Carlos Alcaraz demonstrated his sportsmanship for a second time at the French Open during his five-set victory overJannik Sinner in the final.
The 22-year-old, who has now triumphed at Roland Garros in back-to-back years, lost the first set, but fought back in the second against the world no. 1 following an honest call.
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Sinner was serving at deuce and smashed an effort down the centre of the court, which a line judge called as out.
However, Alcaraz observed the marking on the clay and realised it was actually in, so conceded the point to hand over advantage.
The Spaniard’s gesture comes days after a similar scenario during his fourth round victory against Ben Shelton.
Alcaraz pulled off an excellent winning volley, but the racket was not in his hand when contact was made.
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After the point was initially awarded in his favour, he honestly told the umpire and conceded the shot.
The first set between Alcaraz and Sinner lasted a little over an hour as tennis’ top two men’s singles stars fought for the French Open title.
Despite taking the second set to a tiebreak, Alcaraz headed into the third 2-0 down following a spirited display from his opponent
But a 6-4 triumph brought him back into the match as Sinner led 2-1.
He then saved three Championship points in the fourth set with Sinner 5-3 up to win in an eventual tie break.
And Alcaraz then won 10-2 in the fifth set tie-break with the games level at 6-6.
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In doing so, he has become just the sixth rench Open champion to come from two sets down to lift the title.
And he has also won the first five-set match of his career after trailing two sets, having lost in each of his eight previous attempts.
Fans were treated to an epic five-set encounter between Sinner and Alcaraz, with the match lasting a whopping five hours and 20 minutes.
It’s the longest ever French Open final, with the previous record standing at four hours and 42 minutes. which was set in 1982 when Mats Wilander and Guillermo Vilas competed for the trophy.
By overcoming Sinner, Alcaraz has become the first man not named Rafael Nadal to win back-to-back French Open titles since Gustavo Kuerten in 2001.
As for Sinner, he has lost the first Grand Slam final of his career on what was his fourth appearance, while he has become the first player in the Open Era to win the first 20 sets of a men’s singles Grand Slam event to end up not winning it.