Carlos Alcaraz left utterly confused during big mix-up minutes before Six Kings Slam final
It proved a difficult night all round for Carlos Alcaraz.
It was a difficult night for Carlos Alcaraz in Saudi Arabia as the world No.2 was beaten on court – and thoroughly confused off it. The Spaniard went down 6-7(5) 6-3 6-3 to Jannik Sinner in the final of the Six Kings Slam exhibition tournament.
After fighting back from a set down, it was Sinner took home a cheque for £4.6million, the largest prize fund in the history of men’s professional tennis.
While the result will not affect the ATP record of the pair, it underlines Sinner’s status as the new world No.1, capping a dramatic year that also saw him crowned Australian Open and US Open champion.
And the final started as regrettably as it ended for Alcaraz. The 21-year-old was in place for his grand introduction in Riyadh, but soon realised all was not as it seemed when the announcer said over the microphone: “Introducing the world’s No.1 player, a 23-year-old from Italy.
“This year alone he’s won 65 matches and he’s only lost five times, and along the way he’s won his first two Grand Slam Championships in Australia and the United States. Please welcome to Riyadh, Jannik Sinner.”
By the time the Italian entered the fray, the scene had already become cringeworthy, with Alcaraz initially looking around confused. He was then seen pointing towards the backstage area and ushering his opponent to come out instead of him.
Eventually, Alcaraz did laugh as he swiftly retreated to allow Sinner to walk out first. The eventual champion also saw the funny side, but it made for an awkward opening to what had been billed as a showpiece occasion in Saudi.
The significance of the victory was about more than just money for Sinner though, given he had previously lost all three ATP meetings with Alcaraz this year. The most recent example came in the final of the China Open this month.
And it looked like a fourth straight defeat was on the cards after Alacaraz fought back from 4-1 down in the first set to take a tie-break. He also seemed to have the momentum in the second, levelling at 3-3 after being 3-1 down.
But from there, Sinner went through the gears to break twice in succession and then didn’t even face a break point in the decider. And afterwards, he talked up the rivalry between the two players.
“These kind of rivalries and players push us to our 100 per cent limit,” he said. “I’m happy about this today. But the reason we came here was to show all of you what tennis is about. It can be long sometimes, like today. But we just try our best. Hopefully you enjoyed the show.”
