Five Hours, Three Match Points, One Champion: Inside Alcaraz’s Epic Comeback

How Carlos Alcaraz fought back from the brink of defeat in the longest French Open final ever. Edition #250

What we saw between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner wasn’t any ordinary French Open final. It was everything a tennis fan dreams of. The longest French Open final ever, and the second longest major final ever, lasting 5 hours and 29 minutes.

At this point, these two have really cemented a legacy for themselves, even though they’re barely anywhere into their careers. My god, these two are amazing, and somehow they are on another level compared to the rest of the tennis competition. Just watch one rally and you’ll be asking how they actually do it.

If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know what happened, Sinner and Alcaraz played in the French Open final on Sunday, and Alcaraz came back after being down 2-0 after the first two sets. Alcaraz then went ahead and dominated the next three to take the reverse sweep on Sinner. The line was:
6-4, 7-6, 4-6, 6-7, 6-7.

In all honesty, I believe that Sinner had this game. He basically won four sets against Alcaraz during this matchup. Of course, tennis is an unpredictable game, especially when we’re talking about Sincaraz. All the stats throughout the game were extremely even, but that little 1% that each of them had in a category really showed what they did during the match.

Alcaraz had extremely strong footwork and used a bit of geometry to beat Sinner, with lots of angle placements being key for him. Sinner, who had the game in reach, just completely dissipated his complete game when Alcaraz began attacking with deep and powerful returns as well as amazing counters.

---

Sinner Domination:

Alcaraz Domination:

---

So, how did Alcaraz fall behind by so much?

The first two sets had Sinner absolutely dominating with his groundstrokes. He continued to control the game with his strokes. His serving can’t be set aside either, with Sinner dominating that as well. He wasn’t scared at all, and continued pushing his shots aggressively and in the perfect, precise places.

But, like I said before, momentum isn’t always the best thing in tennis, and a game that looked to be done in 3 sets went all the way to the max. Alcaraz began to find his rhythm in the fourth set, breaking Sinner’s serve and taking the game 6-4. Fine, Alcaraz got a set. No problem, that’s what good players do. Next thing you know, Sinner has 3 championship points while leading Alcaraz 5-3 in set 4, and Alcaraz saved all three, held his serve, and then won the tiebreak 7-3. He looked extremely tired.

The Final Set

This was a close one, with Sinner testing Alcaraz and vice versa. It came down to the wire — a super tiebreak, in which Alcaraz took the win 10-2, and this epic game ended.

Quotes:

---

It's fun and not fun (to play Alcaraz). It's both ways. But I think we we try to push ourself in the best possible way. I believe when there is a good match, it's also good to play. It's not only to watch, but also to play. It's very special. And 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."

Sinner (Before the Finals)

Definitely great for tennis, both of them. I think their rivalry is something that our sport needs, no doubt. I'm sure that we're going to see them lifting the big trophies quite often.

Djokovic (Before the Finals)

“I just want to say thank you for everything to my team and family. I have the privilege to be able to live great things with you. I was lucky to have a lot of people who came from Murcia, from home, to support me. It is just amazing support you gave me today, during the whole two weeks, [including] the people who weren’t able to come but are at home. Thank you very much and this trophy is yours as well, so thank you.”

Alcaraz (After)

Historical Notes

• Alcaraz joined Gaston Gaudio and Novak Djokovic in saving championship points in a Slam final.

• He became the ninth man in the Open Era to rally from two sets down to win a major final.

• 55% of two-set comebacks in finals come in the French Open.

Note this: Alcaraz had a 12–1 career record in fifth sets compared to Sinner’s 0–6 record in matches lasting over three hours and 50 minutes.
Alcaraz now leads the head-to-head 8-4.

---

Opinion

Now, just a little part I wanted to add here.

What’s pissing me off is that John McEnroe says Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner could beat prime Rafael Nadal. As a huge Nadal fan myself, this angers me quite a bit. Like, do we understand who prime Nadal was?

What Sinner and Alcaraz are doing is legendary no doubt, but to get to the level of Federer, Nadal, or even Novak (if you’ve been following me for a while, you know my love/hate for the Joker), there’s still a long road to go. Obviously, none of them got to play prime Nadal, but Sinner hasn’t even won a set against Nadal, and all three of their meetings were on clay. This was literally when Nadal was aging. Nadal also has the edge against Alcaraz, but they are tied on clay. Once again, Nadal was aging.

Alcaraz and Sinner should definitely be considered top-tier, and the sport, just like Andy Murray says, is in a very good place right now. But it takes time to get to the level of the Big Four. They’ll get there one day. I know that for sure. But right now, we should not be considering these two part of that big group.

Should I do a bigger article on this? Drop your thoughts in the comments below as well!

---

Sports Square News:

We hit Edition #250! 25% of the way to a 1000!

It’s June, meaning it’s Sports Summit time! I have a lot of fun pieces planned, so get ready!

A huge Sports Square update is coming, something huge for the future.