Stefanos Tsitsipas Creates an Iconic Seven-Word Sentence to Sum up the Roland Garros Final Between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner

Carlos Alcaraz clinched his fifth Grand Slam title after a five-set win over Jannik Sinner in the Roland Garros final.

Stefanos Tsitsipas Creates an Iconic Seven-Word Sentence to Sum up the Roland Garros Final Between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner

Stefanos Tsitsipas Jannik Sinner Carlos Alcaraz (via Tennis.com)

Jannik Sinner lost agonizingly to Carlos Alcaraz in an astonishing Roland Garros final. Alcaraz, the reigning champion, overcame a two-set deficit and three championship points to see off his great rival in five sets.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, who knows how it feels to blow a two-set lead in a Roland Garros final, shared an iconic sentence to sum up the Paris final. He shared this on his Instagram account.

The biggest prison escape since Alcatraz 1962.

This is Sinner’s first loss in a Grand Slam final after going three wins in three previously. The Italian was coming into this match on the back of reaching the Roland Garros final without dropping a set. It included straight sets win over Novak Djokovic.

However, he has once again failed to uncode Alcaraz. The Spaniard is now 5-0 against his great rival since the start of the 2024 season. Four of these five matches have gone to a deciding set.

Jannik Sinner denied history at Roland Garros

Jannik Sinner was on the brink of joining an elite group of players who have won three Grand Slam titles in a row during the Open Era. After claiming the 2024 US Open and 2025 Australian Open, the Italian arrived at Roland Garros with a 20-match winning streak at majors. In the final, he had three match points against Carlos Alcaraz but couldn’t convert, eventually falling in a five-set battle that lasted five hours and 29 minutes.

Jannik Sinner
Jannik Sinner (Image via X/Jannik Sinner HQ)

Because of that result, the list of players to achieve this rare feat remains limited to five legends: Rod Laver, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic. Laver remains the only man to complete a Calendar Grand Slam in 1969, winning all four majors in the same year. His three-in-a-row run was technically achieved twice during that stretch—both the first three and the final three Slams of that year.

Sampras joined the club in the 1990s by winning Wimbledon and the US Open in 1993, followed by the Australian Open in early 1994. Federer did it twice: first by winning Wimbledon and the US Open in 2005 and the Australian Open in 2006, then repeating the sequence in 2007. Nadal matched the feat in 2010 by winning the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.

Djokovic, however, stands alone in having done it four times. He completed three-Slam streaks in 2011–12, 2015–16 (where he actually held all four majors), 2018–19, and again in 2021. He nearly matched Laver’s calendar sweep in 2021 but lost in the US Open final to Daniil Medvedev. Djokovic’s consistency at the top has made him the most dominant player in this specific milestone.

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner get into Grand Slam record books

The French Open has seen many legendary finals over the years, but few have matched the drama and endurance of the 2025 showdown between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Before this match, the longest final in terms of duration belonged to Mats Wilander and Guillermo Vilas in 1982. Wilander, just 17 at the time, shocked the tennis world by defeating Vilas in four sets over four hours and 42 minutes. Despite not going to five sets, it remained the longest match in terms of time for over 40 years.

Jannik SInner and Carlos Alcaraz
Jannik SInner and Carlos Alcaraz (Image via Open Source)

In terms of games played, the previous record came from the 1984 final between John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl. McEnroe had a strong start and led by two sets and a break, but Lendl mounted a stunning comeback to win in five sets. That match lasted 51 games and marked Lendl’s first Grand Slam title. Other notable long finals included Novak Djokovic’s 2021 victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas, which spanned 48 games, and Alcaraz’s 2024 win over Alexander Zverev, which involved 44 games.

Then came the 2025 final, where Alcaraz and Sinner broke both time and game records at Roland Garros. The match lasted an exhausting five hours and 29 minutes, nearly an hour longer than Wilander’s record. Sinner, then world No. 1 and winner of the last two majors, was close to sealing a third straight title with three championship points. But Alcaraz fought back, saving those points and winning the third and fourth sets before dominating the fifth-set tie-breaker.

The final score was 4-6, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (10-2), totaling 59 games – easily surpassing the previous game record from 1984. The match included three tie-breakers, with a decisive first-to-10 in the fifth set. At just 22, Alcaraz claimed his fifth Grand Slam title in what will be remembered as one of the greatest French Open finals of all time.