Carlos Alcaraz claimed that winning his fifth Grand Slam title at exactly the same age as his “idol” Rafa Nadal was “destiny”. And the new Spanish superstar, who retained his French Open title, said: “Hopefully it’s not going to stop like this.” The world No.2 beat world No.1 Jannik Sinner 4-6 6-7 6-4 7-6 7-6 in five hours and 29 minutes – the longest French Open final ever.
Alcaraz is also the youngest player to retain the title since Nadal as he won his fifth Major at exactly the same age of 22 years, one month and three days old as his fellow Spaniard. “I have to realise that I’ve done it,” he said. “I think that’s the first step. Honestly, the coincidence of winning my fifth Grand Slam at the same age as Rafa Nadal, I’m going to say that’s destiny, I guess. It is a stat that I’m going to keep for me forever, winning the fifth Grand Slam at the same time as Rafa, my idol, my inspirations. It’s a huge honour honestly. Hopefully it’s not going to stop like this.”
Alcaraz is now unbeaten in five Grand Slam finals – and has won five consecutive matches against Sinner – after their first ever meeting in a Major final.
“this one was the most exciting match that I’ve played so far, without a doubt,” said the Spaniard. “Today I think the match had everything, really good moments, really bad moments. Just really, really happy. I’m proud about how I deal with everything today.
“It wasn’t easy. The first match that I came back from two sets to love down. I think it was in a better occasion to do it in the final of a Grand Slam.
He now leads his head-to-head with Sinner 8-4. “Every match that I’m playing against him is important honestly,” Alcaraz added. “This is the first match in a Grand Slam final. Hopefully not the last time. Because I mean, as I said many times, every time that we face against each other, we raise our level to the top.
“I think for the people and for the fans are important as well for our matches. If you want to win Grand Slams, you have to beat the best tennis players in the world. I think it feels much better when you face them in the final.
“So it’s not going to be a turning point. I’m sure he’s going to learn from this match, and he’s going to come back stronger the next time we are going to face each other.
“I’m pretty sure he’s going to do his homework. I’m pretty sure I’m going to try to learn from this match as well how I can be better, how I can, you know, tactically make damage in his game.
“I repeat: I’m not going to beat him forever. That’s obvious. So I have to keep learning from the matches I played against him, and hopefully play more Grand Slam finals.”
The French Open final is an instant classic comparable with great finals like at Wimbledon in 1980 (Borg vs McEnroe) and 2008 (Nadal vs Federer) and the 2012 Australian Open final (Djokovic vs Nadal).
“Well, honestly, you know, if people put our match in that table, it’s a huge honour for me,” added Alcaraz. “I don’t know if it is at the same level as those matches because those matches are, you know, the history of tennis and the history of the sport.
“So I let the people to talk about it if for them they are almost the same. But for me, I mean, watching from outside or realising what that match is in the history of tennis, I don’t know if our match is in the same table as them.
“But just happy to put our match and our names in the history of the Grand Slams, in the history of Roland Garros. Just I let the discussion to the people.”