“I won’t sleep tonight very well, but it’s okay,” Jannik Sinner said during the Roland Garros presentation ceremony after losing a titanic five-set battle in the summit clash to Carlos Alcaraz. Such was the quality of tennis on display that neither of them deserved to lose. However, there has to be a winner, and it was Alcaraz who hoisted the trophy aloft in the night sky. At that moment, when Sinner made his speech and said those famous words, one couldn’t help but feel some sympathy for the vanquished, as he had put his blood, sweat, toil and tears into the match.
In fact, such was the array of shots in the final set from the duo that it would be difficult to put together a highlights package. Which shot to pick and which stroke to ignore? What about the astounding forehand winner that steered Alcaraz to an epochal triumph? How can we miss out on the jaw-dropping crosscourt forehand winner after drawing Sinner forward with a drop shot at 3-0 in the tiebreak? At the commencement of the fifth set, too, there was a spread of sparkling shots – a magical crosscourt forehand winner and a nifty backhand volley, all from Alcaraz.
Just when it felt as if the Spaniard would run away with that set, Sinner cracked a blazing down-the-line backhand and showed athleticism and skill to get to the net and caress one just over it. And just like that, he also broke back to make it 5-5. By that time, it was already the longest final in the history of the French Open, but the twosome still seemed to have something left in the tank to go toe-to-toe against each other.
Even if we transport ourselves back to the start of the match, it was quite evident that very little separated the two. Although for long periods of the first four sets, it looked like Sinner had that teeny-weeny edge when it came to shot-making. For instance, in the second set tiebreak, Sinner crunched a stinging forehand down the line, with the ball dipping in at the nth moment. And Sinner provided the finishing touches to the set with an archetypal running forehand.
Alcaraz, the raging bull from Spain, wasn’t going to give up so soon. He clawed his way back into the match by winning the third. Despite all that, Sinner still seemed to be slightly the better player in the fourth. He broke Alcaraz to make it 4-3 and then 5-3. Here, too, the racquet weaved some magic, with Sinner employing a caressing drop shot, alongside a vicious forehand and a backhand pass that dipped just enough to force an error.
With three match points on Alcaraz’s serve, Sinner’s moment in the sun seemed to have finally arrived. Tears of joy rolled down his mother’s cheeks; she was ready to explode with a gamut of emotions. Meanwhile, Sinner was that ice-cool figure, geared up to pinch that one more point which would make him the proud owner of a French Open title. But something was about to change. Suddenly, the man who was cracking almost every groundstroke with precision, depth and power missed the lines a couple of times. And Alcaraz essayed a couple of forehands of his own to make it 4-5.
Sinner was still in pole position as he had to just hold his serve to emerge triumphant. Alcaraz, though, had suddenly raised his level, especially on the forehand wing. A down-the-line pass was enough to break back, and from nowhere it was 5-5. It was the watershed moment of the match. Even though Sinner kept looking for that one small window of opportunity, the tide had turned in Alcaraz’s favour.
It was a marathon battle between an impregnable robot and a maverick. It was a contest between Sinner’s laser-like backhands and Alcaraz’s hair-raising forehands. There were believe-it-or-not drop shots on display. And then there was drama and tension. Everything was packaged into one at the Philippe Chatrier to leave the fans chewing their fingernails. In a match of such fine margins, Alcaraz’s sheer bloody-mindedness and outwardly skill in the tiebreak helped him to scrape through. Ecstasy for one player, and for another, the task of navigating through constant nightmares while sleeping. Alas! Sport can be cruel sometimes.