Jannik Sinner faced Carlos Alcaraz in the 2024 China Open final, and after losing, the Italian wasn't in the mood to dissect the match.
It was a fabulous tennis match that went over three hours and featured some of the best tennis we've seen from both players in recent weeks. Alcaraz is back to his former self, finding a good level in recent weeks, which culminated in his performance in the final of the ATP 500 event in Beijing and the trophy.
He didn't play his absolute best, but when it really mattered, in the final-set tie-break, Alcaraz played some superb tennis to win the match. Sinner was very close to winning the match, coming two points away from that, but still, he couldn't close it out despite having a 3-0 lead in the tie-break.
Both of them had some issues playing with a lead, as both lost big leads that they shouldn't have. Alcaraz was up by a break in the opening set and served for it, but then he got broken and lost that set in a tie-break, in which he also had a lead.
Sinner had chances in the second set but failed to convert them. Alcaraz then won the second set and even jumped out to an early lead in the final one. He had a chance to go up a double break but failed to use that, and then his Italian rival broke back and came two points from winning the match at 6-5.
He opened the tie-break with two mini-breaks, leading 3-0, and hit a wonderful serve that barely touched the net, but it did. It was a let, and if it wasn't and Sinner took the 4-0 lead, who knows what might have happened in the match.
He was asked about that final-set tie-break and he referenced that serve but ultimately dismissed dissecting individual points like that.
"It can happen. Was up 3-0. I served very good. Touched the net, the first ball. If I go 4-0, it already a bit different. It's unnecessary to talk about certain points. I felt like he played great point also on 3-0 and 3-1, then he served very well on 3-2. The margins are very small."
"In the tiebreaks, the small margins, they seem very big. That's it. You have to accept it. You have to keep working on a couple of things. I won many tiebreaks in the last period of time. This one, it went away. That's it, no? It's all good."
It was a match of margins, and both looked like the better player at times in this match. Ultimately, when it mattered the most to the outcome of the match, it was Alcaraz who was able to exploit those margins and win.
Sinner also generally didn't have the sharpest week in Beijing. In most of his matches, the Italian struggled more than it was expected. In fact, the final was his best match; it just didn’t prove enough.