Carlos Alcaraz yesterday rode through almost certain defeat trailing world No 1 Jannik Sinner by two sets to fighting back on the thinnest of threads when just one false stroke would have sealed the French Open title for the Italian who faltered in just one move of the invincibility he had Alcatraz on his knees to wrap up the decisive third set drifted away from him as the reigning two times wimbledon champion lashed his way back to the title thus proving his strong point of winning against all the odds as he has in the past in an intense duel of extraordinary valour of near six hours that went down as the greatest showdown of the century.
Bouncing back from the ashes against a train of master play mounted by Sinner to coming on top at the eleventh hour to handing the world No 1 his first Grand Slam defeat did underline the man apart that is Alcatraz who has to his name five major titles.
That that one single magical stroke that would have won him the French crown kept drifting from Sinner was a heartbreak of that greatness of the spellbinding intensity he truly had Alcaraz in a seizure when the Italian super reigned until that final tumbledown that experts squarely faulted Sinner of missed opportunities
After saving three championship points, Alcaraz mounted a truly remarkable comeback to win in a final set tiebreak, 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6 in a whopping five hours and 30 minutes showdown, the second longest Grand Slam final of all time.