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The French Open opened two weeks ago with a tribute to retired 14-time champion Radal Nadal and the Big Three of his generation.

It ended Sunday on the clay court at Roland Garros in Paris with the unquestioned coronation of the Big Two.

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz cemented their mark as the future of men’s tennis in a classic French Open men’s final when Alcaraz fought off three consecutive match points in the fourth set and rallied for a grueling 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) victory.

“Honestly, I don’t know what I did. Honestly, I don’t know what happened,” Alcaraz said on the TNT broadcast. “… I didn’t think about anything else, just going point after point and putting my heart into it and getting all of my energy into it. I tried to not give up. We were in a final of a grand slam. There wasn’t time to be afraid. There wasn’t time to give up. I just tried to fight until the last ball.”

The 5-hour, 29-minute match was the longest ever for a French Open title, surpassing the 4-hour, 42-minute match at Paris in 1982 won by Sweden’s Mats Wilander over Argentina’s Guillermo Vilas.

“First of all, Carlos, congrats. An amazing performance, an amazing battle, amazing everything,” Sinner said following the match. “To you and your team, amazing job. I’m very happy for you and you deserve it.

In defending his French Open title, the No. 2-ranked Alcaraz prevented world No. 1 Sinner from winning his third consecutive grand slam title.

Even after five hours, a run of elite shot making continued with Alcaraz forcing the tiebreaker in the fifth set by holding serve.

Alcaraz appeared to be in control while leading in 5-3 in the fifth set and served for the match at 5-4. But Sinner broke Alcaraz’s serve to get to 5-5 then won his own at deuce to lead 6-5 before Alcaraz held serve to send the match to a tiebreaker at 6-6.

Alcaraz roared out to a 7-0 lead in the 10-point fifth-set tiebreaker and was leading 9-2 when he sprinted across the baseline and ripped a forehand up the line for the winner. He immediately slumped to the red clay in relief.

In a contest that featured countless twists, turns and tense moments, there was no bigger spot in the match than the seventh game of the fourth set, when Sinner broke the serve of Alcaraz, giving him a 4-3 lead. The Italian steamrolled through his own serve to go up 5-3 and had three championship points in the next game.

But Alcaraz, of Spain, wasn’t quite ready to relinquish his crown, coming back to hold serve.

And any nerves Sinner had on those championship points continued into his service game. Sinner could muster just one point, putting the match back on serve at 5-5 when his shot went long.

After two holds, Sinner and Alcaraz went to another tie-breaker. Sinner jumped to a 2-0 lead, with Alcaraz closing out seven of the next eight points to send the match to a two-set tie, setting up his final set heroics.

When it was done, Alcaraz called it the best match of his young career, ahead of his previous four grand slam victories.

“This match is the first one where I came back from two sets down and I think there wasn’t a better location than a Roland Garros final against a No. 1 in the world in Jannik,” Alcaraz said. “It was the perfect place to come back from two sets down. It was the best match I played in a grand slam and I’m really proud and happy this happened.”

The 22-year-old Alcaraz will next attempt to win his third straight trophy at Wimbledon, which begins June 30 in London.

Alcaraz now leads their head-to-head meetings 8-4. This was their first clash in a Grand Slam final and the first time Alcaraz came back from a 2-0 deficit in a major to win a match. He had been 0-8.

Both entered the match undefeated in grand slam finals. Sinner moves to 3-1, and Alcaraz to 5-0 in Grand Slams. The Spaniard now has back-to-back French Open wins to go with victories at Wimbledon in 2023 and 2024, and at the U.S. Open in 2022. Sinner won the past two Australian Opens and the 2024 U.S. Open crown.

In fact, since Daniil Medvedev won in New York in 2021, no one other than Sinner, Alcaraz, Nadal or Novak Djokovic has won a Grand Slam event.

–Field Level Media