Carlos Alcaraz’s Wimbledon campaign came to an end at the hands of fellow top young player Jannik Sinner. The Italian dispatched the 19-year-old 6-1 6-4 6-7(8) 6-3 in a battle of the ‘Next Gens’ on Centre Court to set up a potential meeting with Novak Djokovic.
Alcaraz and Sinner were facing off for just the second time on the ATP Tour, in what was the youngest Wimbledon men’s match in the second week since 1985, when a then-17-year-old Boris Becker defeated then-21-year-old Henri Leconte in the quarter-final. The Spaniard lead their head-to-head after winning their only tour-level match at the Paris Masters last year, and had also defeated the 20-year-old at the Alicante Challenger in 2019.
But it was Sinner who got off to a stronger start, breaking the fifth seed for a 3-1 lead in the opener. And Alcaraz continued to struggle as the Italian forced more errors from his opponent, also serving a double fault to find himself facing two more break points in his next service game. Another mistake gave Sinner the game as the 10th seed closed out a 6-1 first set in just 30 minutes.
The mistakes kept on coming for the 19-year-old as he started the second set with a double fault and was immediately broke, losing his sixth game in a row to suffer a moral bagel to Sinner. It was then the Italian’s turn to struggle as he fired back-to-back unforced errors to give Alcaraz a break point but he held on for a set-and-break lead after winning a seventh successive game.
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The Spanish teenager finally got back on the board, sealing the game with an ace as he stopped his opponent’s run to trail 1-2 in the second. Both men continued to hold, with Sinner serving out a two-set lead to love, putting himself within touching distance of a third Grand Slam quarter-final while Alcaraz looked flat in comparison to the 20-year-old. And Alcaraz found himself facing three break points immediately at the start of the third but rallied to hold for 1-0, hitting three winners en route in what looked to be something of a turning point for the Spaniard who started to look more like his usual self.
They continued to hold, forcing a third set tiebreak. There were no minibreaks as the young stars changed ends at 3-3 but it was Sinner who was first to crack as he served from the other end, failing to get the ball over the net to gift Alcaraz a 4-3 lead and he held twice to set up three set points. But with the Spaniard serving for it on the third one, Sinner fired a cross-court forehand winner to level at 6-6.
An error from the fifth seed’s racket gave the Italian a match point but he dumped the ball in the net again. A big serve set up a second match point for Sinner but he couldn’t capitalise on a second serve from the Spaniard and Alcaraz earned a fourth set point at 9-8, forcing a fourth set after an error from Sinner gifted him the third.
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Sinner saved two break points to start the fourth set and was the first to pounce, breaking for a 3-1 lead. He then won five points in a row from 0-40 down to solidify his break and go 4-1 up. Two errors from Alcaraz at 2-5 saw him staring down the barrel of defeat at 15-30 and the 10th seed hit a backhand drop shot winner to set up two more match points.
Alcaraz saved both but – just like in the third set tiebreak – Sinner wowed the crowd with a cross-court forehand winner and set up his fifth match point. It was saved with a 127mph serve from the 19-year-old but Sinner successfully challenged a ball to deny Alcaraz a game point. But the Spaniard held to force Sinner to close out the match himself, and the 20-year-old saved a break point to serve out a 6-1 6-4 6-7(8) 6-3 victory after three hours and 35 minutes on his sixth match point.
Sinner will next face either top seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic, or breakout grass-season star Tim Van Rijthoven, who play next up on Centre Court. The Italian had never won a match at Wimbledon before this year, making his debut in 2021 and losing his opening match to Marton Fucsovics. Alcaraz himself had also enjoyed a career-best run at Wimbledon as he also made his debut 12 months ago and failed to get past the second round.
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