21 Year Old Spanish Phenom Carlos Alcaraz Takes Out Alexander Zverev In a 5 Set War To Win His First Ever French Open Title

EMMANUEL DUNAND. Getty Images.

Carlitos has done it. His first French Open title and third slam overall. It took five sets and a whole lotta stress, but four hours and twenty minutes later the trophy is his. 

Gonna be honest, that wasn't an all-time match by any means. The level was never the same on both sides. One guy would turn it on while the other was playing nowhere near their best. Back and forth they went exchanging breaks and chokes alike. Carlos blew a 5-2 lead in the 3rd, just two points away from winning the set and ended up losing five straight games to gift it to Zverev. Put himself in a pretty steep hole to climb out of, but it was no problem for him. In the 4th he came out firing, totally hitting the reset button, but then called for a medical timeout as the trainer massaged his thigh. Zverev had an opening to get back into the set, but had an awful service game to push the lead back to 5-1. In the 5th set things started out as close to even as they had been all match, but Carlos was too strong.

A bad call by the umpire did fuck Zverev out of a break that would have leveled the 5th set. Carlos' serve definitely looked wide which would have double faulted him and gave Zverev the game. 

Umpire got out of his chair to check the mark and called it good. Carlos went onto hold and cruise the rest of the way. For those crying about that call, Carlos did break for a second time later on to make the botched call less controversial. Still, asinine they don't use the technology and instead resort to having the umpire hop out of his chair and check the mark himself. So stupid, so tennis. You wanna be mad about the call, blame the French, not Carlos. 

The 21 year old is a human highlight reel. Even this first clip below has him losing the point, but still amazing everyone by getting to all those balls. 

This one handed back hand was the final nail in the coffin. He's hitting those shots, it's curtains. Out loud I let out an "oh my god"

Little Rafa banana forehand to get the break in the 4th really got the train moving in the right direction. Electric shot. 

Zverev gave him hell though. The adjustments he made after the first set really had Carlos guessing how to counter punch. He's about as close as you can be to winning your first slam. At some point he's gonna get one. 

In the end though, Carlitos was the one collapsing onto the clay as the 2024 champion. Youngest to ever win a slam on all three surfaces. Only 21 years old and still scratching the surface of his potential. We are witnessing greatness. 

Thanks for reading the tennis blogs. Little by little we're growing the game. VAMOS!

P.S. Thank God NBC is done with French Open coverage. The absolute WOATS. TNT will hopefully do a better job moving forward.