Jannik Sinner Shares a Heartbreaking Note After Losing the Longest Roland Garros Final to Carlos Alcaraz

Jannik Sinner lost his first Grand Slam final to Carlos Alcaraz in an epic five set battle at the 2025 Roland Garros.

Jannik Sinner Shares a Heartbreaking Note After Losing the Longest Roland Garros Final to Carlos Alcaraz

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz (Image via Roland Garros/X)

Jannik Sinner became the only person after Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray to reach three consecutive Grand Slam finals when he reached the 2025 Roland Garros finals. This marked his first Grand Slam final outside of hard court.

The World No.1 was in excellent form returning from his three-month doping suspension, reaching the finals of the Italian Open and the Roland Garros, facing defeat to World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz on both occasions. This marked Sinner’s first loss in a Grand Slam final, while Alcaraz extended his perfect record of 100% win rate at Grand Slam finals.

Sinner reached the Roland Garros finals without dropping a set en route, becoming the first person to do so since Rafael Nadal in 2020. The Italian was very close to victory after clinching the first two sets of the final and setting up three championship points in the fourth set. However, he failed to save those points, as Alcaraz fought back hard with great mental fortitude, taking the set to tiebreak and winning it.

It’s easier to play than talk now… I’m still happy with this trophy – I won’t sleep very well tonight, but it is okay. We tried our best today. We gave everything we had. Some time ago, we would have loved to be here [in the final] so it’s still been an amazing tournament.

Jannik Sinner said post-match

The 23-year-old came close to victory again in the fifth set, after he turned a 3-5 deficit into a 6-5 lead, but Alcaraz held serve to take it to tiebreak again. Alcaraz broke Sinner seven times and swarmed over Sinner’s second serve to take control of the decider tie-break, dominating it to defend his Roland Garros title with a scoreline of 4-6, 6(4)-7 (7), 6-4, 7(7)-6(3), 7(10)-6(2). Nonetheless, both players showed a relentless and resilient performance, making it one of the most thrilling Grand Slam finals in the history of the sport.

Clocking 5 hours and 29 minutes, this match was the longest final in the history of men’s singles at Roland Garros, surpassing the previous record of the 1982 final played between Mats Wilander and Guillermo Vilas, which lasted 4 hours and 42 minutes.

It is also the second-longest Grand Slam final overall, after the 2012 Australian Open final between Djokovic and Nadal, which lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes.

Carlos Alcaraz scripts history with incredible Roland Garros title defense

Carlos Alcaraz made an unbelievable comeback by saving three championship points in the fourth set. The Spaniard became the third man in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam after saving championship points, after Gaston Gaudio defeated Guillermo Coria at the 2004 Roland Garros and Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships.

Carlos Alcaraz
Carlos Alcaraz (via Roland Garros/X)

Until today, Alcaraz had never won a best-of-five match in his career after losing the first two sets. He became just the ninth player to rally from two sets down and win a Grand Slam final in the Open Era. At 22 years and 34 days old, Alcaraz became the third-youngest man to win five Grand Slam titles in history. He only trails Bjorn Borg and Rafael Nadal.

Alcaraz is also the youngest person to defend his Roland Garros title since Nadal in 2005-06. He is also the first player since Borg to defend his French Open and Wimbledon crown. With this victory, Alcaraz now improves his head-to-head record over World No. 1 Jannik Sinner to 8-4.

Also Read: What we Just Watched?” – Tennis fans Blown Away by the Scintillating Display of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz in the Roland Garros Final