The greatest credit one can give to the Carlos Alcaraz-Jannik Sinner marathon at the French Open final on Sunday is that it simultaneously made us nostalgic about the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal-Novak Djokovic era of Grand Slam finales while reaffirming the tennis world that the future of the sport is in safe hands.
Former player Andy Roddick nailed it when he said: “Easily one of the greatest matches of all time. Anyone who doesn’t think so is living in their own nostalgia,” he said on his YouTube Channel. “It’s absurd the level these two have taken to. Like the big three before them, they are pushing the game to heights I don’t think we have seen before.”
It has been evident for some time now that Alcaraz vs Sinner is the rivalry that will define this era of men’s tennis. But until Sunday at Roland Garros, the two rising superstars hadn’t met in a Grand Slam final. And what’s more, neither had lost a Major final they had played in with Alcaraz 4/4 and Sinner 3/3. Sinner hadn’t won a match that lasted beyond 4 hours. Alcaraz hadn’t won a Major match after going down by two sets. Something had to give. And they gave the world a final to remember. For a sport that had been lucky to witness three greats slug it out for years, a defining moment for the new generation arrived in some style.
FRENCH OPEN 2025 FINAL: SINNER VS ALCARAZ HIGHLIGHTS
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Establishing the elite status of this rivalry, they put on a gladiatorial show that last for 5 hours and 29 minutes, the longest ever final in French Open history. And in the end, Alcaraz completed his great escape after looking down and out for so long. Sinner will take time to recover from this jolt, but when the dust settles, both of them would realise they gave tennis one of the greatest finals of all time.
It got current and former players buzzing on social media. Former French Open champion Stan Wawrinka gushed, with the help of some emojis, “Insane Level.” Alex de Minaur was generous with his use of exclamation points. “The level of this whole match was insanity!!!!! What a day to be a fan of this beautiful sport,” the Aussie star posted. “What an incredible ending to @rolandgarros,” said Rafa Nadal, whose footprint at Court Philippe-Chatrier bore metaphorical witness to the grandstand finish.
But perhaps the most poignant post came from John Millman, the Aussie who, at 2020 Australian Open, took Roger Federer to a deciding fifth tiebreak where he came up just short of a monumental upset. “How is it even possible that we are watching this type of tennis again, so soon after the greatest ever three battled?”
Today’s roller-coaster final is our Extraordinary Moment by @HaierOfficial 🎢#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/5Af9R71449
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 8, 2025
Tennis had been incredibly blessed for the careers of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic to overlap to such a significant amount, that following that up was always going to be tough. It didn’t happen right away, even though Djokovic is still very much mixing it up with the elite. There was a lost generation of potential superstars that included/includes the likes of Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, and Stefanos Tsitsipas. But with Sinner and Alcaraz, the expectations have been sky-high for a while now. They had already given us some classics like the US Open 2022 quarterfinal and the French Open 2024 semifinal.
But the Big Three, and even Andy Murray included, was revered for their Sunday clashes. The title deciders. The 2008 Wimbledon final between Federer and Nadal. The 2012 Australian Open final between Nadal and Djokovic. The 2017 Australian Open final between Federer and Nadal. The 2019 Wimbledon final between Federer and Djokovic. Those are the matches that defined their era. And so there was a lot riding on the first-ever Grand Slam final meeting between Alcaraz and Sinner, which had been on the cards for a while.
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Boy, did it deliver. After a shaky first act, when both players started off the match making more errors than usual, the match began to peak in quality, reaching superhuman levels as the evening progressed. Sinner’s refusal to give up when he scurried forward to retrieve a drop shot at 4-5 down in the fifth when Alcaraz was serving for the set was a case of finding a nitrogen boost while running on reserve fuel. Alcaraz’s volley early in the fifth set tiebreak, when he played a drop shot and followed it up by taking the ball on the full while adjusting his feet, to hit a clean winner. Those were instances when the match transcended from sport to art.
In the end, it was a shame there had to be a loser. But the sport, as the cliche goes, won.
