To say this final, the first between the Italian and the Spaniard at a Grand Slam, has been highly anticipated would be something of an understatement. Even their fellow players admit they’ve been looking forward to it.
“We’re all going to wait for the final that we all wanted,” Alexander Bublik said after losing to Sinner in the quarterfinals.
Bublik didn’t need to name any names for us to know who we’ve been waiting to see.
In 10 years, we may look back on this weekend as one of the symbolic starting points of the Sinner-Alcaraz era. On Friday, Sinner beat the last of the Big 3, Novak Djokovic, 38, in what the Serb said may be his final match in Paris. Now Sinner, 23, and Alcaraz, 22, will go head-to-head with a major title on the line for the first time. Alcaraz leads Sinner in Slam titles, four to three, but this might be the moment when their race officially begins. It may not end for a decade or more.