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Alcaraz escapes to victory in epic Roland Garros final

New Delhi: It is 3-5, 0-40 in the fourth set of the 2025 Roland Garros final and Carlos Alcaraz is on the brink of losing the game and the match. So many others would have thrown the towel in but Alcaraz instead threw caution to the winds. He went for his shots without fear and won 13 of the next 14 points. And then in the fifth, with Alcaraz serving for the match, Sinner returned the favour by finding a gear that even he didn't know existed. Marathons have a way of drawing something out from deep within and this was no exception. By the time the match ended, no one was talking about shot quality or percentages. The conversation had moved into the unquantifiable guts-and-glory territory. The crowds were cheering, the players had raised fists and the tennis was surreal.On the red clay, a new era was born. It was always going to be special. The moment when the two best players of the generation play each other in a Major final for the very first time. Sometimes, it sets a trend but more often, it spurs both players to get better. But then again, if you are Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz, how do you better this? The 22-year-old Spaniard's maverick genius found a way past the remarkable steely consistency of the Italian in five sets -- 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2). This five hours 29-minute match was the longest men's Roland Garros final in history, surpassing the final between 17-year-old Mats Wilander and Guillermo Vilas in 1982 that lasted for four hours and 42 minutes. World No.1 Sinner was chasing his first Roland Garros crown and third consecutive Major trophy after his triumphs at last year's US Open and January's Australian Open. Carlos Alcaraz, on the other hand, was the defending champion, a four-time major winner, and he entered the final on a four-match winning streak against Sinner. Both had never lost a Major final either (Alcaraz 4-4 and Sinner 3-3). That alone would have been enough to make most tennis fans sit on the edge of their seats. But then there was the mouth-watering contrast of styles -- Sinner, the composed perfectionist versus Alcaraz, the emotional powerhouse. All tournament, Sinner had hit the more consistent ball but that can mean little when Alcaraz gets going. It's the angles that Alcaraz creates, the unpredictability of it all that seems to put the almost-robotic Sinner off. The natural kryptonite to the Italian Superman. The first game of the match with Sinner serving went on for 12 minutes -- it was only a sign of things to come. As Sinner had said on the prospect of playing Alacarz after the semi-final, "It's fun and not fun." It's fun because it brings the best out of Sinner. But it's not fun because ever so often Alcaraz takes his game to a level where, for now, only he resides. But Sinner got through that initial hesitation and started playing in a way that had seen him destroy opponents on the way to a 18-1 record in 2025. He was also on a 20-match winning steak at Majors. And while Alcaraz was still running hot and cold, the Italian took the first set 6-4 in 63 minutes. Alcaraz, though, drops sets. He needed four sets in four of his six matches on his way to the final. He is in every sense, a momentum player, but Sinner didn't let him find that in the second either. There were signs and he faltered while serving for the set but clinched it in the tie-breaker after 66 minutes. The pressure of being down 2-0 in a final can be numbing but Alcaraz continued to believe in himself and he found a different way. While it is his forehand that garners the rave reviews, it was the backhand, particularly the down the line version, that saved the day for him here. The legs just got a little faster, the groundstrokes more powerful and suddenly Sinner was the player under pressure. It was almost as if he took the scoreboard out of the equation. The third set went to Alcaraz in 49 minutes. There's not much to separate the two on most days but Alcaraz seems to live the big points better; he seems to want to play them more than Sinner. It is a paper thin margin but it matters; in a match of this level it certainly does. The fourth set saw a steady start. Both players holding their service games until Sinner took the break to lead 4-3. An easy hold made it 5-3 and when he was leading 0-40 in the next game, he had three match points to wrap up the match. So many others would have thrown the towel in but Alcaraz instead, threw caution to the winds. He won 13 of the next 14 points to change the flow of the match and make it 6-5 in the fourth before finally taking the set in the tie-breaker. By this point, it felt like the momentum had shifted. Alcaraz started moving better, raising his fists on points and the crowd started cheering for him even louder. Sinner, though looking calm, was clearly the player under more pressure. But somehow, Sinner hung it there despite going down a break early. He was tiring and you could see that in his walk to his towel box but this time he returned the favour to break Alcaraz as the Spaniard was serving for the match. It's never over till it's over. Now, at 5-5 in the fifth, the battle resumed on even terms. Sinner, once again betraying nothing, and Carlos, looking a little cold all of a sudden. But then suddenly the Spaniard picked himself up again and cruised through the final set tie-break to win what will go down as one of the greatest finals in recent history. As they say, sport truly is the best form of reality tv, for no script could have ever dreamed this up. They wouldn't even dare.

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