Italian trailing 0-5 when he decided to pull out
Alcaraz confident rival is ‘going to come back stronger’
Carlos Alcaraz has won the Cincinnati Open for the first time in his career after the world No 1, Jannik Sinner, his great rival, was forced to retire from their highly anticipated final with illness while trailing 0-5 in the opening set.
Sinner, who had looked under the weather from the start of the match, explained later that he had been struggling with illness since Sunday. “I’m super sorry to disappoint you,” the Italian said.
“From yesterday I didn’t feel great. I thought that I would improve during the night. It came up worse. I tried to come out and make it at least a small match but I couldn’t handle more. I’m very, very sorry for all of you. I know some of you on Monday maybe had to work or do something else, so I’m very, very sorry.”
