns best: Sinner is already one of the best statistical returners in tennis history while also possessing a gun serve, while Alcaraz’s serve was often considered the weakest part of his game.
Things changed in New York, however, where Sinner’s serve was a little loose all tournament and particularly in the final, while Alcaraz’s was historically good – including the sort of clutch performance in the decisive fourth set that showed how much work the Spaniard has put in over recent months.
Former British star Tim Henman was of the same thought, applauding Alcaraz for the match, but also the tournament. Alcaraz was only broken three times in the entire US Open, tying the record for best performance on serve at this event alongside Pete Sampras.
“I have never seen Alcaraz serve like that. Think about the great servers in the game, and I now have to put Alcaraz in that category,” said Henman on Sky Sports. “Up against one of the great returners, it was just absolutely phenomenal how he was able to hit his spots with such pace and consistency and really give Sinner so few opportunities to get into those service games.”
Sinner's numbers extremely poor by his standards
{{/usCountry}}“I have never seen Alcaraz serve like that. Think about the great servers in the game, and I now have to put Alcaraz in that category,” said Henman on Sky Sports. “Up against one of the great returners, it was just absolutely phenomenal how he was able to hit his spots with such pace and consistency and really give Sinner so few opportunities to get into those service games.”
Sinner's numbers extremely poor by his standards
{{/usCountry}}The stats say it all in terms of the serve: Alcaraz hammered 10 aces compared to Sinner’s two, a discrepancy which is not usual in their regular matches, with eight of those aces coming in the two dominant sets to close the match out. Alcaraz landed 61% of his first serve, and Sinner struggled at 48%: what this combined to mean was that Sinner only managed to win 27% of points on Alcaraz’s serve, which is well short of the standard the Italian has set for himself.
{{/usCountry}}The stats say it all in terms of the serve: Alcaraz hammered 10 aces compared to Sinner’s two, a discrepancy which is not usual in their regular matches, with eight of those aces coming in the two dominant sets to close the match out. Alcaraz landed 61% of his first serve, and Sinner struggled at 48%: what this combined to mean was that Sinner only managed to win 27% of points on Alcaraz’s serve, which is well short of the standard the Italian has set for himself.
{{/usCountry}}To make matters worse, his own serve didn’t have the same venom and ability to earn him quick points and set up easy winners as it did at Wimbledon, for example. Sinner simply wasn’t tuned in, and was duly punished by Alcaraz. John McEnroe, one of the great servers of the tennis ball in history, thought he hadn’t seen Sinner play much worse.
“I would say the 14 matches they play, this is 15 now, the worst serving day he had, Sinner, of all of them,” explained Mac. “And I don’t have stats in front of me, but he gave Alcaraz too many opportunities, particularly when it looked like he was finding his way and won in the second set.”
Sinner faced 11 break points while Alcaraz only faced one all match, which somewhat tells the tale of the game. It is a jarring performance which has forced the Italian to rethink how he approaches matches against Sinner, with his head-to-head record now slipping to just 5 wins to accompany 10 heavy losses.
