2 days ago
Jannik Sinner vs Carlos Alcaraz: Wimbledon 2025 final shows men's tennis is ready for its next big rivalry
The individual honours, trophy counts, and prize money leaderboards of professional tennis players may be tracked with frenzy, but fundamentally, it is a sport that hinges on its great rivalries. Think Borg-McEnroe, Evert-Navratilova, Federer-Nadal-Djokovic. The legacy that each of these players leaves behind, the feel-good nostalgia and heightened sense of history, is intertwined with one another. For as much as the tennis calendar may be a relentless 12-month-long grind, recall value among the casual sports observers only remains for the high-stakes one-off contests at the Grand in a couple of epics, and you have got a legacy to boot. Sunday's Wimbledon final had all the makings of the start of a new era of tennis. And by the time Jannik Sinner had defeated Carlos Alcaraz in four streaky yet absorbing sets as twilight fell on Centre Court, it also felt like watching the sport's newest duopoly crystallising.
It did not have the same tension and shotmaking prowess on display as their five-set barn burner at the French Open last month, but its result was even more crucial in the establishment of Sinner, 23, and Alcaraz, 22, as the leaders of the sport's newest generation.
Merely meeting on the big stage is not enough for a rivalry to burgeon; it requires equilibrium in the contests, too, which had been lost between these two in the recent past. Alcaraz had won five consecutive matches against Sinner, and last month, had delivered a decisive psychological blow to the Italian after saving three championship points and coming back from two sets down to win at Roland Garros.
The two are a clash in contrasting approaches. Sinner is methodical, disciplined and steady under pressure, while Alcaraz is much more up and down, but his variety, spontaneity and sparkle make his highs higher than anyone else on the tour. The two were considered prodigies at a young age, but both were never bogged down by expectations and have now separated themselves from the competition. Both are confident players who have proved to have all-surface expertise.
Alcaraz, who was a major winner and World No 1 as a teenager, has always had the upper hand over Sinner when it comes to his ease on the big stage and the admiration he has been able to evoke in the crowds. By winning a sixth consecutive match and beating him in a big final again, he may well have established his supremacy. But Sinner showed steel and ruthlessness to put that setback behind him and stay steady throughout the high-wire occasion, once again establishing parity in this dynamic.
Both players have already played their part in much-hyped matches, which is perhaps a result of the keenness of fans to see a replication of the golden era of men's tennis that has just passed. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic won 66 Majors between them, but for a majority of those tournaments, they would battle each other in the final stages.
Despite dominating Federer on clay, Nadal was unable to breach Federer's grass kingdom for much of their early rivalry, losing back-to-back finals before finally getting past him in their 2008 epic. A few years later, in 2011, Djokovic would take a similar leap to break Nadal's hegemony at the top of the game, beating him in the Wimbledon final to score his first victory over his rival at a Major.
Sinner's victory has a similar look and feel. He has now reduced the deficit in his head-to-head record with Alcaraz to 5-8, and won his fourth Major. It adds much intrigue as the travelling circus of tennis heads to the hard courts at the US Open, where Sinner is the defending champion and has a chance to win his fifth major and equal Alcaraz's Grand Slam tally. Tennis would be lucky if this is the new rivalry upon which it hinges now.
