Carlos Alcaraz shredded the record books after his historic win against Jannik Sinner in the final of the French Open on June 8. The marathon clash, which went right down to the wire, had an epic runtime of five hours and 29 minutes. Being two sets down at one point, Alcaraz roared back to fuel a comeback for the ages, to win the clash 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3) and 7-6(10-2). Arguably the two most considerable generational talents in the world at the moment, Alcaraz and Sinner put on a masterclass in the summit clash to produce the longest final in French Open history.
With this result, Alcaraz joined Roger Federer as the only two men to have won their first five Grand Slam finals (singles). The 22-year-old is also the third-youngest player in history to achieve five Grand Slam titles. Only Bjorn Borg (21) and Rafael Nadal (22) have gotten to this milestone at a younger age than Alcaraz. With the 2025 French Open title, Alcaraz has now won a Grand Slam for the fourth year on the trot - a feat only previously achieved by Federer, Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Never since Gaston Gaudio (French Open 2004) and Novak Djokovic (Wimbledon 2019) has a player won a Grand Slam final after saving match points.
Alcaraz also joined Nadal and Gustavo Kuerten as the only players to defend their French Open title successfully in this millennium. Overall, only eight men in history have managed this feat, with Nadal achieving it on three occasions. This defeat was Sinner's first loss in a Grand Slam final, having registered wins on all previous three occasions. He had also won 31 Grand Slam sets in a row, including two in the final against Alcaraz before the streak was broken. With three championship points staring at the Spaniard at the start of the third set, he defied the odds to down Sinner in a high-octane finish.
Reacting to this moment of glory, Alcaraz lavished praise on the quality of the match and didn't forget to praise his opponent for the unreal competitive levels. Given the extreme ebbs and flows of the game, Alcaraz felt that winning the title was nothing short of 'destiny', especially as he replicated a flurry of records associated with his legendary countryman Nadal.
“Today there were few moments of the match that, I mean, the level was insane.” gushed Alcaraz.
“Being Jannik on the other side of the net playing at such a great level, sometimes I thought: ‘What can I do? What can I do?’ He was moving unbelievably."
"The coincidence of winning my fifth Grand Slam at the same age as Rafa Nadal, I'm going to say that's destiny,"
While the whole world is in awe of Alcaraz's historic come-from-behind win, he chose to play down the nature of his feats, choosing instead to accept the moment with humility.
"The match points were not great points. I saved match points, it's great but the points were not good," he said. "At 6-5 in the fifth at 15-30 or 30-all, advantage for me, 40-all. Those points I remember pretty clear, and honestly, I still don't know how I did it. I mean, it was balls on the line, slicing the line. He was dominating that game. Honestly, I still don't know how I saved that game."
The other stunning stat about this fixture is that it was the first time a Grand Slam final featured two players born in this millennium. The Spaniard also continued to praise Sinner's energy levels in the clash. Given that they are arguably the two best players in the world right now, seeing them compete in a final wouldn't be an unusual sight in the future. Alcaraz certainly hopes to see more of his Italian rival in title clashes.
"I'm pretty sure he's going to do his homework. I'm pretty sure I'm going to try to learn from this match as well how I can be better, how I can, you know, tactically make damage in his game."I'm not going to beat him forever. That's obvious. So I have to keep learning from the matches I played against him, and hopefully play more Grand Slam finals.".
"Every match that I'm playing against him is important honestly. This is the first match in a Grand Slam final. Hopefully not the last time," he said. "Because every time that we face against each other, we raise our level to the top."
