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PBS News Hour - Segments

Alcaraz and Sabalenka make history with U.S. Open victories

PBS News Hour - Segments

PBS NewsHour

News, Daily News

4.11K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2025

⏱️ 5 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Three years after becoming the youngest No. 1 player in history, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain reclaimed that title after winning the U.S. Open in a four-set match against Italy’s Jannik Sinner. Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus became the first woman to win back-to-back singles titles at the U.S. Open since Serena Williams. Geoff Bennett recapped it all with Patrick McEnroe. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Transcript

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0:00.0

Three years after becoming the youngest number one player in history, Spain's Carlos Alcaraz has

0:05.5

reclaimed the top spot, winning the U.S. Open in four sets over Italy's Yannick Center and capturing

0:11.3

his sixth Grand Slam title. On the women's side, Belarus's Arena Sabalanka defeated American

0:17.1

Amanda Anissimova, becoming the first woman since Serena Williams to win back-to-back

0:21.9

singles titles at the U.S. Open. It's the second U.S. Open Championship for both Alcaraz and

0:27.6

Sabalanka. For more on these historic victories, we're joined now by Patrick McEnroe, former

0:32.3

singles and doubles champion and a longtime commentator on all things tennis. It's great to see you. So Carlos Alcaraz

0:38.5

did not lose a single set in the tournament until Sunday. What impressed you most about his run

0:44.8

and his performance yesterday? You know, I think it was his focus and his attitude. Sometimes he can be a little

0:50.7

up and down. He's such a creative player. He is a showman out there. He loves to put on a good show for the fans. But what most impressed me this year, Jeff, was that he seemed to be just dialed in right from the start. Sometimes you see him lose a set or two early in the tournament when he just kind of loses a little bit of interest. That didn't happen this year. I think Yannick Sinner beating him at Wimbledon

1:12.0

in the final there. He had won it the last two years was a little bit of a wake-up call for Carlos.

1:17.5

So he seemed to be incredibly focused. The serve was the best I've ever seen it in the championship match.

1:23.2

And he was absolutely hitting his forehand at just incredible speeds throughout the entire match.

1:29.8

And he set the tone early by going after Sinner.

1:32.6

Sinner was able to, I thought, overpower him a little bit in that Wimbledon final.

1:37.5

And Alcaraz came out with the mentality and the game plan on Sunday that he wasn't going to let that happen again.

1:43.8

And it was a really impressive

1:46.1

and dominant performance from Carlos. Yeah, it was an incredible championship match between

1:50.7

Alcaraz and Sinner. How do you see their rivalry shaping the sport moving forward?

1:55.5

Well, it's, it is incredible. The last two years, they've split all eight majors. And it's been a long time since that's happened.

2:02.8

A guy by the name of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal did that.

2:06.2

I think it was in 2006, 2007.

...

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