Beijing, Oct 2 (IANS): World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz dug deep to beat reigning champion and World No. 1 Jannik Sinner to lift his first China Open ATP 500 title here on Wednesday. The Spaniard came from a set down to register a 6-7(6), 6-4, 7-6(3) triumph against World No. 1 Italian. With his title run on the hard courts of Beijing, Alcaraz became the first player to win an ATP 500 crown on all three surfaces (hard, clay and grass) in series history (since 2009).

“He could have won in two, I could win in two, he could win in three. It was a really close match. Jannik, once again, showed that he’s the best player in the world, at least for me. The level that he’s playing, it’s unbelievable. It’s a really high quality of tennis. Of shots, physically, mentally, he’s a beast," said Alcaraz in his on-court interview.

The Spaniard now leads his ATP head-to-head series against Sinner 6-4 after winning all three of their encounters this season (Indian Wells, Roland Garros, Beijing). Impressively, Alcaraz now has a 8-1 win-loss record against Top 5 players this year, his only loss to one of the elite was against Novak Djokovic in the gold medal match at the Olympics.

Despite struggling to find his best level for much of the opening set, Sinner dug deep to recover a 2-5 deficit and pocketed the first set via a tie-break.

Alcaraz was under pressure on serve at 3-4 in the second set but clinched a 14-minute game in which he fended off two Sinner break points. In the next game, he broke Sinner's serve and levelled the match at one set each, the ATP reports.

Alcaraz then carried his momentum into the final set, taking an early 3-1 lead. But, Sinner again recovered to force a tie-break and then forged a 3/0 lead, before Alcaraz reeled off seven straight points to prevail in an absorbing three-hour, 21-minute encounter.