The first person Jannik Sinner thanked in his speech after winning Wimbledon was Carlos Alcaraz.
Speaking after the latest instalment of their captivating rivalry, Sinner said: “Carlos, thank you for the player you are.
“It is so difficult to play you but we have a great relationship off the court.
“Keep going, keep pushing, you are going to hold this trophy many times – you already have twice!”
A packed Centre Court crowd were almost willing Alcaraz to find a way to force a deciding fifth set and keep an absorbing contest going.
But world number one Sinner powered to the finish line to end Alcaraz’s title defence.
It was their first meeting in a Wimbledon final. It is unlikely to be their last.
Sinner is the first player to beat Alcaraz in a Grand Slam final. Alcaraz was the first to beat Sinner.
The pair have now won the past seven Grand Slam titles, with Sinner taking four.
They met for the first time in a major final at last month’s French Open, with Alcaraz recovering from two sets and three championship points down to win an epic, before Sinner took this year’s Wimbledon title.
They are the first pair to contest the French Open and Wimbledon finals in the same year since Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in 2008.
There is little that separates the two in terms of the numbers.
Sinner has won 20 titles to Alcaraz’s 21. The Spaniard also has the edge in Grand Slams, with five to Sinner’s four.
Alcaraz still leads the head-to-head 8-5 – but Sinner has now snapped a five-match losing streak against the world number two. The Italian has also halted Alcaraz’s winning run at 24 matches.
Their trajectories have been similar. Over the past two seasons, Sinner has won 99 of his 110 matches and lifted 10 titles. Alcaraz has won 102 of his 121 matches and won nine trophies.
The pair also have consistently high-quality matches. Only four of their 13 matches have been straight-set wins, and three of their five major meetings have gone the distance.
Alcaraz has won all three of their five-set encounters. The first came at the 2022 US Open, an epic quarter-final that lasted five hours and 15 minutes and finished at almost 3am.
Both of their French Open meetings went the full five sets, with this year’s final lasting a gruelling five hours and 29 minutes.