Alcaraz serves up a spectacle to reclaim US Open title, No.1 spot

When the 22-year-old Spaniard looks back, one particular feature will stand out the most: his serve

- Rutvick Mehta

Carlos Alcaraz brought up a bad tennis thing after displaying his best show in a Grand Slam final -- that the sport and its ever-running calendar, at times, makes it difficult “to realise that I won the tournament, to enjoy”.

And so, Alcaraz wants to take a moment.

“To see the trophy, to see what you've done in the tournament, to appreciate that,” he said.

He could appreciate what he came up with in the first five games of his 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 US Open final victory against Jannik Sinner: a heady mixture of a slice and drop forehand winner, a retro serve and volley, a delectable drop shot, a backhand half volley lifted from his ankles that slumped across the net. So dazzling was his start and all-court craft that it left the Italian in a daze from which he could never really recover.

He could also appreciate the miserly two-unforced error count in the first and third sets each even while generously dishing out his wizardry.

Yet when he looks back to see what he's done in the tournament, one feature will stand out in the Spaniard’s sparkling spectacle in New York-the serve.

Alcaraz faced only 10 break points in stitching the fine title run, the least by any man in a Slam. He dropped just 3 of his 101 service games across seven matches, the second fewest by any man since 1991 after Pete Sampras. For context, through his 2022 US Open triumph, he had dropped 22.