Jannik Sinner scored his fourth victory in a fast-moving rivallry with Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday, knocking the top seed out of the ATP Beijing tournament 7-6(4), 6-1.
The win improves the Italian’s record against the Spanish prodigy to 4-3, moving Sinner into the ranking Top 5 for the first time; the last Italian to rise this high was Adriano Panatta nearly five decades ago..
Sinner reached a Wednesday final at the event with its oddball scheduling and will take on Daniil Medvedev, winner of all six of their previous matches.
Sinner has now accounted for Alcaraz in two of three meetings this season.
“It’s one of the very top big matches I’ve played,” the winner said.
“Every match against him is very tough. We always show great respect, we both play great. When we play against each other, we try to stay on our limits.
“Today I played a little bit better in the important moments. In the second set, it was 6-1 but he had a lot of chances and I just tried to stay focussed.
“The first set was a little more of a roller coaster and I tried to stay there mentally and obviously I’m very happy with the performance.”
Sinner added: “The execution went really well… mostly trying to stay aggressive, because when he has a lot of time he he plays really good and really aggressive.”
