PARIS (AP) — Carlos Alcaraz successfully defended his French Open title on Sunday with a performance for the ages, winning the longest final at Roland-Garros in the Open era.
Alcaraz produced a stunning comeback, rallying from two sets down to beat top-ranked Jannik Sinner 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10-2) after saving three match points.
Here’s a by-the-numbers look at the thrilling final:
5
Alcaraz won his fifth Grand Slam title, in as many finals. The 22-year-old Spaniard became the third youngest man in history to reach that milestone after Bjorn Borg (21) and Rafael Nadal (22). And it was the fifth time in succession Alcaraz has beaten Sinner overall.
5 hours, 29 minutes
This was the longest men’s final at Roland-Garros. The previous record was held by Mats Wilander and Guillermo Vilas in 1982 (4 hours and 42 minutes).
3
The number of match points saved by Alcaraz. He battled back from 3–5, 0-40 down in the fourth set. He saved the first match point when Sinner sent a forehand long. Sinner missed a return on the second, then Alcaraz came out on top of a short baseline rally. Alcaraz is just the third man in the Open era to save at least one championship point on his way to a Grand Slam trophy, joining Gaston Gaudio at the 2004 French Open and Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon in 2019. It was only the third time that a men’s singles Grand Slam final has been decided by a fifth-set tiebreaker after Dominic Thiem defeated Alexander Zverev at the 2020 U.S. Open, and Djokovic beat Roger Federer at the 2019 Wimbledon final.
9
Alcaraz is the ninth man in the Open era to rally from two sets down to win a major final.
22
The number of wins on clay for Alcaraz this year, with only one defeat.
1
Alcaraz has won a best-of-5 match after losing the opening two sets for the first time.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
