World number one Jannik Sinner and hot rival Carlos Alcaraz will face off in a major final for the fourth time this season after both booked straight-set wins into the title match at the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Saturday (August 16, 2025). <\/p>\n
Defending champion Sinner ruthlessly subdued 136th-ranked qualifier Terence Atmane 7-6 (7\/4), 6-2 while Spanish second seed Alcaraz defeated an ailing Alexander Zverev, who was suffering badly from the 32 Celsius heat and humidity, by 6-4, 6-3. <\/p>\n
Alcaraz and Sinner have played for trophies this season in Rome, Roland Garros and Wimbledon, with the Italian winning their most recent at the All England Club last month. <\/p>\n
Sinner, celebrating his 24th birthday, ended Frenchman Atmane\u2019s dream run and will now try to become the first man since Roger Federer in 2014-15 to win back-to-back titles in Cincinnati. <\/p>\n
Sinner, tuning up for the US Open in his first tournament since winning Wimbledon, hasn\u2019t dropped a set en route to the final. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very, very tough challenge every time you play a new opponent,\u201d Sinner said. \u201cIn the later stages of the tournament,the pressure is on, they deserve to be there.\u201d <\/p>\n
Alcaraz will also be playing in his second Cincy final after losing to Novak Djokovic in 2023. <\/p>\n
The Spaniard increased his ATP season match win lead to 53 in a year of five titles. <\/p>\n
Alcaraz broke Zverev once in the opening set to claim it before the German, who is diabetic, began feeling poorly and took a medical timeout off court after the third game of the second set. <\/p>\n
Zverev, who has retired in only two matches since 2014, came back out to finish what was a patchy match from Alcaraz, who double-faulted for times in the second game of the second set but won the last 12 points with Zverev running on fumes. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe started well with good rallies, a good level,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cAll of a sudden he felt bad and I was thinking more about how he was feeling instead of playing good tennis. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tough and I just wish him all the best.\u201d <\/p>\n
Alcaraz said he is keen to try and take his Wimbledon revenge on Sinner in the unorthodox Monday final. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe always bring our best tennis. We raise each other\u2019s level. I\u2019m ready to take the challenge,\u201d Alcaraz said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI will try and adjust my game better and correct what I did wrong in our last match. I want to be ready with my 100%. Mentally I\u2019ll be ready — I\u2019m excited for Monday.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u2018Pressure was on me\u2019<\/p>\n
Atmane gave birthday boy Sinner a Pokemon card shortly before they went on court, but he was in a less giving mood once they were underway.<\/p>\n
But Sinner surrendered just three points in his first six service games as they went to the tiebreaker with neither man facing a break point. <\/p>\n
Atmane double faulted on the first point of the decider and Sinner was away, powering to a 5-2 lead and pocketing the set at his second opportunity. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy experience helped in the first set,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m very happy to go through to another final. <\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to focus on myself, how I usually play, and then try to adapt a little bit to his game style,\u201d Sinner said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s exactly what I did today. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe pressure was on me. That\u2019s normal in the position where I am in — he was ready to fight.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal has always been the US Open, But we have put in the work here, in the gym and in practice. I just hope to be ready for New York.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sinner showed a first sign of vulnerability as he needed five game points to hold serve in the opening game of the second set. <\/p>\n
But that was the closest look Atmane got at his serve, and Sinner broke the Frenchman for a 3-1 lead and again to seal the match. <\/p>\n
Atmane, who is projected to crack the top 70 in the world rankings, became Sinner\u2019s 22nd straight French victim since May 2021, when he lost to Arthur Rinderknech in Lyon.<\/p>\n
Published – August 17, 2025 09:23 am IST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World number one Jannik Sinner and hot rival Carlos Alcaraz will face off in a major final for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":153914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[89996,67759,89995,89997,62,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-153913","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-carlos-alcaraz-to-meet-jannik-sinner-in-the-final","9":"tag-cincinnati-open","10":"tag-cincinnati-open-tennis-chamionship","11":"tag-sinner-and-alcaraz-score-dominant-semifinal-victories","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115045887154136372","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}