When number one and number two seeds meet in a championship match, many fans expect it to be a great matchup. Many times, these matchups fail to live up to expectations, while some meet expectations, and a select few are like the one Sunday in Paris. The Roland Garros final between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz did more than deliver; the two put on one of the greatest tennis matches of all time.
Sinner and Alcaraz were on a collision course to face each other in the final, with Sinner not dropping a set up until the final and Alcaraz not being forced to a fifth set until the final. Following a Sinner win over Novak Djokovic, the final between Sinner and Alcaraz was set, and Sinner was out for revenge after Alcaraz knocked him out of Roland Garros in the semifinals in 2024.
Sinner came out of the gates hot winning the first set 6-4 and going up 5-2 in the second set. This was when Alcaraz showed his ability to battle back with his back against the wall, as he would win the next three games to get back to a 5-5 score. Sinner would persevere in the end of the set winning the tiebreaker 7-4 to give him a 2-0 lead. With Sinner a set away from winning it all and Alcaraz having a 0-8 career record when trailing 2-0 at Roland Garros; Alcaraz’s title hopes looked dim. But Alcaraz fought back in the third set and made a statement to Sinner that he was not going to back down. Alcaraz won the third set 6-4 and Sinner dropped his first set of the tournament. This led to the fourth set which is where this historic match took off.
Sinner would start the fourth set off hot, gaining early control after breaking Alcaraz; this would build into a 5-3 lead with Alcaraz serving to stay alive. Alcaraz would quickly fall behind 0-40 and with three championship points available, Sinner’s crowning moment seemed inevitable. But Alcaraz once again would not go down, as he rallied to score the next five points with the final one being an ace to stay alive. Sinner would then be able to serve for the championship, but Alcaraz would break him again to tie it up at 5-5. Alcaraz would go on to win the set tiebreaker 7-3 and even the match up at 2-2 going into the fifth set.
I mentioned earlier the fact that Alcaraz had not come back from being down 0-2 at Roland Garros, but Sinner had also never won a match at Roland Garros that went into a fifth set. Now with the match being in the fifth set, someone’s 0 had to go. Alcaraz got off to the perfect start with a first-game break of Sinner’s serve; Alcaraz would hold serve up until he was serving for the championship. Leading 5-4, Alcaraz serving for the championship would have his serve broken by Sinner. Sinner would proceed to hold his serve to win the next game to go up 6-5, and would quickly get ahead of Alcaraz 15-30 before Alcaraz would survive four deuces to force a final set tiebreaker. During the tiebreaker, Alcaraz dominated grabbing a large lead early and winning the tiebreaker 10-2. After 5 hours and 29 minutes, Carlos Alcaraz prevailed and won his second straight Roland Garros and his fifth career grand slam.
A match that will be remembered forever, a battle between two of the world’s best on a Sunday afternoon in Paris. Words can’t do this match justice for how great it truly was. If you can, take the time out of your day to watch the highlights from this match to see how magical it was. All of the emotions were on display, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, both Sinner and Alcaraz went through it all. These men should be applauded for creating a new generation of tennis fans on Sunday.
Lenny Talks Sports 