CNN
 — 

The men’s final of this year’s China Open was billed as a battle between two titans and it definitely didn’t disappoint.

After three grueling sets, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz emerged victorious over world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, winning 6-7 6-4 7-6 to claim his 16th ATP Tour title.

The pair produced some incredible rallies throughout the pulsating match, further underlining why they are arguably the two best players in the world right now.

Despite now beating Sinner in all three of their games this season, world No. 3 Alacaraz was full of praise for the Italian.

“It was a really close match,” the 21-year-old said after the win.

“Jannik, once again, he showed that he’s the best player in the world, at least for me. The level that he’s playing, it’s unbelievable. It’s a really high quality of tennis. Of shots, physically, mentally, he’s a beast.”

Both men shared all four grand slam titles this year – Sinner winning the Australian Open and US Open, while Alcaraz won Wimbledon and the French Open.

But it was the latter who started the better of the two on Wednesday, racing into an early lead in the first set. Sinner, however, started to find his rhythm and survived three set points to edge a first-set tiebreak.

The Italian, who had been on a 15-match winning streak, then continued to pile pressure on his opponent in the second set. Alcaraz survived multiple break points to stay in touching distance, eventually levelling the score to take the contest to a decider.

Alacaraz appeared to have the momentum in the third set, establishing a healthy 3-1 lead, but Sinner wouldn’t fade away and bit back again, forcing a deciding tiebreak which he initially led 3-0.

But a pumped-up Alcaraz then won seven consecutive points to take the title after three hours and 21 minutes of action – the longest match in the history of the tournament.

“I’m really happy that in the third set, even though he broke my serve again and we were really close, I gave myself the chance to keep going, playing aggressively and at the end I’m really happy that I made it,” Alcaraz said after one of the most exciting matches of the year.

With the win, he becomes the first player to win ATP 500 titles on all three surfaces since the series was launched in 2009.

For Sinner, the defeat comes during a challenging period away from the tennis court.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recently said it had lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after an independent tribunal found Sinner wasn’t at fault for twice testing positive for a banned substance in March 2024.

The 23-year-old has so far avoided suspension from competition since the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced in August that he wasn’t at fault despite testing positive for Clostebol, an anabolic steroid. Two samples collected eight days apart at Indian Wells in March showed low levels of the drug.

In a statement posted on social media in August, Sinner said the positive tests stemmed from “inadvertent contamination of Clostebol” through treatment from his physiotherapist.