Jannik Sinner bested Carlos Alcaraz for the first time in the 2024 season to be crowned champion at the Six Kings Slam in Riyadh.
The 2024 Six Kings Slam certainly got the resolution that most tennis fans hoped to see. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic met in the last-ever match of their historic rivalry, while Alcaraz and Sinner grew their rivalry by another match.
While for the two legendary players who won a combined 46 Grand Slams, it was a third-round match, the two youngsters demonstrated the often-discussed changing of the guard by playing the event's final.
And the tennis event at the Riyadh Season certainly concluded in the best possible way, as the two delivered a three-set show, as they almost always do when they meet on the court.
The match started with a funny moment. Alcaraz was ready to enter the court, but as the announcer started listing his achievements, the young Spaniard immediately realized that he was talking about his opponent.
The World No. 2 quickly pointed that out to his rival, showing him that he should walk onto the court first. With that sorted, their 12th meeting could get underway.
Both easily held in their first service game, but Sinner then increased the intensity a little bit, getting the first break of the match to lead 4-1. However, Alcaraz was able to respond almost immediately, leveling the score of the match at four-all while saving a break point in the process.
Both then had to fight for every point on their serves, but no more break points were on offer in the opening set, which meant that it had to be decided in a tie-break.
In their last meeting, which was the China Open final, they played two tie-breaks, with each player winning one. The Italian player won the opening-set tie-break in Beijing, so he certainly wanted to repeat that in Riyadh, but Alcaraz got the first mini-break, leading 3-1.
The Spanish player then lost that advantage, with the scoreboard level at 5-5. But he was still able to win the last two points of the set to win the tie-break 7-5 and gain the crucial advantage.
However, Sinner quickly threatened to erase that advantage in the second set, as he broke first again, and this time, when leading 3-1, the Italian had four break points to go up by two breaks.
He couldn't do that, as Alcaraz had a run of points that saw him level the score at 3-3 and lead 30-15 on his serve. But the Spaniard wasn't able to stay ahead for too long.
Sinner started his own string of points won, winning 10 of the last 11 points of the second set to win it 6-3 and force the decider in the 2024 Six Kings Slam final.
The deciding set started once again with the first break point opportunity for the Italian player, but this time, he didn't use it. On top of that, at times, it looked like Sinner was out of breath, something that his opponent certainly wanted to use to his advantage.
But Alcaraz wasn't able to create much pressure on Sinner's serve, and he had plenty of problems on his own serve. In the eighth game of the third set, the Spaniard felt the pressure, hitting two double faults in one game, his only two double faults of the match.
That proved to be detrimental for the Spanish player, as Sinner was almost flawless on his serve, holding to love in his last service game to win the match 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3, and lift the 2024 Six Kings Slam trophy.
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