The Sincaraz Era Is Tennis Reborn

For years, many Grand Slam finals have become spontaneously event. When Rafael Nadal played Roger Federer, or Federer faced Novak Djokovic, or Djokovic took Andy Murray, and the games extended in sets, and sets in hours, and in the morning on the east coast was transformed in the afternoon, the word was spread. Something was happening, something not to be missed – something precious because it was both rare and recognizable, especially because it continued. But then Federer retired, and Murray and Nadal reached the inevitable, and there was only Djokovic, chasing his own shadow. In the United States, sport has become something smaller, more niche. But, a Sunday at the beginning of June, tennis reproduced.

There, in the final of the Open of France in 2025, was the n ° 1 player in the world against n ° 2. An ordained Italian known for his precision and his alpine reserve against a passionate Spanish. A suffocating reliability machine against a creative and unpredictable genius. While Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz played deeply in the fourth and fifth sets, Word Spread, just like before. Social media were on. TVs have activated. The texts stolen. Even the hardest fans, those who know how much the little separates the good from the big one, who sees a brilliant tennis playing in an ordinary second round during a smaller event in Metz, had a hard time putting what they were witness in context. Was it the best match since Federer played Nadal in the 2008 Wimbledon final? Was it better than that? The quality of the shooting only increased when the pressure increased and increased, and the time has passed, and the reserves are exhausted. At the end of the fourth set, after Alcaraz had already saved three match points, and throughout the fifth, they nailed fast-round flying, ran to drop shots that had died on the rebound, right blows thrown on the race, erased the distinction between the offensive and the defense. Finally, the pyrotechnics reached a great final, while Alcaraz ran to an advance of 7-0 during the fifth set equality break and finally won the match with a right blow of sprint throughout the line. Alcaraz tennis during this fight was more than impressive; It was euphoric. And the match had the same old magic, the quality of something new.

Alcaraz knew. “I think I have a rival,” he said, after defeating Djokovic to win the Wimbledon 2023 title. “I’m not afraid to say.” He was not talking about the old guard – he was a sinner against whom he was preparing. “He and I have already had great battles on all surfaces and in various tournaments, and I believe that we will also fight for major titles in the future.” The enticing potential of rivalry became apparent during a match at the US 2022 open match, which not only has long discussions of baton -ground boosts, but also feather drops and pointed angles, innovations from all the terms that have erased the usual axes between offensive and defense, the front and back. However, it was a surprising thing to say at the time. Alcaraz was already champion, newly n ° 1; The sinner was the eighth seeded and, in the semi-finals, had been an easy prey for Djokovic.

He seemed, in a way, as if Alcaraz wanted the rivalry to be, even before 2022. Alcaraz, then fifteen years old, faced a sinner, then seventeen, during the very first professional tennis match of the Spanish; Alcaraz has won in three sets. Maybe it prepared the field for him, his sense of what sport would be. Maybe he needed it to concentrate his ambition. He is an intuitive player, subject to emotional oscillations; He is at his best when he is the happiest, inspired. During the matches against other players, he sometimes seemed distracted, irritated, a showman. Against Sinner, he was systematically sublime. The sinner, for his role, played at the time a more ordinary baseline game – a clean ball game and fracture, but struck in predictable models. While riding the ranking, partly behind a very improved service, he added new dimensions to his game, more variation and contact, until only Alcaraz can disrupt it. Last year, the Sinner record against all the other ATP players was 73 to 3. Against Alcaraz, it was 0 to 3.

“It is a privilege to share the court with you in each tournament,” said Alcaraz to Sinner, in the court of Roland Garros, after having defeated him for the title. “I am really very happy to be able to make the story with you.” Easy for Alcaraz to say, maybe. He won. That rivalry has so far promoted Alcaraz – he leads the sinner 8 to 4 – may be one of the reasons why it seems so invested. But there is another dimension to its frequent references to Sinner, its eagerness to put them in peer. Alcaraz won his first Grand Slam when he was only nineteen. He was five when Federer faced Nadal in Wimbledon in this emblematic match. He grew up with the three big ones, with the feeling that rivalries make history, just as he grew up with light snowshoes and monofilament polyester ropes. To Sinner, who is more consistent than Alcaraz from week to week, rivalry is humanization. The sinner, who can appear as robotic and cool, also seems to need it. “Whenever I play against him, I feel, as, that we both try to push ourselves to the limit”, Pinner said, In 2023. “We hate to lose, especially against each other. We have a very good relationship outside the courtyard – and I have the impression that we are good friends. But you still know in court … You feel a little nervous.” There are limits to this friendship. When Sinner missed three months from the tour after the Australian Open, while serving a doping suspension as part of a regulation for drug testing failed in 2024 (an accidental contamination) Alcaraz said that he was not among those who contacted him. But, when Alcaraz defeated the sinner in the Rome Open final, the first sinner tournament, Alcaraz had only warm words: “I’m not going to get bored how incredible you are, an athlete that you are.”

How is it possible that a rivalry this sublime emerged so shortly after the golden era of sport? Tennis journalist Giri Nathan has a book, “Changover”, on Sinner and Alcaraz who has not even been released, but already seems extremely historic. “The era they inaugurated is-the bailiff is finished; we are just there,” he told another tennis journalist, Ben Rothenberg. “We are there right now.” Maybe we should not be surprised. The game of Alcaraz, like that of Sinner, is built on inheritances – and that’s how it is. From a young age, the sinner and Alcaraz learned to strike cerebral vascular accidents which plunged and led, as Nadal did, with clear and heavy margins of rotation. They slipped into the corners, like Djokovic, and learned to strike the rights of rallying a complete stretch; Like Federer, they were not afraid of the net. They kept informed of the last recovery sciences, kept their rest, treat food as fuel, found coaches who seemed to take care of them like people who collapsed on their happiness, who were concerned with the fullness of life.

There are differences between the games of Sinner and Alcaraz. So far, at least Alcaraz looks a little more comfortable on natural surfaces, clay and grass, and the sinner has dominated the hard shorts. The level of Alcaraz has more variance and its game has more variation. The sinner always comes to play. At the French Open, the sinner won more short points, while Alcaraz won more than four shots. But, when they face each other, their games are remarkable not because of contrasting styles but because of their convergence.

What players are missing, they can find in the example of each other. Their dynamics seem born not from enmity but something almost more collaborative. This is true at the technical level, because they improve their games to keep up with the pace and move forward. Sinner changed his service mechanics, going from a platform to a punctual position, which helped him jump at the top of the game. Alcaraz also changed his service, reinforcing what was perhaps the most underdeveloped part of his game. (In the final at the Queen’s Club, leading to Wimbledon, Alcaraz struck eighteen aces.) And he is also true in a more psychological sense, The creativity of Sinner and the discipline of Alcaraz. This week is the start of Wimbledon – the most prestigious tennis title. Alcaraz has won the last two years in a row. Part of the glory of sport comes from a feeling of constant renewal. The ball is now in the courtyard of Sinner. ♦