Since the peak days of Roger-Rafa, there has never been a clearer portrait of two giants at the top of the men’s tennis world.
Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Italy’s Jannik Sinner, the No. 1 and 2 players in the rankings, will meet in the Nitto ATP Finals championship match on Sunday. Neither dropped a match in the round robin format and both advanced with straight set semi-final victories in Turin, Italy on Saturday.
Sinner opened the proceedings with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Australia’s Alex De Minaur before Alcaraz polished off Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, 6-2, 6-4.
The two current behemoths of the courts have been ranked 1-2 or 2-1 since May of this season. They will meet for the sixth time this year, all in finals. Alcaraz has won four of five, with Sinner’s lone victory occurring on the grass at Wimbledon.
Advantage Alcaraz, right? Actually, no as Sinner, the defending champion has won 30 consecutive indoor matches. And, despite Alcaraz’s brilliance, this will be his maiden appearance in the ATP Finals’ title match.
“It is great facing Jannik,” Alcaraz said, after a 1-hour, 23-minute dismantling of the talented Canadian. “If it was someone else I wouldn’t mind to be honest but it is great. Thanks to him, I will try and approach the match in a different way. More focus and I know I have to play my plan A if I want to beat him, if I want to win the tournament, so I think we will both raise our levels to the top, which is great for the fans and the crowd.”
Alcaraz, who won the French and U.S. Open titles in 2025, faced only one break point vs. Auger-Aliassime and converted of 3 of 8 chances on his opponent’s serve. He fashioned 25 winners and made only 10 errors.
“I felt like I could do everything on court,” Alcaraz said. “It didn’t matter if I did forehand down the line, drop shot or backhand down the line, I felt that everything was going to be in. I think that confidence helped through the whole match, pushing him to the limit, pushing him to do something different and I am happy that I continued playing such great tennis.”
De Minaur, who upended American Taylor Fritz to get into the semi-finals with a 1-2 record, gave Sinner all he could handle in the 67-minute first set. He survived five break points in his first five service games, but could not stave off Sinner’s powerful returns in the 11th game and dropped a 7-5 first set.
Sinner raced to a 4-0 lead in the second set and cruised to 13th consecutive victory without a loss to the gritty Aussie.
“First of all, I am very happy,” Sinner said. “It is the last event of the year and it is great to finish in this way. It was a very tough match, especially at the beginning of the first set. I felt like he was serving great, very precise. In the second set, I broke very early and then my level rose.
“I tried to be a bit more aggressive and it worked well but it was a tough match.”
Sinner put constant pressure on the De Minaur serve, winning 40 of 88 points when returning.
Alcaraz has already clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking.
Before knowing whether he would face Alcaraz, Sinner said, “…making the final for three consecutive years means a lot to me. It is a great atmosphere for me to play tennis and a great place for me to close this beautiful season. Tomorrow I will enjoy and try my best to get the best possible result.”
–Field Level Media
