It all seemed to be slipping away from Carlos Alcaraz, but you wouldn’t have known it from looking at his face.
The Spaniard had just lost the first three points of the final-set tiebreaker to Jannik Sinner in their China Open final. In that moment, he could have looked back and agonized over his squandered opportunities.
Alcaraz had led 5-2 in the first set, and served for it at 5-3. Later, he led 6-4 in the tiebreaker. Then he lost four straight points.
In the third set, Alcaraz had again gone up a break and led 4-2. He was the one taking command on offense, and thwarting Sinner’s attacks with his blazing, crowd-pleasing retrievals. But again, Alcaraz couldn’t close, as his winners turned to errors and Sinner fought tooth and nail to keep his title defense alive. This slam-bang, see-saw, three-hour final between the world’s two best players would, rightfully, be decided by a tiebreaker.