Carlos Alcaraz was, for a second year in a row, crowned French Open champion today, beating Jannik Sinner 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6 (10-2) in a match for the ages—an epic showdown between the two heavyweights of men’s tennis and, at five hours and 29 minutes, the longest final in French Open history and the second-longest final at any major (and only the third time a grand slam final has been decided by a tiebreaker). It’s Alcaraz’s fifth major.
Given the two players’ dominance in the last few years—either Sinner or Alcaraz have won the last five slams, and seven out of the last ten; neither of them had lost a slam final before today (Alcaraz 4-0, Sinner 3-0)—it’s almost ridiculous that they hadn’t played each other on one of the sport’s biggest stages until today.
In a capsule preview of the rest of the match, their first game alone lasted 12 minutes and featured 16 points, with five deuces; had the entire match proceeded at that neck-and-neck, nerve-wracking parity, it would have lasted about ten hours. The remainder of the first set was more of the same, with both players seemingly feeling each other out, akin to two boxers trading jabs in the first round of a title fight.
Sinner pulled away clearly in the second set, only for Alcaraz to fight his way back to a tiebreak, but alas: At this point, despite the closeness of the scoreboard, Sinner was clearly dominant: While Alcaraz clearly possesses the most potent firepower in the game—along with a panther-like quickness—Sinner’s ability to return virtually anything hit to his side of the net neutralized and frustrated Alcaraz. As astute masters of the game from Andre Agassi to Brad Gilbert have noted, Alcaraz (much like Aryna Sabalenka) is continually playing in fourth gear; what he needs is a steady and consistent third gear, which Sinner (and, yes, Coco Gauff) deploy in abundance.
All of that turned upside-down in the third set, with Alcaraz leaping ahead with an early break of Sinner’s serve and some incredible shows of strength from both players. (The one shame of an epic showdown like this is that, because both players are executing at such a high level, the truly unbelievable speed and pace at which they hit the ball often gets lost in the shuffle—both players ripped forehands at more than 100mph on many times during the match—particularly with the overhead angle from the baseline shown on most broadcasts. But a solid, steady performance from Alcaraz allowed him to seize the set, 6-4, delighting the crowd (especially so when Alcaraz, in what has become a trademark move, put a finger to his ear; the crowd—which included Pharrell Williams, Natalie Portman, Lily Collins, Spike Lee, Omar Sy, and Dustin Hoffman, among other notables—suffice to say, made themselves heard by him). It was the first set Sinner lost in the entire tournament. Forget that third gear: This was pedal-to-the-metal, lights-out tennis.
