Marion Bartoli saw Carlos Alcaraz show his true colors when Jannik Sinner won Wimbledon
Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli pulled back the curtain on Carlos Alcaraz's selfless reaction moments after losing to Jannik Sinner at Wimbledon.
Marion Bartoli shed light on the touching gesture Carlos Alcaraz made moments after he fell just short of securing a third-straight Wimbledon title.
On Sunday, Jannik Sinner became the first Italian to win in singles at The Championships by fending off Alcaraz, whose upset loss unintentionally forced Andy Roddick into a hilarious punishment. Despite emerging victorious in the first set, the Spaniard dropped the following three en route to losing 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
Alcaraz handled the disheartening loss to his biggest on-court rival with grace, as the 22-year-old was all smiles while Sinner cracked jokes at Centre Court before the festivities carried on well into the night.
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As Sinner trotted back onto the court following a heartwarming celebration with his team, Bartoli noticed that Alcaraz sat front and center to cheer on the World No. 1. “So deserved, to be able to come back, play another Grand Slam, his fourth consecutive one, against the exact same opponent, in the same situation, serving for the match, and to pull out the game he has been able to pull together,” the former Wimbledon champion said.
“He is actually now clapped by Carlos Alcaraz, who is sitting on his chair, clapping the performance of Jannik Sinner and his whole team as they embrace together. I can’t start to even imagine what they’ve been going through until this final, until this rematch, until this revenge.”
While speaking to Annabel Croft during his post-match interview, Sinner heaped praise on Alcaraz for being a worthy opponent. "Hello everyone. First of all, I would like to start with Carlos, again, amazing tournament but mostly thank you for the player you are," he began.
"It's so difficult to play against you but we have, as you said, an amazing relationship off the court, and on the court we just try to build up and for doing that we need the best teams in the world and also you have the best team.
"So keep going, keep pushing, you are going to hold many, many times this trophy, you have already two, so!"
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Addressing what went wrong during the fiery three-hour clash, Alcaraz acknowledged that Sinner “pushed him to the limit in every point” while providing no room for error. “Mentally, it’s really tough to maintain. When you see the opponent playing such good tennis, I didn’t know what to do,” he said.
“From the baseline, he was better than me. The big key was the second serves, he was returning really well, then he was in a position to attack with the second ball. It’s difficult when you’re defending all the time.”
“I just gave him a lot of free points when he had a second serve. He has a big first serve, but when you have the chance to return the second serve, I had to do more with those points. He was serving quite easily, winning his service games quite easily. I had to better on that, but it was a great match, I think the level was really high.”
