2025 Roland Garros men's final preview: Carlos Alcaraz vs. Jannik Sinner

To say this final, the first between the Italian and the Spaniard at a Grand Slam, has been highly anticipated would be something of an understatement. Even their fellow players admit they’ve been looking forward to it.

“We’re all going to wait for the final that we all wanted,” Alexander Bublik said after losing to Sinner in the quarterfinals.

Bublik didn’t need to name any names for us to know who we’ve been waiting to see.

In 10 years, we may look back on this weekend as one of the symbolic starting points of the Sinner-Alcaraz era. On Friday, Sinner beat the last of the Big 3, Novak Djokovic, 38, in what the Serb said may be his final match in Paris. Now Sinner, 23, and Alcaraz, 22, will go head-to-head with a major title on the line for the first time. Alcaraz leads Sinner in Slam titles, four to three, but this might be the moment when their race officially begins. It may not end for a decade or more.

“It’s going to be a really great Sunday, I think, for the fans of tennis,” Alcaraz says.

“The stage, it doesn’t get any bigger now,” Sinner says. “Grand Slam finals against Carlos, it’s a special moment for me and for him, too. I believe tennis or every sport needs rivalries, no? This could be potentially one of these.”

What Sinner may also be thinking, but didn’t say, is that he could use a win over Alcaraz to keep this rivalry humming. The Spaniard leads their head-to-head 7-4, and he has won their last four matches going back to 2023. That includes their most recent, on clay in Rome last month, and their most important, in the semis at Roland Garros a year ago.

Their matches have been close and competitive. Two of them have gone five sets, and Alcaraz won in a third-set tiebreaker in the Beijing final last fall. When both guys are clicking, they’ve produced something akin to super-sonic baseline tennis. But even as Sinner has risen to No. 1 and asserted his dominance over everyone else, Alcaraz has still kept another gear in reserve.

The stage, it doesn’t get any bigger now. Grand Slam finals against Carlos, it’s a special moment for me and for him, too. Jannik Sinner

Against other opponents, Sinner overwhelms them with how early he takes the ball, and how hard and accurately he clubs it. Even Djokovic couldn’t keep up on Friday.

Read more: At Roland Garros, Jannik Sinner beat Novak Djokovic at his own game

“Jannik is the kind of player who loves to play in very fast pace the entire match,” Djokovic said. “He’s very physical. He’s very fit, and he’s striking the ball incredibly well. So you have to be constantly at your best.”

But there is one player who Sinner hasn’t been able to overwhelm lately, who isn’t especially rushed or pressured by his pace, and who can send the ball back as quickly as it came in, and that’s Alcaraz. Being forced to react right away might even help Alcaraz, who can lose the plot if things come too easily, or if he has to create his own pace over and over. He loves nothing more than taking your brilliant shot and sending back something even better. Sinner is a more consistently clean ball-striker, but in a contest of athletes, Alcaraz reigns supreme.

Read more: Carlos Alcaraz vs. Jannik Sinner: What's the best bet in their Roland Garros final?

The surface also favors Alcaraz. Where Sinner loves hard courts, Alcaraz is the defending champion at Roland Garros, and he has won two clay Masters 1000s this spring, in Monte Carlo and Rome. He also likes the best-of-five format, which gives him a chance to go through his ups and downs and still have time to right the ship. Last year here, Sinner led two sets to one before Alcaraz won in five. The length of best-of-five makes him confident that he’ll impose his will, and his pace, on the other guy eventually.

“I think I put some high speed on my shots during the whole match, that probably some other players are not used to play such a high speed or intensity,” Alcaraz says. “So that [gives] me a lot of confidence in the Grand Slam that I’m thinking that I gonna come back if I lose one or two sets.”

Sinner is the top seed, hasn’t dropped a set, and has been driving a steamroller through the draw since the opening round. He may now be at a level where even Alcaraz can’t match him. But I won’t believe it until I see it. Winner: Alcaraz