SINNER GETS RUB OF GREEN OVER ADMIRER

Alcaraz sporting in defeat as lucky Jannik's crowned

- By Andy Dunn

HE HAS had some lucky breaks, Jannik Sinner, that is for sure.

Earlier this year he agreed a deal to serve a three-month doping ban, the timing of which meant he did not miss a Grand Slam.

And in the round-of-16 here he was two sets down to Grigor Dimitrov with the score locked at 2-2 in the third set when the Bulgarian's pectoral muscle popped and he had to retire.

Sinner has had the rub of the green, without a doubt, and the controversy and fallout from that doping suspension will resurface every time he adds to a Grand Slam tally that now stands at four.

And that is fair enough.

The bottom line is that he served a punishment for a doping transgression and that does not look great on any athlete's record.

But it does not bother Carlos Alcaraz, not at all. He could not have been more fulsome in his praise of the victor after falling to a 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 defeat in a final that was occasionally thrilling but always looked to be in Sinner's control from the start of the second set.

And Alcaraz's admiration for 23-year-old Sinner has probably been strengthened because he knows what it took for the world No.1 to see this home.

In the epic French Open final this year Sinner was serving for the match at 40-0 and blew it, or rather Alcaraz, 22, produced one of the great fightbacks.

On a raucous Centre Court Sinner was at 40-0 and 5-4 in the fourth set and when he lost the next point, Paris was surely going through his mind.