Carlos Alcaraz has done just about everything in tennis at 21 years old. Sunday in Rotterdam, the Netherlands he did something he had never done before by winning an ATP Tour title indoors. The world No. 3 recovered from a flat second set to beat Alex De Minaur 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, playing one sharp return game to break for 4-2 in the decider and then profiting from an error-strewn eighth game of the set from de Minaur to seal the match.

Alcaraz won 55 percent of the points he played from a defensive position in the third set, while staying solid behind his ever-improving first serve. The Spaniard’s relative weakness in that department has been key to his relative struggles indoors: he has previously found it difficult to win cheap points on serve and so been under more pressure in his service games than he is used to. A ruthless game to go from 4-2 to 5-2 in the final set typified this improvement, which will put him in a good position in indoor events in the future.

“Coming here, let’s say not feeling 100 percent well with the cold, everyday I’m feeling better and better,” Alcaraz said on the court, having dispensed with the pink nasal strip he wore on the way to the title. De Minaur, who had also been feeling under the weather, appeared to run out of gas faster than his opponent despite winning in straight sets in all of his matches prior to the final. Alcaraz required three sets to beat Botic Van de Zandschulp in the first round, and also went the distance against Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz.

The Australian finds himself hitting a similar ceiling, having lost to Jannik Sinner in last year’s Rotterdam final. De Minaur is now 0-13 against Sinner and Alcaraz, 10 of those defeats coming to Sinner, but he will move to a career high of world No. 6 when the ATP Tour rankings update Monday. Alcaraz closes the gap to world No. 2 Alexander Zverev after winning his 17th ATP Tour title. At 21 years and nine months old, he has won titles on all four surfaces (clay, grass, outdoor hard and indoor hard) sooner than any of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic managed to do so.

Norway’s Casper Ruud and Canada’s Denis Shapovalov contest the Dallas Open final later on Sunday. On the WTA Tour, Belinda Bencic won her first title since returning to tennis after giving birth. The Swiss, who won Olympic gold in 2021, beat 20-year-old American Ashlyn Krueger 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 in the WTA 500 Abu Dhabi Open; Bencic won the same tournament in 2023. In Cluj-Napoca, Romania, top seed Anastasia Potapova came from a set down to beat Lucia Bronzetti 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 at the WTA 250 Transylvania Open.

(Photo: Sander Koning / AFP via Getty Images)