Sinner and Alcaraz’s finely balanced rivalry risks becoming stale

After all, this is the year of “Sincaraz”. It may well be the next decade, too. There are simply no men who come close to the 22-year-old Alcaraz and 24-year-old Sinner. This will be their third consecutive grand slam final against each other in 2025, having already contested the French Open and Wimbledon showpieces. No two players have ever faced off in three successive major finals in a single year in the Open era. It is the second year where one of the two has won every single Slam available. It is hard to imagine that changing.

The clown and the robot. There is Alcaraz with his goofy grin and childlike energy. There is Sinner with his ­permafrown and gritted teeth.

They are perfect foils for each other. All rivalries need a goodie and a baddie. Everyone will have a different opinion on who is who. When it comes to sport, those designations can be remarkably flexible. Just ask Novak Djokovic, who lapped up the praise from Arthur Ashe Stadium in his straight-sets semi-final loss to Alcaraz. The Spanish golden boy looked mildly perplexed at the sudden popularity of the older Serb.

Djokovic was supposed to be the guy who could upset the applecart. At this point in his career, the 38-year-old acts as a sort of ATP grenade. Sinner dealt with him in straight sets at Wimbledon and Roland Garros, like the son who realises he is actually now better than his father, but Alcaraz had lost to him in January’s Australian Open and in the Olympic final in the summer of 2024. He had ­little to worry about in New York though, beating the most successful tennis player of all time 6-4, 7-6, 6-2.

Both Alcaraz and Sinner must be thinking less about overtaking Djokovic in the micro and more in the macro. The target to beat is 24 grand slam titles. Either or both of them may have a shot at that total.

If Alcaraz wins today, he will become the second-youngest man to earn six grand slams after Björn Borg. If he were to win in straight sets, he would become the first man to win the US Open without dropping a set. That isn’t a statistic open to Jannik Sinner after he dropped a set to Denis Shapovalov in the third round and then Félix Auger-Aliassime in the semi-final.

Sinner, who has four grand slam titles, is usually so methodical and laser-focused that he ­steamrollers opponents. “AI-generated” is how fourth-round opponent Alexander Bublik described him. That was before Sinner beat him 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 in only one hour and 21 minutes.

For Sinner, the question is: how does one man hit the ball so hard but with such precision, creating overwhelming force on a tennis ball with the delicacy of threading a needle.

Alcaraz is supposed to be the maverick. It is he who can rip a forehand winner that takes the breath away before chaotically shanking a shot off his racket frame in the same game.

It is not that either of those descriptions has been untrue across this past fortnight. Sinner still looks like the more reliable player, despite having dropped two sets. Even that is a ridiculous statement to write. They have both set the bar impossibly high with their own brilliance.

The freshness Sinner has as a result of being forced to take time off due to a doping ban before the French Open has been heavily emphasised. It is not like either of them have ended up playing particularly long matches. But the excitement remains because of the unpredictability. No-one who took even a cursory glance at the French Open final could call this one, because these men can do the impossible.

The fact that it is 1-1 between the two in slam finals this year makes this feel far closer to any kind of “finals” concept that the ATP could conceive. Even the way that Sinner was forced to retire in last month’s Cincinnati final against Alcaraz means that the resumption of their rivalry feels ­relatively fresh.

But the question that comes to all dynasties, and this is undoubtedly one, is: when does the repetitiveness start to grate? Even the “Big Three” of Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal became in some ways tiresome – and there were at least three of them, as well as Andy Murray thrown in for good measure.

Today’s final will involve some spectacular tennis. There are bragging rights on the line, beyond winning the US Open. Whoever ­triumphs will also be world number one. But if the finalists’ names can be written in at the draw, it is easy to wonder when the rivalry will move from being box office to bog standard.

Photograph by Tim Clayton/Getty Images