Sinner & Alcaraz set for high-stakes showdown in New York

  • Posted: Sep 06, 2025

There could hardly be a more fitting way to round out the 2025 Grand Slam season than a US Open showdown between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

The great rivals, who between them have lifted the past seven major titles, will make history in New York when they become the first players in the Open Era to contest three Grand Slam title matches in the same season. Yet unlike their championship-match clashes at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, there will be a double prize on the line when Sinner and Alcaraz meet inside Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday from 2 p.m. EDT/8 p.m. CEST.

Whoever clinches the title in New York will simultaneously ensure that they are No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings on Monday. Sinner has held top spot for 65 consecutive weeks, while Alcaraz is aiming to return to a position he last held in September 2023.

Sunday’s winner-takes-all blockbuster could also be crucial in the battle for ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours. Alcaraz leads Sinner by 1,890 points in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, but the Italian can close that gap to 1,190 points with the New York title. Both players have already qualified for the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals.

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Sinner and Alcaraz’s rivalry has developed into one of the most gripping in modern sport, and it was in New York three years ago when it first charged into the public consciousness. Alcaraz saved a match point in an epic five-set quarter-final victory en route to the 2022 US Open title.

Any on-court tussle between the two since has been preceded by intense hype and anticipation, and both players have regularly responded by producing scintillating performances. Yet before this year at Roland Garros, Sinner and Alcaraz had not met in a Grand Slam final. As the duo prepares for its third consecutive title match at a major, that gap in their rivalry now seems a distant memory.

“I love these challenges. I love to put myself in these positions,” said Sinner on Friday when asked for his thoughts on yet again having Alcaraz as his final opponent. “He’s someone who pushed me to the limit, which is great, because then you have the best feedback you can have as a player. We have faced each other quite a lot now lately, so things are getting a little bit different.

“Always when we step on court, we are aware of maybe more things, because him or me, we try to prepare the match tactically and in different ways… It’s great for the sport having rivalries, having hopefully great matches in front of us. And then we’ll see. I’m someone who loves these challenges, and I love to put myself in these positions and to see how it goes.”

Alcaraz enters Sunday’s final with a 9-5 lead in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Sinner, and their New York showdown will be the fifth meeting between the pair in 2025. All of those have been finals, with Alcaraz triumphing in Rome, at Roland Garros (after coming back from two sets down and saving three championship points) and in Cincinnati (where Sinner retired due to illness), and Sinner prevailing at Wimbledon.

“I always take things [from] the previous matches. If I’m playing against Jannik, obviously I’m going to take things about the last matches that I’ve played against him,” said Alcaraz after his semi-final victory against Novak Djokovic in New York. “The last one or the last three matches, I’m going to take note, and I will see what I did wrong, what I did great in the matches, just to approach the final in a good way.”

Both Sinner and Alcaraz have been in imperious form this fortnight at Flushing Meadows. Top seed Sinner, who is on a 27-match winning streak at hard-court majors, has dropped just two sets across his six matches, while second seed Alcaraz has not dropped a set and was clinical in seeing off record 24-time major titlist Djokovic in the last four. Even after all their successes so far, however, both players have frequently spoken about their constant desire to keep developing.

“I think physically he has improved a lot, and that obviously wasn’t a secret,” said Alcaraz of Sinner, who took a medical timeout for a stomach issue during his semi-final win against Felix Auger-Aliassime but later declared it was ‘nothing to worry about’. “He has spoken about the physical conditions that he has to improve, and I think the last year, the last two years, he has improved a lot physically.

“His matches are really demanding physically that he’s able to play at his 100 per cent during two, three, four hours, and I think that’s the biggest improvement he has made in the last years.”

Men To Win 3 Major Singles Titles In Single Season (Open Era)

Player Year Won 3 Majors 
Rod Laver   1969 (Won all 4)
Jimmy Connors   1974
Mats Wilander   1988
Roger Federer   2004, 2006-07
Rafael Nadal   2010
Novak Djokovic   2011, 2015, 2021, 2023
Jannik Sinner?  2025? (Would win 3 with US Open triumph)

Sinner, a relentlessly clean baseline ball-striker, will be eager to make early inroads on return in Sunday’s final. After defeating Auger-Aliassime, the Italian specifically mentioned Alcaraz’s serving when asked about his rival’s strengths. The Spaniard has lost just two service games across his six matches in New York so far, and he has faced only nine break points overall.

“He has improved a lot the serve,” said Sinner of Alcaraz, who is 54-6 for the season according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. “I feel like he’s serving much better with the better pace, but the percentage is very high all the time. Much more solid, for example, because maybe before there were more ups and downs. Now he’s very consistent.

“If you watch all the tournaments, he’s going very, very far. So many, many improvements. But I always say that when you are young, you know, one year or two years, they make big difference.”

While it hardly seems believable that the 24-year-old Sinner (an owner of four major titles) and 22-year-old Alcaraz (five major titles) can improve much on the mesmeric level they have repeatedly shown, fans have become increasingly accustomed to witnessing the unexpected from both stars. Sunday afternoon inside the 23,000-capacity Arthur Ashe Stadium is the perfect setting for another thrilling instalment of a rivalry that keeps on giving.

[NEWSLETTER FORM]

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