Andy Roddick Ignites Debate on Tennis Players Being the ‘Best Athletes in the World’ After Sinner vs Alcaraz Roland Garros Final

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner Roland Garros final match lasted for five hours and 29 minutes, the longest in the history of the tournament.

Andy Roddick Ignites Debate on Tennis Players Being the ‘Best Athletes in the World’ After Sinner vs Alcaraz Roland Garros Final

Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Andy Roddick (via X/The Tennis Letter/Forbes)

Andy Roddick has claimed that tennis players are the best athletes in the world after Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner played the longest Roland Garros final in history. Both players produced an intense, high-level tennis match that will go down in the history books of the sport as one of the greatest Grand Slam matches ever.

Alcaraz and Sinner displayed a jaw-dropping intense tennis match that lasted for five hours and 29 minutes. The clash was heading to a straight sets victory for Sinner after he won the first two sets, but Alcaraz struck back by winning the third set. Yet, in the fourth set, Sinner looked like winning the match after nearly four hours after he led 5-4(40-0) and was ready to serve for the championship point.

But he let Alcaraz back into the game, squandering three championship points. That led Alcaraz to win the fourth set and push the tie to a fifth set. In the final set, Alcaraz let his lead slip yet again, which gave Sinner a chance to end the match while leading 6-5. But the Spaniard was not yet done, he battled hard to win 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(2) in a showdown that will never be forgotten.

The marathon of a match has prompted Andy Roddick to make an interesting claim on his Served with Andy Roddick podcast. The 42-year-old, who is a former World No.1 revealed that tennis is the ultimate test of an athlete. He added that he’s not trying to play down other sports but they aren’t as intense as tennis:

I think tennis players are the best athletes in the world. Five hours and 40 something minutes on the biggest stages. You compare that to other sports. This isn’t to say one thing doesn’t mean you’re throwing shade at someone else...An NBA game is 48 minutes played in air conditioning, where you have teammates, halftime, timeouts, the whole thing. There’s communication. We were used to being viewed as 'Oh, you are soft, like country club stuff.' I don't think that view exists today again. I think tennis players are the best athletes in the world. The more I watch it, the more I think it.

However, it has to be understood that Roddick’s statement will get some pushback, especially from NBA fans. The NBA plays a minimum of 82 games in a season, and only a few people make it through their careers due to the physical toll.

Also, the NBA indeed plays in an air-conditioned stadium, but it has its own unique athleticism that stands apart from other sports. In addition, there are a lot of stoppages during a basketball match, but they have to exert a tremendous amount of energy when they are playing.

Carlos Alcaraz joins an elite club after saving three championship points at Roland Garros final

Carlos Alcaraz became the third man to save a championship point in a Grand Slam final. The Spaniard joins Gaston Gaudio and Novak Djokovic in the list after achieving the feat. Gaudio claimed the feat during his 2004 Roland Garros final five-set win against Guillermo Coria, while Djokovic did that against Roger Federer at the 2019 Wimbledon final.

Carlos Alcaraz
Carlos Alcaraz (via the Tennis Letter)

When asked about how he felt saving three championship points against Jannik Sinner at the Roland Garros final, Alcaraz revealed that he didn’t give up during the high-level tie:

The match [is] not finished until he wins the last point. It [was] just one point away from losing the match. But a lot of times people came back from match point down in [the] final of a Grand Slam or even in other matches. So I just wanted to be one of those players who saved match point in the Grand Slam final and ended up winning. I just believe all the time. I never have doubts about myself, even [on] those match points down. I thought, ‘Just one point at a time’.

Alcaraz will now look to continue with his form in the grass-court season having won three clay-court titles. He’s expected to compete at the Queen’s Club Championships, which begin on June 16.

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