In a Short-Point Tennis World, Alcaraz Wins French Open on Long Points

No. 2 seed Carlos Alcaraz beat No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner in the 2025 French Open men’s singles tennis final on Sunday, June 8 after an intense, fast-paced match that lasted more than five hours.

The 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(2) match was ultimately decided by Sinner’s dominance on short points, and Alcaraz’s newfound ability to impose his variety, according to Matthew Futterman and Charlie Eccleshare at the Athletic. As well as one of the greatest surges in Alcaraz’s career.

It was Alcaraz’s fifth Grand Slam title and his second at the French Open. It was also the first comeback in the career of Alcaraz, age 22, from two sets to love down.

The match also takes the head-to-head matchup between Alcaraz and Sinner to 9-4 in Alcaraz’s favor. And extends his winning streak over Sinner, age 23, to five matches.

Anyone might have predicted that Sinner would have the edge on short points, Futterman said. His serve is bigger, and incudes more errors on return than most top players.

Sinner more than doubled Alcaraz’s tally on points of four shots or fewer through the first set and into the start of the second, 32-14. Meanwhile, Alcaraz was in the lead for shots that lasted more than four shots, 23-11. Sinner’s short-point edge then quickly climbed to 38-14 over the first three games of the second set, when he took early command.

These numbers provide a nice snapshot of each player’s strategy, Futterman said. Alcaraz wanted to get into points, especially on Sinner’s serve. He wanted to move the Italian across the baseline. Meanwhile, Sinner wanted to play first-strike tennis and avoid points where Alcaraz controls his opponent like a puppeteer.

The dichotomy on point length gave Alcaraz an opportunity. But the effectiveness of Sinner’s serve, combined with the laws of elite tennis—in which short points make up a majority of points played—quickly wiped the Spaniard’s advantage away, Futterman said.

By the start of the third set, Alcaraz was still up in longer points 24-29. But Sinner’s advantage in the shorter ones was at 61-48. Sinner was playing over 60 percent of the match in a game state where he held an overwhelming advantage. Even as Alcaraz wiped out Sinner’s two-set lead, Sinner’s advantage in short points held firm.

It’s no coincidence that in the peak of his domination, Sinner was winning 66 percent of points on his first serve, compared with a little under 60 percent for Alcaraz, Futterman said.

Sinner switched from a platform (feet apart) stance in his serve to a pinpoint (feet together) launch two years ago. He soon became the world No. 1, although beating Alcaraz remained a struggle.

By the end of the match, the supremacies of either player were even, Futterman said. Sinner was 108-95 on 0-4 shot points, and Alcaraz was 97-84 on anything longer. Resulting in a deficit of 13 each way erased to nothing as a deciding fifth set turned into a tiebreaker game.

In the end, it was Alcaraz who made his edge count. During his tiebreak surge, eight of the 12 points played were five shots or longer. Alcaraz won seven of them.

Overall, this first major final between the two standout players in men’s tennis enshrined this young rivalry’s place in global sport, Futterman and Eccleshare said. And produced a classic that will hopefully go down as the first installment in something epochal.