Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner delivered one of the most thrilling Roland Garros finals in history, a five-set epic that lasted 5 hours and 29 minutes — the longest French Open final ever, surpassing the 1982 classic between Guillermo Vilas and Mats Wilander (4 hours and 42 minutes).
Sinner, who came within a few points of capturing his first Roland Garros title, was leading two sets to one and held three championship points at 40-0 before Alcaraz rallied to claim his fifth Grand Slam title.
The crushing defeat appeared to weigh heavily on the World No. 1, who fell in the second round of the Halle Open to Alexander Bublik. After the match, Sinner admitted the loss in Paris had taken its toll.
“The truth is that after the defeat in Paris, it wasn’t easy to be competitive here,” Sinner said in his post-match press conference. “I’m relatively satisfied to have been able to play two matches on grass before Wimbledon”.
Alcaraz about Sinner’s confession
Alcaraz, now into the semifinals at Queen’s Club, was asked about Sinner’s comments and expressed his support for his rival, acknowledging the emotional weight of certain losses.
“There were a few matches, really long matches that I have lost, and yeah, I just left the court by myself with the head up, and I didn’t need too much time to recover from that,” Alcaraz said. “Then there were other matches that it was really tough to deal with”.
“I know that day for him, that final was pretty tough to deal with after all mentally. So I don’t know. From my experience, some matches that I have lost, I took three, four days just to recover mentally,” he continued. “Physically, as well, if it was demanding physically. So two or three days minimum just to recover from a really tough loss”.
Alcaraz hits career-longest win streak
While Sinner regroups ahead of Wimbledon, Alcaraz continues to build momentum on grass. With wins over Jaume Munar and Arthur Rinderknech, the Spaniard has extended his career-long winning streak to 16 matches.
He surpassed his previous best of 14 consecutive wins, first set in 2022 before being stopped by Alexander Zverev in the French Open quarterfinals. Alcaraz matched that number again in 2023 when he won Wimbledon by defeating Novak Djokovic, before falling to Tommy Paul in the Canadian Open quarterfinals.