Italian wants to forget painful Paris loss

Jannik Sinner said he would try to “delete” the memory of his five-set loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the Roland Garros final on Sunday, after the world No.1 passed up three championship points as the Spaniard roared back to claim victory.

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Sinner had looked set to pocket his first French Open title with Alcaraz serving at 0-40 when 3-5 down in the fourth set, but the reigning champion pulled off a battling hold before forcing a decider via a tie-break.

“Obviously this one hurts. Yeah, there’s not so much to talk about right now,” Sinner told reporters after his 4-6, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (10/2) defeat in the longest final in Roland Garros history.

“It was a very, very high-level match, was long. Yeah, and it happens. You know, we saw it in the past with other players, and today it happened to me.

“So we try to delete it somehow and take the positive and keep going. There are no other ways.”

It was the 23-year-old’s first defeat in a championship match at a major.

Sinner boasts three Grand Slam titles and entered Sunday's final looking to win his third successive major after claiming the US Open last season and defending his Australian Open crown in January.

Sinner’s maiden Grand Slam title in Melbourne came as he battled back from two sets down against Daniil Medvedev.

In Paris, he found himself on the other side of the net as he was the one to fail to convert a 2-0 lead.

“I tried to delete everything, every set. In Grand Slams you try to start from zero again,” explained Sinner of his mindset ahead of the deciding set.