Sinner edges past Alcaraz in close final

Sinner claimed a tight first set in an 81-minute back-and-forth battle that included both a mid-set delay to deal with a medical issue in the crowd and a medical timeout from Alcaraz.

Both players held serve to arrive at 6-5, and Alcaraz battled to the first break point of the match but couldn’t convert. The set moved to a tie-break after Sinner held the 12th game of the opening set.

The Italian claimed the tie-break 7-4, using a perfectly measured lob over Alcaraz’s head to give himself set point.

As the second set got underway, Alcaraz returned to the court with his right leg wrapped, but it didn’t appear to hamper him as he broke Sinner. It was the first time in 47 service games in Turin that the Italian had been broken.

The momentum didn’t last, however, with Sinner coming back to break for three games all. Alcaraz had another break point a game later but couldn’t convert it.

From there, the pressure fell on the shoulders of the 22-year-old Spaniard, who had to hold his serve at 5-4 to stay in the match. He did but couldn’t repeat the feat two games later, dropping his serve to give Sinner the second set at 7-5.