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US Open winner and at the top of the world rankings: Carlos Alcaraz is amazed
Photo:
MIKE SEGAR / REUTERS
Carlos Alcaraz has won a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career.
The young Spaniard won the US Open final against Casper Ruud 6:4, 2:6, 7:6 (7:1), 6:3 and will take the lead in the world rankings as an additional reward.
Before Alcaraz, 19, no professional in the Open Era (since 1968) has managed this at such an early stage - so far Lleyton Hewitt (20 years, eight months and 23 days in 2001) was the youngest world number one in history.
In the absence of the Big Three of tennis - Roger Federer (injured), Novak Djoković (banned from entering the country due to a missing corona vaccination) and Rafael Nadal (out in the round of 16) - Alcaraz and Ruud showed a thrilling, spectacular final.
For years there has been speculation about a generation change in tennis, with Alacaraz at the top it could now become reality.
In front of almost 24,000 spectators at Arthur Ashe Stadium, if Ruud had won, he would have jumped to the top of the world rankings as well.
The Norwegian was already in the final of the French Open this year, where he clearly lost to Nadal.
Ruud will find himself second in the rankings next week, behind Alcaraz but ahead of Nadal and Daniil Medvedev, who won the US Open last year and topped the world rankings before the US Open.
Alcaraz fights against tiredness
Alcaraz had had to play five sets each in the three previous rounds against Marin Cilic, Jannik Sinner and Frances Tiafoe.
However, physical problems did not initially affect the protégé of coach Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Instead, he chased every ball and showed entertaining, varied tennis with many stop balls.
Alcaraz managed to break early in the first set, which he always knew how to defend as the game progressed.
Ruud, on the other hand, showed himself to be a fair sportsman when he corrected a wrong decision by the referee when the score was 3:4 - a ball had touched the ground for the second time - and allowed Alcaraz to win the point.
Ruud then got better and better, also because Alcaraz was now showing the effort.
Willingness to run and concentration decreased, while Ruud made important and spectacular points with his forehand.
With two breaks, the second set was quickly decided.
The match turns with the tiebreak
Ruud and Alcaraz showed the rally of the game in the middle of the third set.
When the score was 4:4, server Ruud was under pressure, the ball went back and forth 17 times with the greatest intensity, in the end Alcaraz received a well-placed volley and, when it fell, put the felt ball just next to the line.
Ruud, otherwise not a player with great outbursts of emotion, raised his fist in the sky while Alcaraz grinned at the camera despite the effort.
At this point, Ruud seemed to be the more active player with the momentum on his side.
But Alcaraz saved himself in the tie-break - and literally rolled over his opponent, who was now too passive.
The young star took this momentum into the fourth set, and Alcaraz managed the decisive break in the sixth game.
Now he has written tennis history.
kra