Monte Carlo: Sinner wins

Jannik Sinner beat Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (5), 6-3 on Sunday to win the Monte Carlo Masters and take back the world No. 1 ranking. (atptour.com) The final lasted 2 hours, 15 minutes on Court Rainier III, where windy conditions shaped long stretches of the match and the opening set alone ran 74 minutes. (montecarlotennismasters.com) Sinner won the first-set tiebreak after Alcaraz double-faulted on set point, then came back from 3-1 down in the second set to close the match in straight sets. Alcaraz finished with 45 unforced errors. (atptour.com) (apnews.com) The victory gave Sinner his first ATP Masters 1000 title on clay and his eighth Masters 1000 title overall. He had already won Indian Wells and Miami this season on hard courts. (atptour.com) (montecarlotennismasters.com) Monte Carlo is the first Masters 1000 event of the European clay swing, so the result resets the top of the men’s tour heading into Barcelona, Madrid, Rome and the French Open. Sinner also became the second man after Novak Djokovic in 2015 to win Indian Wells, Miami and Monte Carlo in the same season. (tennis.com) (atptour.com) The match was the first Sinner-Alcaraz meeting of 2026 and the ninth final between them. Sinner cut Alcaraz’s head-to-head lead to 10-7. (apnews.com) It also flipped the ranking race again. ATP Tour said Sinner will return to No. 1 on Monday, his first week back at the top this year and his 67th week there overall. (atptour.com) (tennis.com) Alcaraz arrived as the defending Monte Carlo champion and had won his previous 17 clay-court matches, according to the Associated Press. His 2026 season already included the Australian Open title. (apnews.com) Sinner said afterward that “getting back to No. 1 means a lot” and called the title his first “big trophy on this surface.” Alcaraz told him at the ceremony, “It is impressive what you are achieving right now.” (atptour.com)