Three hours and three minutes into the Wimbledon final Jannik Sinner was where he was just over a month ago in the finals of the French Open: He held three match points against Carlos Alcaraz. If he’d managed to win even one of them that day at Roland Garros, he would have been serving now on Centre Court to be three-quarters of the way to a Grand Slam.
But he did not close the deal in Paris. He could not close out Alcaraz, who did more to rise above the moment over the rest of that match, finally winning 7-6 in the fifth set, and after five hours in 29 hours.
They were not going to play that long on Sunday, because Sinner wasn’t going to let Alcaraz up this time, even after the first match point was gone. On a day when he served so much better than Alcaraz, not only served better but was better from the baseline, he pounded one more first serve down the middle, one more serve like that with which Alcaraz could do nothing. It was over. Sinner had won 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. The tennis did not feel as big as what we saw in Paris. But this was just as big a story.
You fully saw the greatness of Sinner on a day when he did not allow Alcaraz to be great; did not allow him to win his third Wimbledon in a row, and his sixth major overall. Sinner was not going to lose to Alcaraz for the fifth time in a row. So now he has four majors. Alcaraz has five. And perhaps the best news of what happened on Centre Court on this Sunday was that their rivalry just got better. And made you hope they do it again in a couple of months at the U.S. Open.
When it was over Sinner, clearly overcome with emotion, reached down and pounded the grass of Centre Court the way he had pounded those serves all day long, every time he needed one in a big moment. He was the aggressor on this day, not Alcaraz, despite world of game that Alcaraz has. Sinner was the one playing so much of this match in the forecourt. This time he was the one who seized the moment, and the best day he has had yet in tennis.
During his on-court interview, the trophy in his hands, Sinner talked about those last few points, and how this time he didn’t let Alcaraz grab the trophy away from him.
“Every moment can change the match,” he said.
Alcaraz is 22. He is 23. Sinner has now won three out of the four majors, and the whole world saw how close he could be to the career Grand Slam if he had won the French when it was right there for him. Alcaraz has also won three of the four majors. So Sinner doesn’t have the French, Alcaraz doesn’t have the Australian. So the two of them just keep going from here, the next major for both of them being in Flushing Meadow in September, at the Open.
After Sinner had won the last point on Sunday, it was Alcaraz taking a walk he had never taken after a Wimbledon final, as the runner-up. After drinking in one more ovation from the Centre Court crowd, he stepped to the microphone and talked about his relationship with Sinner.
“There is a great friendship off the court,” Alcaraz said, and then spoke to “a great rivalry on the court.”
They did not need five sets in the Wimbledon final to validate that this has truly become a great rivalry already. They just needed four more sets like they played on Sunday. The first set ended with Alcaraz covering the court the way only he can, sliding into a backhand after seemingly running from one of the outside courts, somehow slicing a sweet backhand that made it 6-4 for him.
Then, at the end of the second set, after they had both been swinging away in another baseline rally, it was Sinner doing the running, Sinner chasing down the ball near the alley, Sinner hitting a forehand crosscourt that must have sounded like an alarm going off to Carlos Alcaraz.
So it was 6-4 for Alcaraz. It was 6-4 for Sinner. And it was very much game on at Centre Court at a set-all. It made you think of something Jimmy Connors said when he was making his run to the US Open semis in ’91 at the age of 39:
“This is what they want.”
This is what we wanted. It somehow seemed that Sinner served the whole third set at 30-all, the pressure on both his first and second serves both constant and relentless. But he kept finding serves when he needed them. He was not going to lose this third set the way he did in Paris when he was up two sets to none. Maybe the most important — and telling — swing came when he was serving at 3-4 and 30-all. Second serve. Sinner kicked one out wide and away from Alcaraz for an ace. He was on his way to 4-all. Two games later he had the set.
“It was a very tough loss in Paris,” Sinner would say when he had the trophy in his hands.
He was the tougher player on Sunday. Alcaraz’s last chance and last stand came when he had two break points on Sinner’s serve at 15-140. But then Sinner kicked one last second serve out wide and forced an error. Then he out-slugged Alcaraz from the baseline before it was Alcaraz who sailed a forehand long. Alcaraz wasn’t going to break serve on this day when he couldn’t break Sinner.
His day. His trophy this time. He didn’t just show the world he could take a final like this off Carlos Alcaraz. A month or so after Paris, Jannik Sinner showed the whole world just how well he can take a punch.
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