This slam-bang, see-saw, three-hour title bout appeared to be getting away from the Spaniard—until it didn’t.

It all seemed to be slipping away from Carlos Alcaraz, but you wouldn’t have known it from looking at his face.

The Spaniard had just lost the first three points of the final-set tiebreaker to Jannik Sinner in their China Open final. In that moment, he could have looked back and agonized over his squandered opportunities.

Alcaraz had led 5-2 in the first set, and served for it at 5-3. Later, he led 6-4 in the tiebreaker. Then he lost four straight points.

In the third set, Alcaraz had again gone up a break and led 4-2. He was the one taking command on offense, and thwarting Sinner’s attacks with his blazing, crowd-pleasing retrievals. But again, Alcaraz couldn’t close, as his winners turned to errors and Sinner fought tooth and nail to keep his title defense alive. This slam-bang, see-saw, three-hour final between the world’s two best players would, rightfully, be decided by a tiebreaker.

It didn’t start well for Alcaraz. Down 0-1, he ran so hard to track down a drop shot that he broke his shoes. When he lost the next point to go down 0-3, it looked like he had lost the match, too.

But instead of appearing distraught or angry, Alcaraz looked to his coaching box and nodded his head calmly and confidently. Even the fact that Sinner had won 18 of his last 19 tiebreakers didn’t faze him.

“I never lost hope,” Alcaraz said. “Honestly I knew that every tiebreak Jannik plays is almost to his side. I thought that in the third set, I’m not going to lie, three-love down, two mini breaks for him. So I didn’t lose hope, but I thought, ‘OK, I have to give everything that I have just to try to give myself the opportunity to be close.’”

From there, Alcaraz showed why he had won two Grand Slam titles, and had a 2-0 record against Sinner, in 2024. He also reminded us that he can take his game to places that no one, including Sinner, can follow.

For the third time in three opportunities this season, Alcaraz embraced Sinner as the winner.

He started with a backhand volley winner for 1-3, then won what may have been the point of the match. A crosscourt forehand led to a half-volley drop shot, which led to a reflex forehand winner, which led to the crowd standing and roaring, which led to Alcaraz putting his finger to his ear and asking for more.

“I played great points just to make three-all and after that I just thought to go for it,” Alcaraz said. “If I lost it, at least I went for it. So that’s all I thought in that moment.”

Sometimes, those peak moments can lead to letdowns, but this time Alcaraz kept peaking. He hit a backhand volley winner for 3-3, a forehand winner for 4-3, and finished with another forehand winner for the title.

Five minutes earlier, it looked as of Sinner had his first win over Alcaraz this season. Instead, Alcaraz made it a hat trick. He also moved up to No. 2 in the race to Turin, and closed the gap—slightly—between him and Sinner for the year-end No. 1.

“He could [have won] in two, I could win in two, he could win in three,” Alcaraz said, describing the back-and-forth nature of the contest. “It was a really close match.”

In my preview of this match, I had voiced a hope that Alcaraz and Sinner could recreate the shot-making magic of some of their earlier contests. The recent editions of their rivalry, while competitive and hard-fought, hadn’t quite lit that same fire. This one did. Their Beijing final was played on a faster court than normal, and there was a quick, clipped, rapid-fire, kill-or-be-killed feel to the rallies. Neither guy had time to do much other than go a shot that would hurt the other. Alcaraz came up with his expected share of gobsmacking gets, but Sinner wasn’t far behind in that category.

If the points were fiercely businesslike, the atmosphere in the packed stadium was festive. The excitable Chinese fans brought a new level of appreciation to Sinner-Alcaraz. They oohed when Alcaraz came under the ball for one of his trademark drop shots, and aahed as Sinner leaped up for one of his trademark jumping backhands. Neither guy even needed to hit the ball for the crowd to make noise.

That’s the kind of reaction that the young Spaniard and Italian have earned, in a season where they swept the Slams and stamped themselves as the future of the men’s game.