Carlos Alcaraz showed some extremely impressive tennis throughout the US Open and in the final against Jannik Sinner.
Alcaraz showcased his variety against Sinner, which was one of the factors that helped him win a sixth Grand Slam title.
There has been a lot of conversation about the improvements Alcaraz has made to his serve, but that was not the only shot that was firing against Sinner.
A former world number one has now suggested that Alcaraz hit a forehand in the US Open final that could only be bettered by one other ATP player in history.
Paul McNamee says only Juan Martin del Potro hit forehands harder than Carlos Alcaraz
Alcaraz was putting pressure on Sinner from the start of the match, which continued throughout and enabled him to beat his rival, 6-2 3-6 6-1 6-4.
When reacting to how the final played out, former doubles world number one and five-time Grand Slam champion Paul McNamee praised Alcaraz’s forehand.
McNamee re-lived a forehand that Alcaraz hit in the first game of the match, and claimed it was faster than any other he has seen other than the possibility of the now-retired Juan Martin del Potro.
The Australian wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter), “My last word on the final. In the very first game, Alcaraz hit a forehand winner harder than I have ever seen, with the possible exception of Juan Martin Del Potro.
“It struck fear into Sinner. The script was set and henceforth, the match would be played on those terms. As it was.”
Paul McNamee says something happened to Jannik Sinner that he has not seen in two years
This was Sinner’s second Grand Slam final defeat, with both of them coming against Alcaraz this year.
The US Open was the most one-sided of the two, and McNamee claimed that Alcaraz ‘humiliated’ Sinner in two of the first three sets.
McNamee claimed that this is something that has not happened since Sinner lost in the final of the ATP Finals to Novak Djokovic.
“6-1 Alcaraz… he has humiliated Sinner in 2 of the 3 sets,” said McNamee. “I haven’t seen that since Djokovic did it in the ATP Finals in 2023… a long time in tennis terms. This would be a shock to Sinner… hard to see him bouncing back to be honest.”
McNamee was right and Sinner was not able to bounce back after losing the final in four sets.
This was Sinner’s first defeat at a hard court Grand Slam since the fourth round of the US Open in 2023.
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