WIMBLEDON, England — Carlos Alcaraz must do something he’s never been forced to before: He must figure out how to move past a loss in a Grand Slam final.
Alcaraz was 5-0 in title matches at the majors until Sunday, when his reign at Wimbledon ended with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 defeat against No. 1 Jannik Sinner.
“It’s always a bad feeling, losing matches,” the second-ranked Alcaraz said. “It’s a little bit even worse when you lose in a final.”
Truth is, he isn’t used to coming out on the wrong end of the score much at all.
Alcaraz had won 20 matches in a row at the All England Club, grabbing the 2023 and 2024 championships with victories over Novak Djokovic.
He came into Sunday on a career-long 24-match unbeaten streak this season.
And he had taken five consecutive matches against Sinner, including their epic five-set final at the French Open five weeks earlier.
“I just want to keep the good moments and try to forget the bad moments,” Alcaraz said Sunday. “I just want to think, ‘OK, I just played a final in a Grand Slam, and try to forget that I lost it.'”
He started well at Centre Court, collecting the opening set with some spectacular play from 4-all, such as a 140 mph ace to hold for 5-4 and a cross-court backhand winner to break in the next game.
But as the match wore on, his ability to get to Sinner’s serve waned: Over the last three sets, Alcaraz accumulated only three break points and converted zero. Another issue was that Alcaraz’s serving, while speedy, was spotty.
Yes, there were 15 aces, but there also were seven double-faults. His first-serve percentage was just 53%. He was broken a total of five times, at least once per set.
One particular problem was his second serve, because Sinner was hammering returns on those slower offerings.
That left Alcaraz on the defensive too often.
“Today was complicated, a little bit,” Alcaraz said, crediting Sinner with being “one of the best returners on tour, without a doubt.”
“I mean, with the nerves and everything, it was difficult to serve better,” Alcaraz said. “I just have to improve that, absolutely.”
He also acknowledged that if he had a dip in form, it was caused more by Sinner than any sort of fatigue.
“He was pushing me to the limit on every point. So mentally, sometimes, it’s really tough to maintain the good focus or the good level during the whole match when you see the opponent just playing such a great tennis,” Alcaraz said. “At some points, I didn’t know what I had to do in the match, because from the baseline, I was feeling he was better than me, and I couldn’t do anything about it.”
