In a sport that relies so much upon the ability to reset, after every point, game, set, match and tournament, two men have separated themselves from the rest. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner meet for the US Open title and in their third grand slam final in a row on Sunday, becoming the first players in the Open era to face each other in three consecutive grand slam tournaments in the same year.
Alcaraz and Sinner’s determination to push each other to new heights has led to a historic trilogy, just three years after the quarter-final at the US Open that sparked a rivalry and changed everything. Alcaraz and Sinner were spotted bumping into each other while eating out at the same restaurant in New York earlier in the tournament. It was a coincidence, but both would have been already expecting and preparing to meet in the final later that fortnight. “They are too good,” said a resigned Novak Djokovic after defeat to Alcaraz in the semi-finals.
A third chapter of the Alcaraz-Sinner summer felt inevitable and has been set due to their ability to put past disappointments behind them. Both Alcaraz, 22, and Sinner, 24, have experienced their first defeats in a grand slam final this season, only to bounce back at the next opportunity. Sinner lost the French Open final to Alcaraz after having three championship points, only to then get him in the Wimbledon final a month later. Alcaraz has responded to his defeat to Sinner in the Wimbledon final by hitting top form at the US Open from his very first match.
Apart from a battling semi-final win over Felix Auger-Aliassime, there have been no surprises in Sinner’s return to the US Open final. The Italian has won 27 consecutive matches at the hard-court grand slams and is only the fourth man to reach all four grand slam finals in the same season, joining legends of the sport in Rod Laver, Djokovic and Roger Federer. While Sinner downplayed any injury concerns after feeling a “small tweak” to his abdomen, his relentless progress through the draw has been formidable and expected.
Alcaraz, though, has shown immense improvement in how he has reacted to the Wimbledon final, a defeat the Spaniard said only took a “few hours” to process. It was different to when Alcaraz lost the Olympics final to Djokovic in August 2024, a defeat that left him in tears after believing he had let his country down by not winning the gold. It sent an exhausted Alcaraz into a tailspin that culminated in his second-round defeat to Botic van de Zandshulp at the US Open last year.
Alcaraz has now reached eight finals in a row but his most impressive statistic ahead of the US Open final is that he is yet to drop a set and has has lost his serve just twice, marching through the draw with a focus and determination and banishing the lapses in concentration that had seen him take the scenic route through tournaments in the past. Not even in Federer’s dominant streak of five US Open titles in a row has a man won the US Open without dropping a set.
Perhaps the accidental no-nonsense buzz-cut before the tournament was a sign that there would be no messing around on the court in New York. Alcaraz said it has been his biggest improvement over the last couple of years. Even when not playing at his best against Djokovic in the semi-finals, Alcaraz closed out his dominant victory in straight sets, avoiding his big mistake that led to his previous defeat to the 24-time grand slam champion in the Australian Open quarter-finals.
“I think the consistency and not having the up-and-downs in the matches,” Alcaraz said. “Off the court, I just improve a lot, and I realise how important it is to take care of all the details just to be perfect.”
The biggest improvement in Sinner’s game over the last year is in his physical shape, prompted by how punishing and long many of the rallies are against Alcaraz. “Back in the days I was maybe struggling a little bit if we go three, four sets. Now I feel fine,” Sinner said. “He’s someone who pushed me to the limit, which is great, because then you have the best feedback you can have as a player.” Sinner praised Alcaraz’s bigger and more reliables serve as evidence of how focused he was been throughout the US Open, using the same words as his rival. “Maybe before there were more ups and downs,” Sinner said. “Now he’s very consistent.”
Sinner will bid to become the first man to retain the US Open since Federer in 2008 and is through to a fifth grand slam final in a row. “The consistency and putting myself there in the later stages of the biggest tournaments we have, it’s amazing,” he said. “But in the same time, I know it’s in the back of my head, whatever I’m doing, but whatever is done is done.”
It was Alcaraz and Sinner’s epic at the 2022 US Open that signalled the coming of the next great rivalry. Alcaraz won in five sets, saving match point to win at 2:50am in the latest-ever US Open finish and the second-longest match in the tournament’s history at five hours, 15 minutes. There was a purity to how Alcaraz and Sinner crushed the ball at one another deep into the night. “It was a match where you just go on court and just hit,” Sinner said.
Their rivalry has evolved since, demanding both players to adapt and improve tactically, emotionally and mentally. “We have faced each other quite a lot now lately, so you know, things are getting a little bit different,” Sinner smiled. Neither player had won a grand slam title three years ago; now they are playing for the World No 1 ranking, with Sinner targeting a fifth grand slam title and Alcaraz looking to move two ahead with his sixth.
“I feel like our rivalry started here,” Sinner said after returning to the final. There was no chance Alcaraz or Sinner would be avoiding each other as it now looks to reach greater heights.
