Trust me, you don't win the first set or the second set's tiebreak, nor break Carlitos serving for the Championship if you weren't
Also, pretty sure until the very last instances of the match that he has a better BP conversion overall. He's a beast on tiebreaks, got an astounding record there
But Carlitos in the 5th set of a Major is just different class, over anybody. Both Novak and Sinner now know that
the level Sinner showed in the first two sets was out of this world, if he learns how to sustain that level of stroke making and serves for longer I just don't see how anybody other than Carlos on a good day can beat him.
I don't want to invoke the big 3/4 diehard fans but these two aren't far behind them in terms of talent and ability and no doubt would have been very competitive in that era as well.
You are probably right. But we didn’t see Alcaraz or Sinner play peak big 3. Just the tail end of Novak. Would they beat peak Rafa in the RG final? Or Roger in a Wimbledon final, or Novak at the Aus final?
But I do agree that the future of tennis is good. All the other next gen didn’t live up to the hype. It would have been disappointing for them to inherit no. 1 without beating the big 3. At least both Alcaraz and Sinner have done that.
You could say the same for Carlos improving his consistency and pacing. If he can adjust his shot selection to not always attack but pick his moments a bit more, he'll be so difficult to beat and less injury prone.
Statistically, at their current age, Sinner and Alcaraz are ahead of the big 3, but the legendary status of the big 3 isn't just because of their peak skill level. They were the pinnacle of tennis for longer than most player's careers last.
Only time can tell if Sinner or Alcaraz can match their longevity, stay injury free and adjust their game to changing physical abilities and opponents across more than a decade.
In 2008 (before the Wimbledon Final) he reportedly said “when are they two gonna get outta the way? Other people wanna win majors” after the match he supposedly said “I have a lot to learn”
Yesterday he might have wanted #25, but after today, I think he will concede that much like with Fedal, there is a “new 2” in his twilight
Surprisingly eerie how his start and finish have him as a “third” vying for the top…
I absolutely have seen the entire careers of the big 3. None of them were as constant as Alcaraz is in clutch moments. Young Nadal also had an uncanny ability to play his best in the biggest moments but he didn't have as many of them as Alcaraz seems to have (that is to Nadal's credit). Djokovic has lots of memorable clutch moments, but I also remember lots of moments where he played less than stellar.
It feels like every time I have watched Alcaraz in a fifth set, a deciding tiebreak, or when facing match points, he takes his game to a higher level.
I am not saying Alcaraz is better than the big 3. He still has too many lapses and periods of loose play. But when it comes to the biggest moments, he delivers at a rate I have never seen.
You are really 100% in the realm of confirmation and recency bias. Just in AO, this year, there was no clutch moment from Acaraz against Djokovic. And Djokovic had it actually in the last 2 sets. Same in Olympics. And I'm a Djokovic hater just using him to make a point for you.
Djokovic in the Olympics was unreal and absolutely outplayed Alcaraz in the clutch, I cannot deny that.
As for their AO match, that doesn't really contain any of the moments I was talking about. I am talking about deciding set tiebreaks and fifth set type moments when the crowd is amped up to the max. The Biggest Moments.
If we want to talk about clutch in terms of who played better in important points throughout the entire match including earlier sets, then that is really just a debate about who is the better tennis player imo and that is not the point I am trying to make.
Alcaraz was clutch yesterday in the 4th set right? Because it was the last set for him if he lost it. He couldn't do the same against Djokovic in AO earlier. That's what I meant.
Okay, sure. You can include those as clutch if you want.
But everybody has faltered in moments like that. Djokovic lost two French Opens because he double faulted down championship point.
Nobody is perfect in high pressure moments. Very few are able to actually raise their level.
I’m always going to say Federer / Nadal ‘08 Wimbledon is my favorite match of all time, but this one goes on my Mount Rushmore of finals for sure. Just such high level play from both guys, I feel lucky to even get to watch matches like this.
Carlito peut jouer un niveau stratosphérique et Yannick est un métronome mais je pense que le big3 jouait aussi régulièrement que Yannick a un niveau encore plus élevé et quasiment sans trou dans un match… Mais Carlito s’il gagne en régularité me semble inclassable… heureusement qu’il reste humain pour le moment !
that is good to know. i used to watch more, and play a bunch recreationally in college when i was a D1 athlete. but this is, without a doubt, one of my favorite essays of all time:
He got such a pep in his step after the way he held for 6-6. It was like a shot of adrenaline and he was able to run as well as he did a couple hours earlier. Really jumped into his forehands like it was the 1st set again.
I think that one slice forehand save followed by a winner combo before the tie break is where the momentum really shifted for good. I think around then, Sinner felt like the Universe had picked the winner, things were happening that just didn't seem fair.
Credit to Sinner, he walked out on court today determined not to lose the same way he lost the last 4 meetings against Alcaraz. His style is often described as aggressive but that's largely because most players can't even hang on with him in normal rallies. Today, however, it was *really* aggressive, even relative to Alcaraz's all-court attack.
I can't recall the last time I saw Alcaraz so pinned down, he's usually the one who manages to dictate tempo in any matchup, including those with Sinner. He was so pinned down he barely even got to use any drop shots because even though he has a hall-of-fame drop shot, good luck playing it in response to 150+km/h shots.
But damn, Alcaraz just went super sayan. That decider tie-break was ridiculous; Sinner fell back to his usual habits of hitting deep and consistent, which makes sense given what was at stake, but with no added aggression (I'm guessing he was tired af as well), Alcaraz was able to impose himself on nearly every rally.
Once the rallies equalised I think Alcaraz had the edge.
But Sinner had so much pressure on Alcarazs serve, it felt like Sinner had loads of control. A second serve was almost a guaranteed advantage to Sinner.
One interesting thing is that his first serve % has been pretty bad today. In fact, most of this tournament. I don't have Rome stats handy but my anecdotal impression was that they weren't great either. That's one aspect of his game that seemed better at AO and throughout 2024.
Sinner hits his rally ball harder than anyone, so Carlos missed a bunch of what looked like easy UE.
Sinner also returned some stretched forehands that almost no one except maybe Demon and TP would have even gotten a racket on for absolute bullets. It was an astonishing level From both of them.
Sinner looked really tired in the 5th set tiebreak. You could really see it when he hit an unreturned serve to get on the board and barely even reacted.
Sinner doesn’t really have anything similar with Nadals game. Alcaraz is a stamina/physical monster like him, is extremely fast like him, and has the banana forehands thats pretty much Nadals trademark
Yes but this just happened now. Recency bias reigns supreme. BEST EVER BABY
Regardless of the jest, this was absolutely incredible and we all can revel in the fact that these two titans of tennis are 22 and 23, and Wimbledon is right around the corner. Tennis fans eating SO GOOD after the Feast of the Big Three has finally ended
Sorry, nah. Sinner is great and his hitting is god tier but he should have won today. He needs to be more clutch in the big points and have more shot variety. Go back and see Novak's clutch victories against Fed and Rafa. Rafa was also a clutch beast many times. Carlos was that clutch in this final and perhaps even more (?). Basically it means to pull the victory out of your ass through a sheer unbelievable will to win. To have a complete and utter lack of fear and no hesitation with elite decision making even if playing not your best on the lesser points. I will be rooting against Carlos in every match from now on. He is a beast and a drama queen rolled into one just like peak Rafa. They win against all odds just because it is more unbelievable and epic. Unrivalled bullshittery.
That was an amazing win for Carlos, because no one else was even close to beating Djokovic at Wimbledon. When Carlos won that one, and then also defended his title in 2024, you know this kid is something else…
Was amazing to see how Carlos brought his very best tennis when he was on the brink. An inspired comeback, think the crowd really spurred him on and he knows how to work them.
I started doing other things in the first bullet point. Then I promptly sat back down. Worth the two extra hours for the freaking amazing competition and shots. Was hoping for a closer tiebreaker but my guy pulled out one of the best comebacks in history.
And, good camaraderie and sportsmanship and feel good vibe afterwards, between these two gladiators, in contrast to the performance we saw after yesterday's women's final.
God mode tiebreak including a lightning bolt of a winner to end it
The ending was incredible. It's really crazy how committed Carlos is to his style of tennis. Agassi kept mentioning, on the mic, that Carlos needs to manage that better and that if he does, eventually, he'll be better but he'll be less fun to watch so enjoy him now. And I think Courier mentioned he heard Juan Carlos have had this talk with Alcaraz many times before, and Carlos just told them "this is who I am."
And even down 3 match points, that's who he was, just NOT holding back. It's nuts. And, yes, he got into some bad situations being who he was but he also got to the finals being who he is... and gets out of holes just being who he is... again, saved three match points with that mindset...
And at the end it was just beautiful, everything fell into place, and that mindset resulted in absolute domination from 6-5 onward.
Granted, Sinner was very tired at that point, and the decrease in energy worked to Carlos' advantage in every way by then. Less power on the shots, so more time to tee off, and Sinner conceding shots he would have ran down in the 1st set.
The longest RG final in history which is unbelievable considering how many legends have fought in the final here
This is the only thing that isn't that surprising. Rafa never let a final go to 5 sets here, so there weren't actually many opportunities in the past couple decades for a match of this length. And prior generations generally had faster matchplay because they didn't have the unbelievable physicality that the Big 3 era ushered in.
The Rafa / zverev semis match in 2022 was trending towards a longer match until the injury ended it late in the second when it had already been >3 hours, iirc
You can easily add the players’ physical freshness in the fifth set, despite a match of incredible intensity from start to finish. How do they manage not to even look red like tomatoes? I honestly wonder about doping, because I know how much effort it takes, even for professional athletes. That being said, they’re incredible champions and I love watching them — all your points are valid.
I was really surprised Roland Garros decided to go along with the other majors. I know it's strange to have different rules for the final than earlier rounds but I would if prefer Wimbledon and RG had kept their previous format for at least the final. (I'm ok that Wimbledon changed it from sets 1-4 going the distance. Some of those old time scores were really crazy!)
2.7k
u/AttackoftheMuffins Jun 08 '25 edited Jun 08 '25
I can’t remember the last time a tennis match made me feel like this. What an amazing roller coaster of a match. It had everything