Carlos Alcaraz achieved another big landmark in his career, his first title at Cincinnati Open, one of the few Masters 1,000 still missing from his account, and a firm step into recovering World No. 1. However, he won the match by default after his rival, World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, retired from the match after 23 minutes feeling ill. Naturally, nobody likes to win like that, and he looked almost as serious and downcast as Jannik when the match was over.
"This is not the way that I want to win trophies, I just have to say sorry, I can understand how you can feel right now", Alcaraz said when he picked the trophy. "I can't say anything you don't know already, but you are a true champion and I'm sure that from this situation you will come stronger".
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After checking on him when Sinner was left sitting with a haunting gaze when he announced his retirement, Alcaraz went to sign the camera, as usual, but instead he wrote "Sorry Jannik :(".
Later, speaking to the press, he said that he knew something wasn't right after winning the third game. "I know him. I've been battling against him, the last two years, having great matches, great battles. And I know his style. I know his game. After the third game, I noticed that he was more aggressive than he used to be. He was missing more often and missing before the third shot. That is pretty weird from him. So I just noticed that his body language wasn't the best."
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But the truth is that know things look better for Alcaraz than Sinner: he extends his lead in the head to head, to 9 victories from the Spaniard over 5; adds a fifth title this year (already a record in his career), including 13 big titles (8 Masters 1,000 and 5 Grand Slams), above Sinner's 9 big titles (4 Grand Slams, 4 Masters 1,000 and one ATP Finals). And when taking out the results of last year's US Open, he would already be World No. 1.
"Since I lost that final in 2023, I wanted this trophy really, really badly. I'm just really proud and happy to be able to lift it", Alcaraz said, who thanked his team for the work during the week.