The French Open, one of professional tennis’s most important events, wrapped up on Sunday with a fantastic final match.
The men’s final featured the number one and two seeds in the world going head to head. The result was the longest French Open final match in history.
The five hour, 29-minute long match featured top-ranked Jannik Sinner of Italy and second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz of Spain. Alcaraz was the defending winner of the Open and was looking to win his second, while Sinner was fighting for his first French Open win and the fourth Grand Slam of his career.
Alcaraz came out on top.
In the first two sets, it looked like Sinner would pull away with a 2-0 run, but Alcaraz fought back to take control of the match and gain a 3-2 victory. This match marks the first time that Alcaraz has won a match after losing the first two sets.
The scores were very close throughout, with Sinner winning the first two sets 6-4 and 7-6. Alcaraz fought back to win the last three sets, 6-4, 7-6, and 7-6.
The best-of-five match was so long because of the many tiebreaks needed to determine the set winner. The second, fourth, and fifth sets all went into a deciding tiebreak.
The match win for Alcaraz is his fifth Grand Slam. He becomes the third-youngest in ATP history to win five, behind greats like Bjorn Borg and Rafael Nadal.
Throughout the match, there were amazing points with many rallies. If Sinner hit a perfectly placed line shot, Alcaraz would get the next point with a powerful volley. The players were so close in skill level that every point looked like they were just hitting around at a park, and not playing for the Musketeer’s Cup in front of millions of people.
For tennis fans, the French Open final was everything that made tennis exciting. A world-record length matchup between the one seed and the two seed turned into an amazing fight for world number one.
