Two words to describe the 2025 Roland Garros men’s singles final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner: divine creation. With that in mind, I turn to the wisdom of my friend L. An art teacher for decades, L has been known to tell her students, “That painting was excellent. But it wasn’t magical.”
Tennis history is filled with tales of excellent matches. But to enter the realm of magic, something else is required. As a start, a magical match will usually occur during the final of a high-stakes event. Second, it likely features the top players of a given era. And third, the quality of the tennis and attendant drama is sublime, incorporating rare plot elements and an exceptionally close conclusion.
Alcaraz-Sinner was unquestionably magical. The three championship points Alcaraz faced came at love-40. It’s hard enough to come back that way in any situation, much less the finals of a major versus a highly skilled opponent who’s won the last two majors and appears impregnable.
Again and again, Alcaraz found answers to Sinner’s questions. Ditto for Sinner versus Alcaraz. It would have been easy for him to unravel once down a break early in the fifth set. Instead, Sinner fought back hard, only in the end undone by yet more Alcaraz magic. “I think the real champions are made in that situations when you deal with that pressure,” said Alcaraz, “with that situations in the best way possible. I mean, that’s what the real champions have done in their whole careers.”