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Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have been the future of men’s tennis for a while now.
Their first meeting, at the Paris Masters in October 2021, provided a glimpse into the tennis highlights the pair produce when sharing the court.
The following year, there was an extremely exciting match in the Wimbledon round of 16 that caught the attention of a casual tennis watcher, followed by an entertaining final in Umag, Croatia, and then the late night/early morning barnstormer at the US Open who heralded their brand of tennis as the next big thing at the top of the sport. Then came the pivotal semifinal of the Miami Open in 2023, then another classic at Indian Wells in 2024.
They did all this in long shadows. First two, and then increasingly one: those of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Even as they won their first Grand Slam titles, Alcaraz two and Sinner one, both beating Djokovic along the way, the myth created by 20 years of dominance loomed over them.
On Friday, when they stepped onto the red clay of Roland Garros, that myth melted away. And in a see-saw French Open semifinal that Alcaraz overcame in five sets to reach the French Open final, it was he who took a step ahead of his opponent in what appears to be an equally see-saw rivalry.
The Roland Garros semi-final was another must-see match. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images)
With Djokovic expected to miss at least Wimbledon following knee surgery, suddenly this is no longer just a rival in men’s tennis, but THE rivalry in men’s tennis. They are the two best (in form) players by far, with Sinner set to be anointed world number 1 in a few days and Alcaraz hot on the heels of the troubled Djokovic, poised to overtake him as world number 2.
This is one of those quirks of tennis: the match that looks like a final but isn’t, due to the way the draw was organised. On the other side of the draw, Casper Ruud faces Alexander Zverev – Ruud, a two-time French Open finalist and Zverev, the player in form in recent months – but Sinner and Alcaraz have operated at a different level in the last year or so (longer, in the case of Alcaraz).
We are at the beginning of the rivalry, but there are already some things to evaluate. It should be close, with both men winning four of their first eight matches against each other, before Alcaraz triumphs 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 at Roland Garros and move to the French Open. the final.
It’s not like the early stages of the Roger Federer-Nadal rivalry, which began with the latter winning six of the first seven matches, or the one between two of the best players in the world, with Iga Swiatek leading Coco Gauff 11-1 in the clashes direct.
Carlos Alcaraz prevailed, taking a 5-4 lead in the head-to-head match. (Tim Goode/Getty Images)
Nor does there appear to be a superficial issue for one player over the other. Alcaraz won on indoor and outdoor hard courts, Sinner on outdoor hard courts, grass and clay. But they only met once on the latter two surfaces and Alcaraz became Wimbledon champion in 2023 after four matches at SW19 the year before, and also won at Queen’s. The rivalry on clay should also be close if Alcaraz can emulate what he did on the slow hard courts of Indian Wells, using his ability to vary spin, speed and depth to throw off Sinner with the metronomic and violent consistency that is a hallmark of his cross-country tennis.
This was, ultimately, how things panned out on Friday, with Alcaraz’s win providing a victory apiece on clay. Sinner led two sets to one, but some mesmerizing lobs and dropped shots, along with impossible-looking winners from the baseline, ultimately swung the match in Alcaraz’s favor.
The closeness in their head-to-head is mirrored by the closeness of their relationship. They’re not best friends off the court – few tennis players are together – but they get along very well and love playing against each other. How long that will last as they face each other over time and the stakes get higher is another question, and it was interesting to see the different pre-game dynamics on Friday versus how friendly they were together as they waited to get on the field for that Indian . Wells semi-final.
On that occasion they greeted each other as if they were meeting at a cocktail party; On Friday in the tunnel before going to Chatrier the atmosphere was completely different. There was a handshake, followed by an expression as serious as Alcaraz’s, and then both men found their space and began going through their routine.
It was strictly business. Previously, some of their meetings had an almost expository quality.
Carlos Alcaraz applauded his rival after the match. (Tim Goode/Getty Images)
After that first meeting at the Paris Masters, a defeated Sinner told Alcaraz, «I hope we play a couple more times.» To the beaming Alcaraz he replied: “Yes, yes, yes, of course.”
Something happens when they play with each other: there is an electricity and chemistry that sees both players elevate the other’s game. In the Indian Wells semifinal in March, there was a sweet moment when, after a jaw-dropping exchange that Sinner somehow won, the two looked at each other and laughed. It was as if they were saying, “Do you want to look at what we just did?” This, and other on-court interactions the pair have had, give off the feeling you sometimes get in life when you meet a kindred spirit. Wait, do you like that band too? Do you support that team too? Can you also sprint at full speed and then somehow repel an angled crosscourt forehand?
“I’m already pretty fast, and he’s a lot faster than me,” Sinner said of Alcaraz, sounding like someone who’s excited to have finally met his opponent.
This mutual improvement has been a hallmark of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic triumvirate. Nadal dominated Federer, so Federer figured out how to beat him. Nadal understood grass. Djokovic understood clay. Their finals, some of the greatest matches men’s tennis has ever seen, demonstrated this in real time, pushing each other to even higher levels and creating a closed-circuit training ground that took them further and further from the court below.
Time will tell if the rivalry will take each player to greater heights (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Who knows if Alcaraz and Sinner will retain their affection even if the rivalry were to weaken, either in direct clashes, or in the number of Slams won, or in both.
They seem to genuinely appreciate the way each other raises their game. It’s not as if Federer admitted in the 2018 documentary Strokes of Genius that, rather than embracing the threat Nadal posed when he burst onto the scene, he was much happier winning major titles virtually unchallenged, thank you very much.
It’s hard to see Sinner or Alcaraz moving away from each other and there are reasons for either one to have the upper hand. Alcaraz is better at changing things to fit the surface, while Sinner usually plays into his game and makes the surface almost irrelevant. It almost always works against pretty much everyone apart from Alcaraz and Djokovic, and it didn’t work very well in Paris, with Alcaraz’s greater variety making the difference.
In Sinner’s favor is his momentum, which, although controlled, led him to overtake Alcaraz to claim first place, starting Monday, as Alcaraz predicted would happen in November at the ATP Finals, where Sinner reached the final . But now Alcaraz is the one who gets into another Grand Slam final, on track to have won three from four with Sinner on one.
It would be tempting to say that Friday’s game was somehow definitive or extremely revelatory, but that would be exaggerating.
Sinner had more total points in the match, but Alcaraz stepped up when it mattered. We’ll need a much larger sample size to predict where this rivalry might end up, and there’s a level of pressure that comes with being a sport’s flagship rivalry, as Alcaraz and Sinner suddenly are.
Sometimes on Friday they reached expected levels; in others there was an understandable tension, shown most clearly in the cramps that afflicted Sinner in the third set, which Alcaraz said also afflicted him.
Alcaraz said before Friday’s match that «it’s the game everyone wants to see.»
As Djokovic recovers, he promises to be that way for a while longer.
(Top photo: Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
