Carlos Alcaraz won his maiden Cincinnati Open title after Jannik Sinner was forced to retire on Monday night. The Spaniard won his eighth ATP Masters 1000 trophy, and this is his sixth title of the season.
The Italian retired just 23 minutes into the championship clash after conceding a 0-5 lead. With this win, Alcaraz extended his ATP Head2Head to 9-5 against Sinner. Alcaraz leads Sinner by 1,890 points in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin.
After he could not continue the match, Sinner apologised to fans for disappointing them. The Italian revealed he was unwell on Sunday night.
“I’m super, super sorry to disappoint you,” Sinner said to the fans. “From yesterday, I didn’t feel great. I thought that I would improve during the night, but it got worse. I tried to come out, tried to make it at least a small match, but I couldn’t handle more, so I’m very sorry.”
Sinner said his main aim is to be ready for the US Open, and he would look to go all the way.
“I love Grand Slams a lot. This is the main, main tournaments for my season and for my career,” Sinner said. “So the US Open is going to be a tough tournament, but at the same time, I’m looking forward to it. If I’m ready, physically and mentally, I will be ready to push. So as I said, now a couple of days of recovery, and then we’ll get back to work, and hopefully we’ll be ready. So for sure, the main goal here in the US.”
Alcaraz, on the other hand, said he doesn’t want to win titles like this.
“This is not the way that I want to win trophies. I just have to say sorry, I can understand how you must feel now,” Alcaraz said to Sinner. “As I said many times, you are a true champion, and I am sure that from these situations, you are going to come back even stronger, as you always do. That’s what true champions do. I’m sorry, and come back stronger.”
The US Open will commence on 24th August.
