Novak Djokovic makes history with Lorenzo Musetti at Roland Garros, and all the best 2024 ATP comebacks 

The 2024 tennis season was filled with noteworthy stories, breakthrough moments, and countless trophy lifts. But what were the best matches of the year that was?

We rolled the tape, and this week, TENNIS.com counted down some of the best ATP matches of the past year (after counting down our WTA picks last week). Our coutdown continues with the best comebacks of the year. These players were down, but never out, at points throughout the year, and these escapes were the cream of the crop.

5. Jannik Sinner def. Andrey Rublev, Cincinnati QF

On his way to a second Masters 1000 crown in 2024 in Cincinnati, Jannik Sinner exacted revenge against the man who handed him his only loss of the summer hard-court season: Andrey Rublev. And he did it the hard way.

For the second time in as many weeks, world No. 1 Sinner and then-No. 6 Rublev faced off in the quarterfinals of a North American hard-court event—but after losing to Rublev in the quarterfinals in Canada, Sinner rallied from a set behind to deny Rublev the same result in Cincinnati.

A day after turning 23, Sinner celebrated with a hard-fought 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 win in which he battled not just Rublev, but windy conditions.

The wind played a factor throughout the match, with both players combining for 51 unforced errors (28 for Sinner, 23 for Rublev) and 12 doubles faults (five for Sinner, seven for Rublev). But Sinner also hit more than twice as many winners as Rublev—32 to 15—and fired 10 aces to keep himself on track, despite nearly letting a 5-1 lead slip in the third set.

“It took a lot of mental strength today,” Sinner said in his on-court interview. "It was very tough conditions, very windy. In the first set, he started very well and I didn't play my best tennis. But in the second set, I felt I had a lot of chances. I waited for my chance.”

Sinner later outlasted Alexander Zverev more than three hours in the semifinal, navigating a flare-up of his recurring hip problem, and beat Frances Tiafoe in the final to take the title.

4. Taylor Fritz def. Frances Tiafoe, US Open SF

The first all-American men's singles semifinal at the US Open in nearly two decades saw Taylor Fritz cement his status as the top dog in U.S. men's tennis.

Fritz's 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 comeback win over Tiafoe under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium helped him do it. In a match that was tightly contested, if nervy, as both men sensed the enormous opportunity to reach a first major final, it was Tiafoe who held the upper hand for much of the match.

Up two-sets-to-one and threatening to break early in the fourth set with Fritz serving at 2-all, 15-30, but a pivotal 31-shot rally may have taken the gas out of Tiafoe, literally and figuratively. In Tiafoe’s 4-5 service game, he hit two double faults and two forehand unforced errors to drop serve from 40-15 up and the fourth set.

Read the match report: Fritz becomes first American man to reach a Grand Slam final in 15 years

A seventh straight loss to his good friend Fritz, and a second heartbreaking defeat in the penultimate round of the US Open in three years, left Tiafoe feeling stung.

Read more: Frances Tiafoe left with bitter pill to swallow after seventh straight loss to Taylor Fritz

"This one's gonna hurt really, really bad. I mean, I thought I was the better player for sure tonight. In the fourth, I don't know. ... I just felt like my body just kind of shut down on me," he said.

"I'm going to let this sting, but I'm gonna learn from this. I'm gonna turn the page ... I'm going to be in these positions again, for sure. Just hoping for a different outcome.”

3. Daniil Medvedev def. Alexander Zverev, Australian Open SF

The first Grand Slam match between rivals Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev, who had met 18 times previously but never at a major, was two points away from ending with a whimper ... until the Russian, Melbourne's proverbial marathon man in 2024 after having played an Open Era record 30 sets of tennis over two weeks, found a bit of magic.

Two points away from defeat, Medvedev authored an escape for the ages in a 5-7, 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(5), 6-3 victory which put him through to his third final at Melbourne Park. He had previously also come from two sets down in his second-round win against Emil Rusuuvori.

“I was a little bit lost but then in the third set I kept saying to myself, 'If I lose this match then I want to be proud of myself',” Medvedev said post-match.

“In the third set I felt like I was tired physically," he added. "I knew I couldn’t run for 40 shots like in the first set, so I said 'Let's get more aggressive.'"

While intentional aggression was a strategy Medvedev would later also employ in the final against Jannik Sinner, he found second life against Zverev with what he described was a bit of luck. A mis-hit drop shot return at 5-5 in the fourth-set tiebreak proved key in his fourth-set escape,

"The slice was intentional but the drop shot (return) with backspin into the wind … was not," he confessed. "Sometimes you get lucky, and today was my day.”

Two days later, though, would not be Medvedev's. Once again with a two-set lead in the last match in Rod Laver Arena, having previously fallen in five from that perch in the 2022 final against Rafael Nadal, the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup slipped through his grasp.

2. Carlos Alcaraz def. Frances Tiafoe, Wimbledon R3

After setting up a third-round match against Alcaraz at the All England Club, his first match against him since a famous five-set semifinal at the 2022 US Open, Tiafoe joked that he was "coming for" his good buddy.

“I’m going for him!” a smiling Spaniard quipped in response. “I know that he’s a really talented player, a really tough one, and maybe even tougher here on grass with his style.”

The two showmen more than delivered.

Alcaraz eventually had the last word on the Grand Slam stage against Tiafoe again, .

"It is always a big challenge playing against Frances," Alcaraz said. "He is a really talented player and tough to face and we saw it once again that he deserves to be at the top and deserves to fight for big things. It was really difficult for me to adapt my game, find solutions and try to put him in trouble, but I am really happy to do it at the end of the match.

"There were a lot of difficult moments in the fourth set. All I was thinking was 'OK, fight one more ball'. I was just thinking about the next ball and the tiebreak I told myself I had to go for it. If I lose it, I lose it. I went for it all the time and it is good for myself to get through once again."

Read more: 'This one hurts a little more': Frances Tiafoe falls just short of reversing history with Carlos Alcaraz

The comeback not only kept Alcaraz's title defense alive, giving him a 12th five-set victory in 13 played in his career. Without it, he wouldn't have become the youngest man to ever win Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same season.

1. Novak Djokovic def. Lorenzo Musetti, Roland Garros R3

Late Saturday night, Novak Djokovic stepped onto Court Philippe Chatrier for an otherwise routine third-round match with Lorenzo Musetti.

But by early Sunday morning, the 24-time major champion once again saw his name etched in tennis immortality: In the latest finish in Roland Garros history (at 3:07 a.m.), Djokovic battled back from two-sets-to-one down to win 7-5, 6-7(6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, and tie Roger Federer's all-time record for most Grand Slam match wins in the process.

Djokovic and Musetti were already delayed in taking the court on a rainy first weekend in Paris, as they walked out to center stage past 11 p.m. after Grigor Dimitrov's encounter with Zizou Bergs was relocated from Court 14 to Chatrier, a bonus offering for day session ticket holders. From a set and a break ahead, Djokovic quickly found himself in mounds of trouble against Musetti, who famously had pushed him to five sets in the fourth as an unheralded teenager three years ago.

His frustrations, perhaps with his own play, perhaps more broadly at the in-match struggles that were emblematic of his early season, grew, and he was soon facing the potential of his earliest exit at a major in seven years at 1:45 a.m.

Read more: A spark in the dark unleashed Novak Djokovic after months of frustration

But despite hitting more winners than Djokovic (53 to 44), Musetti couldn’t sustain the level of tennis he showed over the first three sets to finish off the upset. Though the Italian hit fewer unforced errors than Djokovic in the match overall (42 to 34), the Serb forced him into more than double that total of forced errors (72), and the Italian started to fade as Djokovic soared.

His legendary tenacity wore down Musetti's resistance after four sets, another chapter in his legendary legacy secured.