Carlos Alcaraz took the upper hand in his rivalry with Jannik Sinner by winning their epic French Open final on Sunday.
Carlos Alcaraz took the upper hand in his rivalry with Jannik Sinner by winning their epic French Open final on Sunday.
The pair have shared the last six men’s singles grand slam titles equally and here, the PA news agency looks at how they compare.
Since the start of last season, only two different names have been engraved on men’s singles grand slam trophies. Alcaraz and Sinner also both went into Sunday’s meeting unbeaten in grand slam finals.
Sinner won last season’s two hard court slams at the Australian and US Opens, with Alcaraz victorious on the Paris clay and the Wimbledon lawns – and the pattern has so far repeated in 2025, with Sinner winning in Melbourne before Alcaraz’s success on Sunday.
Alcaraz now has five slams overall to his rival’s three, having also won the 2022 US Open followed by Wimbledon in 2023. He won his fifth major aged 22 years, one month and three days, exactly the same as his idol Rafael Nadal.
Still taking in that incredible men’s final at Roland Garros. So happy for @carlosalcaraz – five Grand Slams at just 22! My heart goes out to Jannik Sinner, who showed real class in defeat. What a match, thank you both. Tennis is in great hands.🚀
— Rod Laver (@rodlaver) June 8, 2025
The elder Spaniard’s fifth win came at Wimbledon in 2008 and the nature of the calendar means Alcaraz is narrowly the third youngest player to win five slams, aged 22 years and 34 days – one day older than Nadal. Bjorn Borg was just five days past his 22nd birthday when he won his fifth at the 1978 French Open.
Alcaraz needs just the Australian Open to complete a career slam. Should he achieve that feat in 2026 or 2027 he will displace Nadal as the youngest man to do so.
Sinner is halfway to a career slam of his own and unlike Alcaraz he has also won the ATP Finals, at the end of last season.
“For the sport it’s something amazing to have these players, this kind of rivalry they have,” said Alcaraz’s coach, former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero, after Sunday’s final.
“Having these two guys fighting for big trophies, I think we have to be very happy about it in the sport of tennis. They know they have to play unbelievable tennis to beat the other guy.”
Ferrero seemingly has his protege ready for the fight. Alcaraz, who said “real champions are made in those situations”, has the better of the head-to-head record to date, winning eight matches to four, including all five meetings since the start of 2024.
He has come from behind in four of those five, the only exception being this year’s Rome Masters final. Sinner led by a set in their 2024 Indian Wells semi-final, the final of the ATP 500 event in Beijing and on two occasions in last year’s Roland Garros semi-final, and was two sets up before Alcaraz won Sunday’s classic 4-6 6-7 (4) 6-4 7-6 (3) 7-6 (2).
Alcaraz leads 3-1 in tournament finals between the pair, Sinner’s one success coming in an ATP 250 event in Umag, Croatia in 2022.
Alcaraz’s win in Paris broke the tie in career titles – giving him a 20th to Sinner’s 19 – and boosted his lead over the Italian in career prize money. Alcaraz has won 44,732,623 US dollars (£33m at current exchange rates) to Sinner’s USD41,518,168 (£30.6m).
