Alcaraz (ATP-4) had never made it past a quarter-final for New York in a Grand Slam tournament, Ruud (ATP-7) played and lost his first final this year at Roland Garros against Rafael Nadal.
Alcaraz is called the new Nadal and he also left Ruud to bite into the sand. The Spaniard started the match uninhibited and scored the most winners. He was creative with his serve while Ruud struggled with his serve. A short break was enough for Alcaraz to take set 1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
In set 2 we got the opposite image, Alcaraz started making mistakes and got frustrated, even his serve let him down a bit. Ruud set the pace and had a firm grip on the reins. A double break led to a draw.
Set 3 was once again very exciting. Alcaraz raised his level again and finished 2-0, but Ruud is back. The quick and short exchanges were for the Spaniard, the long battles for the Norwegian. He got 2 set points serving the Spaniard on 5-6. However, Alcaraz forced a tiebreak, in which he simply took advantage of Ruud’s mistakes (7/1).
Alcaraz smelled the blood, came 4-2 and finished it in 4 sets 6-3 after three five sets in a row in previous rounds. His second match ball is the right one: after an ace he falls on the court in disbelief.
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It is the sixth ATP title for Alcaraz and the fifth this season after Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Barcelona and Madrid. Last year he opened his palmares in Umag.
Carlos Alcaraz is now the youngest number 1 in history. At 19 years and 4 months, he is 1 year and 5 months younger than Australian Lleyton Hewitt, when he reached number one on the world rankings in November 2001.
Alcaraz replaces the Russian Daniil Medvedev and is the 28th number one in the ATP ranking, installed in 1973. Casper Ruud becomes number two in the world.
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