{"id":204632,"date":"2025-09-06T09:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T09:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/204632\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T09:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T09:32:09","slug":"alcaraz-beats-djokovic-at-us-open-faces-sinner-in-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/204632\/","title":{"rendered":"Alcaraz beats Djokovic at US Open, faces Sinner in final"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> was about to start a series of TV interviews to discuss the way he used his youth, athleticism and creativity to beat the much more accomplished, but also much older, Novak Djokovic 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the U.S. Open<\/a> semifinals Friday. <\/p>\n

First, though, Alcaraz asked everyone to hold on for a moment. He pulled his cell phone out of a pocket so he could check the score of Jannik Sinner\u2019s semifinal against Felix Auger-Aliassime. It was still only the first set of that match, but you\u2019ve got to keep tabs on your biggest rival, right?<\/p>\n

A few hours later, Sinner would finish off his 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Auger-Aliassime, establishing the Flushing Meadows final that somehow seemed inevitable, even if unprecedented: No. 1 Sinner and No. 2 Alcaraz will meet Sunday to decide the U.S. Open champion, marking the first time the same two men have played each other in three consecutive Grand Slam finals within one season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese two players,\u201d said Djokovic, a 24-time major champion<\/a>, \u201care the best in the world right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

No doubt about that. They have established themselves as far and away the elite men in the game. <\/p>\n

No matter Sunday\u2019s result, the duo will have split the past eight major trophies and taken 10 of the past 13. Their career totals: Alcaraz owns five Slam titles, Sinner four.<\/p>\n

And the No. 1 ranking will be on the line Sunday, when President Donald Trump plans to attend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz defeated Sinner<\/a> at the French Open in June; Sinner defeated Alcaraz at Wimbledon in July. <\/p>\n

Sinner is trying to become the first repeat men\u2019s champion in New York since Roger Federer won the hard-court tournament five years in a row from 2004 through 2008. Sinner also has made it to five straight Grand Slam finals, a stretch that started at the U.S. Open 12 months ago.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz hasn\u2019t dropped a set as he pursues his sixth major title and second at Flushing Meadows. <\/p>\n

Go back to April, and Alcaraz is 44-2, making it to the finals at each of his last eight tour-level events. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that I\u2019m working on, just the consistency on the matches, on the tournaments, on the year, in general. Just not having up-and-downs in (a) match,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cProbably, I\u2019m just getting mature, just getting to know myself much better, what I need on, off the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the start of 2024, Sinner is 1-6 against Alcaraz \u2014 and 109-4 against anyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have played quite a lot this year,\u201d Sinner said. \u201cSo we know each other very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz had lost his two most recent matches against Djokovic \u2014 in the gold-medal final at the Paris Olympics last year, and in the Australian Open quarterfinals this January.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy playing against him, to be honest,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cI\u2019m thinking about the legend; what he has achieved in his career. It\u2019s difficult not to think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But by the end, Djokovic was \u201cgassed out,\u201d as he described it afterward, and seemed resigned to the result. The 38-year-old from Serbia reached the semifinals at all four Slams this season but exited in that round each time, three via losses to No. 2 Alcaraz, 22, or Sinner, 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating on the court when you are not able to keep up with that level physically, but at the same time, it\u2019s something also expected, I guess,\u201d Djokovic said. \u201cIt comes with time and with age.\u201d<\/p>\n

His bid to become the first player in the sport\u2019s history to get Slam No. 25 was blocked again, and he thinks part of the issue is trying to overcome much younger men in best-of-five set matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still want to play … (a) full Grand Slam season next year,\u201d Djokovic said. \u201cLet\u2019s see whether that\u2019s going to happen or not, but … Slams are Slams. They are just different from any other tournament. They are the pillars of our sport, the most important tournaments we have. But I do fancy my chances a bit more in best-of-three.\u201d<\/p>\n

He led Alcaraz 3-0 in the second set, but couldn\u2019t sustain that level.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, I\u2019d say, it wasn\u2019t the best level of the tournament for me,\u201d said Alcaraz, whose 30 unforced errors were the same as Djokovic\u2019s total, \u201cbut I just kept a cool level (from) the beginning until the last point.\u201d <\/p>\n

He was wearing a pink, sleeveless shirt and sporting nearly a full head of hair less than two weeks after showing up with a buzz cut he said was necessary when his brother tried to play barber but messed up.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he\u2019ll stick with the new look if he wins on Sunday, Alcaraz smiled and replied: \u201cEven better. You will see. … Surprise, surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Howard Fendrich has been the AP\u2019s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https:\/\/apnews.com\/author\/howard-fendrich<\/a>. More AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Carlos Alcaraz was about to start a series of TV interviews to discuss the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":204633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1466,69,10642,57,18826,1824,403,9125,13158,62,1464,62213,67,132,68,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-204632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-felix-auger-aliassime","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-howard-fendrich","13":"tag-jannik-sinner","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-novak-djokovic","16":"tag-roger-federer","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-tennis","19":"tag-u-s-open-tennis-championships","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115156664014688192","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204632","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=204632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}