Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz celebrates after winning his French Open semifinal match against Italy’s Jannik Sinner in Paris on Friday. Christophe Ena/Associated Press
PARIS — Carlos Alcaraz started poorly and fell behind early in his French Open semifinal against Jannik Sinner. Later, as both dealt with cramps under Friday’s afternoon sun, Alcaraz trailed by two sets to one.
By the end of the latest installment in this burgeoning rivalry between two young, talented players, an engaging five-setter that lasted 4 hours, 9 minutes, Alcaraz actually had accumulated fewer total points, 147-145.
That, of course, is not the score that matters. And Alcaraz, who says he takes pleasure from challenges, ultimately persevered, pulling out a 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Sinner to get to his first final in Paris. It made the 21-year-old from Spain the youngest man to reach a Grand Slam title match on three surfaces.
“You have to find the joy (while) suffering. That’s the key – even more on clay, here at Roland Garros. Long rallies. Four-hour matches. Five sets,” Alcaraz said. “You have to fight. You have to suffer. But as I told my team many, many times, you have to enjoy suffering.”
He won championships at the U.S. Open in 2022 on hard courts and at Wimbledon in 2023 on grass.
Now the No. 3-seeded Alcaraz will face No. 4 Alexander Zverev of Germany on the red clay Sunday. Hours before his 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 semifinal victory over No. 7 Casper Ruud of Norway, Zverev’s domestic abuse case in Berlin ended, because he reached an out-of-court settlement with his accuser, a former girlfriend. Zverev agreed to pay fines of $162,000 to the state and $54,000 to charitable organizations. Zverev was facing a charge of causing bodily harm during an argument in Berlin in May 2020. Prosecutors alleged he pushed her against a wall and choked her. Zverev always denied any wrongdoing.
Ruud started well, but then began to fade, and he was handed some pills by a doctor during a third-set changeover. Ruud looked listless and stopped chasing some shots, a shell of the player who leads the tour in match wins this season and has been the runner-up at majors three times – including in 2022 and 2023 in Paris.
Zverev finally broke through at Roland Garros after bowing out in the semifinals each of the past three years. This will be his second Grand Slam final: He blew a two-set lead and lost in five against Dominic Thiem at the U.S. Open in 2020.
This will be the first French Open men’s final without Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer since 2004.
Djokovic was the defending champion in Paris, but he withdrew before the quarterfinals after tearing the meniscus in his right knee and had surgery this week. Because he failed to get back to the final, he will drop from atop the ATP rankings, allowing Sinner to rise a spot from No. 2, despite his defeat on Friday.
“Obviously disappointed how it ended, but it’s part of my growing and the process,” said Sinner, who won the Australian Open in January for his first major trophy. “The winner is happy, and then the loser tries to find a way to beat him the next time.”
The 22-year-old Italian showed up in Paris with a lingering hip injury that forced him to sit out the clay-court tournament in Rome last month. Alcaraz missed that event, too, because of a right forearm issue that he said made him afraid to hit his booming forehands at full force.
Both men experienced physical problems in the third set. Alcaraz’s right hand began to cramp. Sinner had his right forearm and left thigh massaged by a trainer during changeovers.
It brought to mind last year’s French Open semifinals, when Alcaraz got off to a terrific start against Djokovic but then dealt with full-body cramps that rendered the remainder of the match anticlimactic.
In the fifth set, with shadows covering more than half the court, Alcaraz moved out front by sliding until he could reach across his body to snap a backhand passing winner for a break point. A forehand winner – one of his 30 in the match – made it 2-0 at the 3 1/2-hour mark, earning a yell of “Vamos!” from his coach, 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Soon, it was 3-0, and Alcaraz was on his way.
“It was a great match. For sure, the sets he won, he played better in the important points,” Sinner said. “That was the key.”
“It’s one of the toughest matches that I’ve played, for sure,” Alcaraz said. “The toughest matches that I played in my short career have been against Jannik.”
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