Alcaraz rallies in French thriller: 'Just believed'

Carlos Alcaraz said he always believed he could come back as he rallied from two sets down and saved three match points to beat world No. 1 Jannik Sinner 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10-2) to win his second straight French Open title Sunday.

In a thrilling final, the 22-year-old trailed 5-3, 0-40 on serve in the fourth set but recovered to win his fifth Grand Slam title after 5 hours, 29 minutes, the longest French Open men's final in the Open era and the second-longest men's Grand Slam final ever.

"The match is not finished until he wins the last point," Alcaraz said in his postmatch news conference. "A lot of times people came back from match point down in final of a Grand Slam or even in other matches. I just wanted to be one of those players who saved match point in the Grand Slam final and ended up winning.

"I just believed all the time. I never doubted myself, even in those match points down. I thought, just one point at a time. Just one point and then after one point, try to save that game and keep believing. That's what I thought."

Alcaraz is the eighth man in the Open era to successfully defend the Roland Garros title and is the first man to save match points and win a Grand Slam final since Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2019.

It's the first time in nine attempts that Alcaraz has come from two sets down to win a match. He is now 5-0 in Slam finals and extended his head-to-head advantage over Sinner to 8-4.

An Alcaraz comeback looked unlikely as Sinner, chasing his first French Open title and fourth Grand Slam title overall, took the first two sets and broke early in the third.

Alcaraz, roared on by a crowd inside Court Philippe Chatrier that included actor Dustin Hoffman, film director Spike Lee and a host of sporting heroes, hit back to take the third, but the match again looked over when Sinner had three match points at 0-40 on the Alcaraz serve in the ninth game of the fourth.

However, the Spaniard dug himself out of a hole to take the set on the tiebreak and then, after letting an early lead slip in the fifth, rebounded for victory, taking his tally in deciding-set tiebreaks to 12-2.

"When the situations are against you, you have to fight, keep fighting," Alcaraz said. "It is a Grand Slam final. It's no time to be tired. It's no time to give up. It's time to keep fighting, try to find your moment, your good place again, and just go for it.

"I think the real champions are made in [those] situations when you deal with that pressure in the best way possible. That's what the real champions have done in their whole careers. I'm just trying to feel comfortable in the situations with the pressure, and I'm not being afraid of it."

Alcaraz is exactly the same age -- 22 years, 1 month, 3 days old -- as his countryman Rafael Nadal was when he won his fifth Grand Slam title. Nadal was among the first people to congratulate Alcaraz on social media, joined by Billie Jean King and the Real Madrid football team.

"Honestly, the coincidence of winning my fifth Grand Slam in the same age as Rafa Nadal, I'm going to say that's destiny, I guess," Alcaraz said, smiling. "It is a stat that I'm going to keep for me forever, winning the fifth Grand Slam at the same time as Rafa, my idol, my inspiration. It's a huge honor honestly. Hopefully it's not going to stop like this."

Alcaraz's coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, told a news conference that the comeback was even more remarkable than when Alcaraz saved a match point in his quarterfinal win over Sinner at the 2022 US Open, when he won his first major.

"I'm not going to say that I was believing that he was able to recover from that 5-3, love-40," he said. "But one more time with Carlos, everything is possible, and he did it again. Amazing achieve[ment]."

Sinner looked shell-shocked at the end of the match. "I don't think I will sleep very well tonight," he said at the trophy presentation.

"Happy about the tournament still," he said later at a news conference. "But obviously this one hurts.

"It's a very high-level match, that's for sure. Happy to be part of this. But yeah, the final result hurts.

"Today I had chances. I was break up in the third. Was break up in the fourth. Was three match points. Serving for the match. Came back. 6-5, I had chances also in the fifth. So many chances I couldn't use. Sometimes you have these days. You can't really do anything now."