Carlos Alcaraz defeats world No. 1 Jannik Sinner in epic China Open final

CNN —

The men’s final of this year’s China Open was billed as a battle between two titans and it definitely didn’t disappoint.

After three grueling sets, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz emerged victorious over world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, winning 6-7 6-4 7-6 to claim his 16th ATP Tour title.

The pair produced some incredible rallies throughout the pulsating match, further underlining why they are arguably the two best players in the world right now.

Despite now beating Sinner in all three of their games this season, world No. 3 Alacaraz was full of praise for the Italian.

“It was a really close match,” the 21-year-old said after the win.

“Jannik, once again, he showed that he’s the best player in the world, at least for me. The level that he’s playing, it’s unbelievable. It’s a really high quality of tennis. Of shots, physically, mentally, he’s a beast.”

Both men shared all four grand slam titles this year – Sinner winning the Australian Open and US Open, while Alcaraz won Wimbledon and the French Open.

But it was the latter who started the better of the two on Wednesday, racing into an early lead in the first set. Sinner, however, started to find his rhythm and survived three set points to edge a first-set tiebreak.

Sinner pushed Alcaraz all the way during the China Open final on Wednesday.

The Italian, who had been on a 15-match winning streak, then continued to pile pressure on his opponent in the second set. Alcaraz survived multiple break points to stay in touching distance, eventually levelling the score to take the contest to a decider.

‘I’m really happy that I made it’

Alacaraz appeared to have the momentum in the third set, establishing a healthy 3-1 lead, but Sinner wouldn’t fade away and bit back again, forcing