Carlos Alcaraz battles back to beat Jannick Sinner and reach first French Open final

Spain's Carlos Alcaraz recovered from a poor start to beat an inconsistent Jannik Sinner 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 and reach his first French Open final after a see-saw encounter on Friday.

The third seed was a shadow of his brilliant self in the opening set before making the most of his Italian opponent's premature cramps to level before the bizarre match went into a decider.

Australian Open champion Sinner, who will take over as world No 1 next week, bowed out when he returned a massive forehand down the line wide on the third match point on court Philippe Chatrier.

Double Grand Slam champion Alcaraz, who is hoping to add to his Wimbledon and US open titles, will face German Alexander Zverev in the final on Sunday after the German defeated Casper Ruud 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.

"You have to find the joy in suffering, I think that's the key, even more here on clay, here at Roland Garros, long rallies, four-hour matches, five sets, you have to fight, you have to suffer," said Alcaraz.

"Probably, the toughest matches that I've played in my short career have been against Jannik, the US Open 2022, this one, it shows the great player Jannik is ... and I hope to play many, many more matches like this one against Jannik, but yes it's one of the toughest matches that I've played, for sure."

Sinner got off to an explosive start and his poise, pace and precision were too much to handle for an out-of-sorts Alcaraz as the Italian raced to a 4-0 lead.

The Spaniard, however, reacted and pulled a break back as Sinner's first-serve percentage took a dip.

But Alcaraz still could not find his stride and Sinner won another two games in a row to bag the opening set when his opponent netted an ill-timed drop shot.

Yet another unforced error handed