Carlos Alcaraz sat at the podium in the main interview room at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday night, the US Open trophy gleaming beside him, a smile stretching across his face. Fresh from his four-set victory over Jannik Sinner, the 22-year-old was asked what he thought about his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero’s bold statement—that his pupil had played the perfect final.
“He’s right,” Alcaraz said with a grin. “I think I played perfectly. I mean, if I want to win the US Open, if I want to beat Jannik, I have to play perfect.”
The Spaniard certainly looked close to flawless from start to finish. Locked in from his opening match, Alcaraz held serve in 98 of 101 service games throughout the tournament and didn’t drop a set until the championship clash. That made him just the fourth player since 2000 to reach the US Open final without losing a set.
“Since the first rounds to the end of the tournament, the best tournament so far that I have ever played,” Alcaraz reflected. “The consistency of my level during the whole tournament has been really, really high, which I’m really proud of, because it’s something that I’ve been working on, to be really consistent. I think this tournament I saw that I can play really consistent.”
The victory was even sweeter as it pushed Alcaraz back to the top of the ATP rankings, ending Sinner’s 65-week reign at No.1. For the Spaniard, who last held the crown in September 2023, it marked the realization of a season-long ambition.
“For me it’s great. When you achieve the goals you set up yourself at the beginning of the year, it feels amazing,” he said. “Since I got the chance to recover the No. 1, it was one of the first goals that I had during the season, just to try to recover the No. 1 as soon as possible or end the year as the No. 1.
“For me, to achieve that once again it is a dream. Doing it on the same day as winning another Grand Slam feels even better. It’s everything I’m working for, and I’m really happy to be able to live these experiences.”
Alcaraz’s triumph also underlined how much he has grown since suffering a painful defeat to Sinner in the Wimbledon final in July. That setback denied him a third straight Wimbledon title, but it fueled a period of reflection and hard work that proved decisive in New York.
“I just thought that I need to improve some things if I want to beat him, after that Wimbledon final,” Alcaraz said. “I just thought about the specific things I want to improve if I want to beat Jannik. So I just spent two weeks before Cincinnati just practicing specific some things about my game that I need or I felt like I need to improve if I want to beat Jannik.”
