Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have been the future of men's tennis for some time now.
Their first meeting, at the Paris Masters in October 2021, provided a glimpse of the high-level tennis that the couple produces when they share the court.
The following year, there was a tremendously exciting match in the round of 16 at Wimbledon that caught the attention of the casual tennis observer, followed by an entertaining final in Umag, Croatia, and then the late-night and early-morning storm at the US Open that heralded his tennis brand as the next big thing at the top of the sport. Then came the pivotal semi-final at 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 domination loomed over them.
By the time they stepped onto the red clay of Roland Garros on Friday, that myth had been dispelled. And in a French Open semifinal that Alcaraz beat in five sets to reach the French Open final, it was he who moved one step ahead of his opponent in what appears to be a similar rivalry.
Their Roland Garros semi-final was another up-and-down match. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images)
With Djokovic expected to miss at least Wimbledon after knee surgery, suddenly this is not just a rivalry in men's tennis, but tea Rivalry in men's tennis. They are the two best players (in form) by far, with Sinner being anointed world number one in just a few days and Alcaraz hot on the heels of the beaten Djokovic, ready to overtake him as world number two.
This is one of those peculiarities of tennis: the match that looks like a final but is not, due to the way in which the tie was ruled. 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 been operating at a different level last year or more. like this (longer, in the case of Alcaraz).
It's the early days 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 triumphed 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 at Roland Garros to advance to the French Open . final.
This is not like the early stages of the Roger Federer-Nadal rivalry, which began with the latter winning six of their first seven meetings, or the one unfolding between two of the best players in the world, with Iga Swiatek leading Coco Gauff. 11-1 in their direct confrontations.
Carlos Alcaraz prevailed to advance 5-4 in the matchup. (Tim Goode/Getty Images)
There also doesn't seem to be a superficial issue for either player against the other. Alcaraz has victories on indoor and hard outdoor courts, Sinner on hard outdoors, grass and clay. But they only met once on those last two surfaces and Alcaraz became Wimbledon champion in 2023 after four matches at SW19 the previous year, also winning at Queen's. The clay court rivalry should also 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 lift Sinner from the metronomic, hard-hitting consistency that is a hallmark of his career. grassroots tennis
In the end, this is how things played out on Friday: Alcaraz's victory made it a win each on clay. Sinner led by two sets to one, but some fascinating lobs and drop shots, along with winners that seemed impossible from the baseline, finally tipped the match in Alcaraz's favor.
The closeness in their confrontation is reflected in the closeness of their relationship. They are not best friends off the court (few tennis players are with each other), but they get along very well and love playing against each other. How long that will last as they clash over time and the stakes increase is another question, and it was interesting to see the different dynamics leading up to Friday's game compared to how friendly they were together while waiting to get on the court for that Indian. Wells semi-final.
On that occasion they greeted each other as if they were at a cocktail party; On Friday, in the tunnel before entering Chatrier, the atmosphere was completely different. There was a handshake, followed by as serious an expression as could be found in Alcaraz, and then both men found their own space and began to go about their routines.
This was strictly business. Previously, there has been an almost exhibitionist feel to some of their matches.
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.” A radiant Alcaraz responded: “Yes, yes, yes, sure.”
Something happens when they play against each other: there is electricity and chemistry that makes both players improve each other's game. In the Indian Wells semifinal in March, there was a sweet moment when, after a mind-blowing rally that Sinner somehow won, the pair looked at each other and laughed. It was like they were saying, “Would you look at what we just did?” This, and other on-court interactions the couple has had, give off the feeling you sometimes get in life when you meet a kindred spirit. Wait, you like that band too? Do you support that team too? Can you also run at full speed and then somehow deflect an angled cross-court forehand?
“I'm already pretty fast and he's a lot faster than me,” Sinner said of Alcaraz, sounding like someone excited to have finally met his rival.
This mutual improvement was a hallmark of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic triumvirate. Nadal dominated Federer, so Federer figured out how to beat him. Nadal discovered grass. Djokovic discovered clay. His finals, some of the biggest matches men's tennis has ever seen, demonstrated it in real time, forcing each other to reach even greater heights and creating a closed-circuit training ground that took them further and further from the field of below.
Time will tell if the rivalry takes each player to greater heights (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Who knows if Alcaraz and Sinner will retain their affection for each other if the rivalry becomes less equal, whether in direct confrontation or in the number of Grand Slams won, or both.
They seem to genuinely enjoy the way others improve their game. This isn't like Federer admitted in the 2018 Strokes of Genius documentary that, rather than welcoming 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 pulling away from the other and there's an argument for either of them having the advantage. Alcaraz is better at changing things to fit the surface, while Sinner usually plays his own game and makes the surface almost irrelevant. This works almost all the time against almost everyone except Alcaraz and Djokovic, and it didn't work very well in Paris, where Alcaraz's greater range made the difference.
In Sinner's favor is his momentum, which although controlled, has seen him surpass Alcaraz to claim the No. 1 spot, starting Monday, as Alcaraz predicted would happen in November at the ATP Finals, where Sinner reached the final. . But now Alcaraz is the one in another Grand Slam final, on track to have won three of the four with Sinner in one.
It's tempting to try to say that Friday's game was somehow definitive or hugely revealing, but that would be a stretch.
Sinner earned more total points in the match, but Alcaraz stepped up when it mattered. We're going to 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, like Alcaraz and Sinner suddenly are.
At times on Friday they reached the expected heights; 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 game that “it's the game everyone wants to see.”
As Djokovic recovers, he promises to be like this for a while longer.
(Top photo: Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
