insisted he did not lose the longest ever and 'mental' final because of his physical fitness in only his second tournament back after a three-month doping ban. And the Italian world No.1 claimed he will try to 'delete' his first-ever Grand Slam final defeat from his memory bank as he said he is getting better as a player.

The and champion lost 4-6 6-7 6-4 7-6 7-6 to defending champion in five hours and 29 minutes. Sinner, who only returned to tennis at last month's Rome Masters, had three match points in the fourth set before serving for the title. He has still never won a match lasting more than four hours.

But the Italian said: "You cannot compare this match with other matches, I believe. Physically I was quite fine. Of course, tired. He was tired too, you know, because it was a physical match. It was a mental match. What can you do?

"Now knowing the result, it is what it is, you know? You can't really change it. I'm still happy to be part of this match. I think it was a very, very high-level match, was long. It happens. We saw it in the past with other players, and today it happened to me. So we try to delete it somehow and take the positive and keep going. There are no other way."

Sinner had won his first three Grand Slam finals but has now lost five consecutive times to Alcaraz after their first meeting in a major final. He had also lost to the Spaniard in the final of the Rome Masters last month.

"I was not even thinking that it was a final because you try to beat only one guy at the time, and today it was Carlos," said the Italian.

"So I will try to prepare it. I think we prepare it. I was ready. I was feeling much more ready than in Rome. I think we saw that. Thinking or seeing my level today, it has improved since Rome, which as I said before the match, was my main goal to see where my level is at.

"I prepared for the Grand Slam with one tournament on clay. Making the final, of course, it is difficult to accept now because I had lots of chances, but this is the good part of the sport.

"Also today it got me the sad part, no? But if you watch only the sad part, you're never going to come back, no? I believe I have improved as a player since last year, which is good. So we try to keep pushing."

The only previous time Sinner had lost a match from two sets up was against Novak Djokovic in the 2022 Wimbledon quarter-finals.

"It's different," the world No 1 insisted. "I was in a different moment of my career. It helped me very much to see how things can change quickly. But when Novak raised that level that day, I felt that I had no chance.

"You know, it was different. Today I had chances. I was a break up in the third. Was a break up in the fourth. Was three match points. Serving for the match. Came back. 6-5, I had chances also in the fifth. So I had so many chances I couldn't use.

"Sometimes you have these days like you have. You can't really do anything now. So it was different match."