Sinner and Alcaraz: The rivalry tennis needed

The brilliance of the French Open final proved that Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are the perfect next rivalry.

There is no doubt Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz gave us their best on Sunday in Paris. Their Roland Garros final was an instant classic, the kind of match that makes tennis bubble up onto the radar of the general news-watching public. If someone had written a script, they couldn’t have done better. The two best players in the world in a physical chess match for the ages. For five hours and 30 minutes, we were treated to the very best that sport has to offer.

There was the indomitable heart and courage from Alcaraz as he stared down the barrel of THREE championship points in the fourth set and never once wavered in his belief that he could still win. And the ability of Sinner to hold his nerve with basically the entire crowd against him. The ebb and flow of the match showcased perfectly why tennis scoring is the most exciting and brilliant system in the world. Sinner was a SINGLE POINT from winning the match. Three times. And he still lost. It’s the ultimate “it’s not over ’til it’s over” sport. And, honestly, who doesn’t love a good “grasping victory from the jaws of defeat” story arc? I sure as hell do.

Of course, greatness inspires hyperbole. Is it the greatest match of all time, as many on X suggest? Who’s to say? We are all susceptible to recency bias, in which we assign more importance and value to recent events. And then there’s the subjective nature of “greatest.” It implies drama and sustained quality. It has to be highly competitive and it’s greater when the stakes are higher. Well, usually anyway. But not always. I, for example, believe that the 2009 Australian Open semifinal between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco is the “greatest match of all time” because I place higher value on sustained quality and don’t care quite as much about high stakes or whether the match was played between two superstars or not.

Mostly, it doesn’t matter if it was “the greatest” or just in the company of other “greatest” matches. The important part is that Sinner and Alcaraz gifted the tennis community that match when we needed it most, with tennis wavering a bit in the legacy shadow of “The Big 3.” We all wondered–some secretly, some publicly–whether men’s tennis would be okay on this side of the retirement of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and the obvious twilight of Novak Djokovic’s career.

I’m delighted to report that it’s okay. Actually, it’s more than okay. It’s superb. Any given tennis generation is defined by its top rivalry. This much has been obvious to enthusiasts and casual observers alike. It’s only natural in an individual sport like tennis. For a half a century, tennis headlines have been dominated by pairs: Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, Chrissy Evert and Martina Navratilova, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi–and certainly Federer and Nadal.

Now we have Sinner and Alcaraz. Not since Borg and McEnroe has there been such a contrast in disposition and style. Alcaraz is instinct, passion, and emotion. He’s a showman who wears his heart on his sleeve, an emotional player who has occasionally caved to the pressure of expectation. Sinner is measured and reserved. His game is calculated and its predicated on high percentage decision-making and precision ball-striking. But for all of that, they’re both sportsmen of the highest caliber.

It’s a certainty that we’re going be watching Alcaraz and Sinner battling each other for years to come–and we are so lucky to have them.