Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Carlos Alcaraz won his sixth title of the season at the Cincinnati Open after fierce rival Jannik Sinner was forced to retire early in the first set into their championship-match clash. The final lasted just 23 minutes as the top-ranked and top-seeded Sinner unable to play on due to illness. Only five games into the match, the Italian informed chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani that he could not continue. Alcaraz led 5-0 to pocket the eighth ATP Masters 1000 title of his career.
As the defending champion, Sinner was bidding to become the first player to go back-to-back here since Roger Federer in 2014-15. It marks only the second time in the Open Era that a player has retired in the Cincinnati men’s final. Novak Djokovic was forced to retire in 2013 due to a shoulder injury trailing, 6-4, 3-0.
The title is Alcaraz’s first in Cincinnati. In 2023, he squandered a championship point against Djokovic, dropping a three-hour, 49-minute, 5-7, 7-6(7), 7-6(4) epic that still stands as the longest best-of-three-sets final in ATP Tour history. He is the third Spaniard to claim the men’s title after Carlos Moya (2002) and Rafael Nadal (2013).
“After the third game, I just noticed that he wasn’t feeling good at all,” said Alcaraz. “I know him. I’ve been battling against him for two years, having great matches, great battles. I know his style, his game. I noticed that he was being more aggressive than he used to be. He was missing more often. I thought that it was pretty weird from him. I noticed that the body language wasn’t the best for him.”
