Rivalries of 2025: Alcaraz vs. Sinner

  • Posted: Nov 24, 2025

To mark the end of another thrilling season, ATPTour.com is unveiling our annual ‘Best Of’ series, which will reflect on the most intriguing rivalries, matches, comebacks, upsets and more. This week, we are looking at the best rivalries of the year.

The Carlos Alcaraz versus Jannik Sinner rivalry has quickly turned into must-watch TV not just for tennis fans, but for sports enthusiasts, offering a genuine ‘expect the unexpected’ experience. They met six times in 2025, with Alcaraz winning on four occasions to extend his Lexus ATP Head2Head lead to 10-6 against the Italian.

ATPTour.com recaps their six clashes from this season.

Rome Final, Alcaraz d. Sinner 7-6(5), 6-1
With Sinner aiming to become the first male Italian champion in Rome since 1976 (Adriano Panatta), Alcaraz crashed the party in a pulsating showdown at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

Sinner, playing his first event since lifting the Australian Open trophy, looked poised to seize the opening set when he held two set points on return at 6-5, but a forehand unforced error and a mistimed backhand left the door ajar.

Alcaraz weathered the storm and found his best tennis of the tournament to snap Sinner’s 26-match winning streak and capture his maiden Rome trophy. The Spaniard used his slice serve on the Deuce-side to great effect and struck 19 winners compared to Sinner’s seven. It was a hard-fought victory to earn another win in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Sinner.

“He has that aura,” Alcaraz said of Sinner. “When you’re seeing him on the other side of the net, it’s different. That’s why obviously I’m feeling that the people are putting so much, — how can I say — pressure in a certain way to both of us when we are facing each other.”

Roland Garros Final, Alcaraz d. Sinner 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(10-2)
Alcaraz delivered a comeback for the ages on Court Philippe-Chatrier, clawing back from two sets down and saving three championship points to stun Sinner in the longest men’s final in Roland Garros history. The five-hour, 29-minute epic had pundits debating its place among the greatest matches ever.

Facing three consecutive championship points at 3‑5, 0/40 in the fourth set, Alcaraz summoned every ounce of grit to somehow hold serve before breaking Sinner in the next game to flip the match on its head.

With the crowd’s deafening roar echoing into the Paris night, Alcaraz showed his resolve once more in the final set. After failing to serve out the match at 5-4, he regrouped for one final, and decisive, push. In the first Roland Garros final decided by a fifth-set tie-break, Alcaraz delivered a flawless performance when it mattered most, becoming the third man in the Open Era to save championship point (Novak Djokovic, Gaston Gaudio) at a major and go on to lift the title.

Many will remember the fifth-set tie-break, during which Alcaraz was nearly at his peak, crushing winner after winner, including a screaming forehand pass to clinch the Coupe des Mousquetaires.

“I think the real champions are made in situations when you deal with that pressure, with those situations, in the best way possible,” Alcaraz reflected.

<img alt=”Carlos Alcaraz” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2025/06/08/19/14/alcaraz-roland-garros-2025-final-celebration.jpg” />
Credit: AFP/Getty Images

Wimbledon Final, Sinner d. Alcaraz 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
Five weeks after his Roland Garros heartbreak, Sinner made a triumphant comeback to down two-time defending champion Alcaraz in four sets and claim his maiden Wimbledon title.

At the All England Club, many eyes were on how Sinner would respond to such a devastating defeat to his greatest rival. After dropping four games from 4-2 in the opening set, the Italian rallied with steely determination to hand Alcaraz his first loss in a major final.

Sinner, despite five consecutive losses to Alcaraz at the time, went with a bold approach. The longer the rally, the harder he pummelled the ball, without dropping in consistency. Sinner took big cuts on return to apply pressure on Alcaraz while holding his ground with hefty serving. The final set was a Sinner masterclass of grass-court tennis. He dropped just one point behind his first delivery and converted all nine of his net points to be crowned champion.

“It’s mostly emotional, because I had a very tough loss in Paris,” Sinner said during the trophy ceremony. “But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how you win or how you lose at important tournaments, you just have to understand what you did wrong and try to work on that, and that’s exactly what we did. We tried to accept the loss and just kept working. This is for sure one of the reasons I am holding this trophy here.”

Cincinnati Final, Alcaraz d. Sinner 5-0 [ret.]
A highly anticipated final at August’s Cincinnati Open featured an abrupt ending. In the early stages, Sinner appeared out of sorts, looking physically drained in the sweltering heat. The Italian called for the doctor after falling behind 0-5. Unable to continue, Sinner retired after just 23 minutes of action.

“From yesterday I didn’t feel great,” Sinner said while apologising to fans. “I thought that I would improve during the night, but it came up worse. I tried to come out, tried to make it at least a small match, but I couldn’t handle more.”

Alcaraz, who consoled the ailing Sinner after they shook hands, claimed his first Cincinnati crown and his eighth ATP Masters 1000 title, the most of any active player besides Novak Djokovic (40). Alcaraz had been seeking redemption in Cincinnati, where in 2023 he let slip championship point against Djokovic in one of the most thrilling finals in Masters 1000 history.

“Since I lost that final in 2023, I wanted this trophy really, really badly,” said Alcaraz. “I’m just really proud and happy to be able to lift it.”

US Open Final, Alcaraz d. Sinner 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
Each of Alcaraz and Sinner’s six meetings this season came in finals, and the next title clash between the two rivals’ came at the US Open. In a high-stakes encounter, Alcaraz not only denied Sinner’s title defence at Flushing Meadows, but also replaced Sinner as World No. 1, ending the Italian’s 65-week debut reign.

A confident Alcaraz unleashed ferocious hitting from both wings and doubled the number of winners as Sinner (42 to 21). The Spaniard dictated many of the rallies and never loosened his grip behind his serve, dropping just nine points behind his first delivery in a clinical performance. Alcaraz’s coach Juan Carlos Ferrero later described his charge’s showing as “perfect”, a verdict the now-six-time major champion Alcaraz echoed.

“He always wants me to play at my best, and not too many times I would say he’s said that, that I played perfectly. So for me, it’s a great win,” Alcaraz said. “But, yeah, he’s right. I think I played perfect. I played perfectly.”

This year marked the second consecutive season in which Alcaraz and Sinner split the four Slams, meaning that they have combined to triumph at eight straight majors.

“I think we push each other to the limit every time,” Alcaraz said of his rivalry with Sinner. “My practices are just focused to see how I can be better just to beat Jannik. So I think the rivalry is special, splitting Grand Slams, fighting for great things.”

Nitto ATP Finals Championship Match, Sinner d. Alcaraz 7-6(4), 7-5
A season of twin supremacy deserved nothing less than a final act on the sport’s most electric indoor stage, the Nitto ATP Finals. Under the lights, in a crackling Turin atmosphere, Sinner delivered red-line tennis from first ball to last.

Sinner’s biggest weapon was his serve. Having made some technical tweaks to his serve post-US Open, the Italian’s adjustments proved effective. In a tight opening set, Sinner erased a set point with an ice-cold 117mph second serve. Boasting pinpoint accuracy all week, during which he did not drop a set, Sinner gave Alcaraz little to no breathing room behind his revamped delivery. Sinner won 84 per cent of his first-serve points against Alcaraz to finish the week with a perfect 5-0 record and a record $5,071,000 champion’s payout.

“You have control over one shot in tennis, and that is the serve,” said Sinner’s coach Darren Cahill. “Jannik and Simone [Vagnozzi] have done some incredible work over the last four or five weeks to rejig the serve and find that rhythm and tempo where he has been able to up the first-serve percentage.”

Sinner reflected on his final match of the season: “I feel I am a better player than last year, I think this is the most important. It’s all part of the process. I always say and believe that if you keep working and trying to be a better player, the results, they’re going to come. This year it was like this.”

[NEWSLETTER FORM]

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