Atp Finals, the Master of Tennis is still Italian, Sinner beats Alcaraz

The two cannibal masters who in the last two years have left the rest of the world's tennis crumbs to the world offered a sporting show with few equals. It was Sinner who won two sets to nil (7-6, 7-5), conceding his encore in Turin in an Atp Finals final that, predictably, ignited the enthusiasm of the crowd that packed the Inalpi Arena and the millions of spectators who followed it on TV (probably only the non-overlap with the irrelevant Italy-Norway World Cup match prevented a historic overtaking in the audience).

Sinner won in the tiebreak (7:4) a very balanced first set - interrupted for more than 11 minutes due to a spectator falling ill and a medical timeout called at 5:4 in his favour by Alcaraz. The Spaniard had a set point at 6-5 with Jannik serving, but Sinner leveraged his serve to break the deadlock (firing a second serve over 180 km to his opponent's body), as well as other small moments of difficulty encountered during the first game. Sinner obtained six aces and many direct points that put the number one ranking player under pressure, also forcing the second with two double faults. In the decisive moment the Italian tennis player showed great technique with two lobs that overcame Alcaraz in the advance.

Two consecutive double faults at the start of the second set condemned Sinner who started by dropping his serve, with an obvious drop in concentration after the fatigue of the first set. The situation was reversed at 3-2 for Alcaraz, who made a couple of free errors, in particular an apparently uncomplicated volley, giving Sinner the first break of the match, which he exploited fortunately, with a slammed return. The efficiency of the world number two's first serve drops from around 70 to 50 per cent in the second set and this reduction allows Alcaraz (who alternates with forehand errors and deadly strokes) to lengthen the exchanges. The seventh game lasts more than seven minutes and eventually Sinner manages to make it his by clinging to the long exchanges. It goes on game after game until the twelfth game, when Sinner finds the cues to corner Alcaraz (who plays the entire match with a bandage on his right leg) and force him into fatal errors. It ended with the break point that for the second year in a row gave Sinner the Maestro title on 7-5.

A victory that does not affect the Atp ranking, but the wallet (already rich again this year of the two champions) does. The cheque for the undefeated champion, in fact, has been increased to $5.07 million this year, the highest prize ever awarded in the history of the Atp. With a total prize money for the Finals of $15,500,000, the loser of the final act had to settle for around $2.7 million.