Did any of you watch the US Open final?
Only 4 sets, but my goodness Alcaraz, aside from a drop in the 2nd set, was on fire.
That 2nd set loss was the only set he lost in the entire championship.
Probably one of the most complete tennis displays I have ever seen, from all areas of the court.
Two contributory factors, though neither would have changed the course of the game in my opinion.
Sinner's serve was not working very well, at least 4 double faults I witnessed.
Alcaraz's serve was in the groove, not a single double fault, and putting in +130mph bullets regularly.
That's not to say they didn't come back the vast majority of the time, but it gave him in general, a good place to attack from.
IIRC, Sinner has lost to Alcaraz in 7 of their last 8 encounters - that's pretty big in the scheme of things I would have thought.
Random, but I found interesting stat that the aussie commentators shared - Nadal V Federer lifetime final score ended up 24 - 16, but Fed won 7 of their last 8 encounters.
My perception of the actual play, was that Sinner played to a very high level, but didn't have a ton of variety.
Alcaraz on the other hand, would give variety a bad name, he was mixing up the shots all over the place, Sinner couldn't know what was coming next.
One of my favourites is when she shapes to make a drop shot, but then just bunts it to the back of the court.
The last 2 years they have picked up two grand slams each, I'd really like to see one or two more players making their way up there to properly challenge. I still have high hopes for Draper - who else is there that looks likely?
I can't see Djok taking another slam title, unless there is the absolute perfect storm - in that Alcaraz and sinner play each other in the quarters/semis, and then one of them get's injured before, or whilst playing him - if either are fit, I don't see them losing to him.
Happy to be proven wrong though.