PARIS: Carlos Alcaraz beat incoming world number one Jannik Sinner 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Friday to reach the French Open final and continue his bid for a third Grand Slam title.
Alcaraz, 21, will play fourth seed Alexander Zverev or two-time Roland Garros runner-up Casper Ruud on Sunday after becoming the youngest man to reach Grand Slam finals on all three surfaces.
“It’s one of the toughest matches I’ve played for sure,” said Alcaraz.
“The toughest I’ve played in my short career have been against Jannik. I hope to play many, many more like this.”
“You have to find the joy in suffering,” the Spaniard added.
Alcaraz has won both of his two previous major finals — at Wimbledon last year and the 2022 US Open. Victory on Sunday would see him head to the Australian Open next January seeking a career Grand Slam.
Both Alcaraz and Sinner arrived in Paris under an injury cloud, gradually finding their best level over the course of the tournament to set up a meeting billed as the match “everybody wants to see.”
The ninth chapter of an enthralling rivalry destined to shape the future of the sport was the youngest Grand Slam semifinal pairing since Andy Murray beat Rafael Nadal at the 2008 US Open.
It was their first Grand Slam meeting since a spectacular five-set quarter-final two years ago in New York, and while perhaps not as exhilarating this one was no less gripping.
Alcaraz, who was hampered badly by cramp in last year’s semifinal loss to Novak Djokovic, had said that playing Sinner was like running a marathon, and it was the Spaniard doing much of the chasing early.
Sinner pinned Alcaraz on the back foot straight away as he broke in the very first game, blending impenetrable defense with searing groundstrokes as he went on the attack.
After holding with ease the Australian Open champion belted a forehand winner for another break opportunity in the third game, sweeping 3-0 in front following an Alcaraz miscue.
Alcaraz finally got on the board in the fifth game before retrieving a break, but he handed it right back and Sinner bagged the first set when the Spaniard dumped a drop-shot into the net.
Sinner began the second set in identical fashion, earning another break after a loose Alcaraz service game and consolidating for a 2-0 edge on a picture-perfect day in Paris.
Alcaraz belatedly spluttered into life though as Sinner struggled to maintain his sky-high standards from the opening set and presented his rival three break points with a double-fault.
A brilliant cross-court winner hauled Alcaraz back on serve, with the Spaniard soon accelerating 5-2 ahead following another break as Sinner sprayed his forehand wide.
Sinner temporarily slowed the Alcaraz charge, ending his five-game winning stretch, but the third seed levelled up the match the next game.
The early onslaught from Sinner felt a distant memory as Alcaraz pounced to break for a 2-1 lead in the third set, flicking a sublime backhand passing shot beyond a powerless Sinner.
Yet the momentum was quickly back with Sinner.
He ripped a blistering one-two combination of forehands to get back on serve and then resisted four break points in a lengthy fifth game before holding for 3-2.
Sinner received a massage from the physio for apparent cramp in his right forearm, but he brushed off any physical issue as he hammered a backhand return past Alcaraz to break again.
A tame Alcaraz forehand into the net handed Sinner the third set. A sense of calmness enveloped the fourth, with not a single break point on offer until a sizzling Alcaraz backhand brought about a set point.
He didn’t flinch and sent the match to a decider with a winner into the open court.
Alcaraz’s approach to grind Sinner down coupled with timely shotmaking allowed him to strike the critical blow in the second game of the fifth set.
Sinner, while visibly flagging more than his re-energised rival, did not go down without a fight, but Alcaraz finally put him away after four hours of another seismic showdown.

KARACHI: Pakistan cricket fans were hurt and angry Friday after a stunning T20 World Cup loss to hosts the United States, describing it as a historic rock-bottom for their beloved national sport.
“I am distraught,” said retired banker Raju Jameel, who was close to tears after staying up late to watch the match on big screens in a shopping district in Karachi.
“It’s hurtful and shameful, and there must be a thorough investigation of this defeat.”
A Super Over thriller in Texas saw T20 World Cup debutants the United States beat the 2022 finalists and 2009 winners in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the competition.
“There can be no bigger shock for Pakistan cricket than this,” said former international and now cricket analyst Sikander Bakht on Geo TV, the country’s most popular private news channel.
“It is like Pakistan beating America at basketball.”
While cricket is a national obsession in Pakistan, it barely registers in the United States, leaving most Americans either bewildered or apathetic over their momentous victory.
Commentators resorted to baseball metaphors to explain the magnitude of the Americans’ achievement to domestic audiences.
But Pakistani fans had hunched over screens of all sizes late into the night, expecting to celebrate an easy win.
Instead, Friday was a “black day in Pakistan cricket,” according to former batsman Basit Ali, who blamed the loss on poor squad selection by captain Babar Azam.
“He has been consistently selecting players who are close to him and that has put paid to Pakistan’s chances,” he told AFP.
“I think our cricket has not seen a worst day,” added former Pakistan wicketkeeper and batsman Kamran Akmal.
In one of Islamabad’s marketplaces, 38-year-old Mohammad Amjad Abbasi counted off the decades of Pakistan’s international cricket experience compared to the fledging USA side.
“Our Pakistan team has become weak,” he told AFP. “I don’t enjoy watching matches anymore.
“Their performance is disappointing, the way they play in the end is always humiliating for us.”
Both teams made 159 in their standard 20 overs of the Group A match at Grand Prairie, near Dallas, Texas.
Then competition co-hosts the United States, batting first in a Super Over, made an 18 that featured several wides and runs off panic-stricken overthrows.
Pakistan were unable to match them, and the 7,000-seat converted minor-league baseball park in the Dallas suburbs erupted with celebrations around 1:00am Pakistan time.
“This time it felt like our team was the new one, and USA was a world-class team,” said 54-year-old government employee Dilshad Akhtar in Islamabad.
“It can’t be that we can play this badly.”
So little was the interest in the game in the US that it was not broadcast on TV there. But photos of Pakistan’s fumbling performance were plastered across Friday’s morning papers in the South Asian nation.
“Disastrous start as minnows US edge out Pakistan,” read a headline in the English-language Dawn newspaper, considered the national paper of record.
“Babar Azam’s men have been pinned to the wall at the very start of their campaign,” it said, calling it a “humbling loss.”
“US stun sloppy Pakistan,” said The News International newspaper.
Pakistan next play arch-rivals India in New York on Sunday in the competition co-hosted with the West Indies, with the final slated for June 29 — if Pakistan get that far.
The 54-year-old Master Saifullah in Islamabad was skeptical that disillusioned fans would tune in ever again.
“Honestly, I just don’t feel like watching them anymore,” he said.