Carlos Alcaraz won the 2025 US Open title! The Spanish tennis player, after an electrifying match, defeated his rival Jannik Sinner in front of a crowd of 24,000 spectators at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Alcaraz, visibly emotional, celebrated the victory with a wide smile and a bow. However, before anything else, he went to his opponent to congratulate him. Sinner and Alcaraz, known for their strong rivalry on the court but their friendship off it, met at the net for an emotional greeting, demonstrating mutual respect.
The Sunday match was the third consecutive in a Grand Slam final between both players, with ticket prices reaching thousands of dollars and the world number one at stake. In the end, Alcaraz took the victory with a score of 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, obtaining his sixth Grand Slam title.
The New Era of Men’s Tennis
The question that resonates now in the tennis world is: can anyone else win a major tournament in the near future? Alcaraz and Sinner, at 22 and 24 years old respectively, have not yet reached their full potential.
“I see you more than my family,” Alcaraz joked during the trophy presentation ceremony, looking at Sinner.
Carlos Alcaraz
Novak Djokovic, with 24 Grand Slam titles and the record for weeks as number one, acknowledged the difficulty of beating Alcaraz and Sinner. “We know they are the two best players in the world,” Djokovic commented. “I’m going to try, you know, to frustrate the plans of the majority.”
In the final, Alcaraz defeated Djokovic in a mostly one-sided match with scores of 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2, marking the first season since 2002 without members of the “Big Three” (Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal) in a Grand Slam final. The new era of dominance is evident, with Alcaraz and Sinner winning the last eight major tournaments, splitting the titles four each.Carlos Alcaraz y Jannik Sinner han ganado conjuntamente los últimos ocho títulos de Grand Slam.Two years ago, this situation seemed distant. At the end of the 2023 season, Alcaraz had two important titles, while Sinner reached his first Grand Slam semi-final. Djokovic, for his part, had won three of the four Grand Slam titles and was confident of breaking the record for titles. Sinner, after losing to Djokovic in the ATP Finals, acknowledged the need to improve. “I think today I saw that I still have to improve, for sure,” said Sinner.
Sinner continued winning the Australian Open two months later, marking the beginning of the “Sincaraz” era. In 2025, Alcaraz and Sinner have faced each other in the last three Grand Slam finals. Alcaraz won the French Open and Sinner won at Wimbledon. During the last eight major tournaments, they have faced four other opponents in the finals: Djokovic, Taylor Fritz, Daniil Medvedev, and Alexander Zverev (twice).
Fritz, currently number 4 in the world, acknowledged the improvement of both players. “Both have improved a lot… They have taken giant steps in the last two years to become dominant players,” said Fritz.“Sabemos que son los dos mejores jugadores del mundo”, dijo el ganador de 24 Grand Slams, Novak Djokovic, en el US Open.Other players have also shown potential, including Jack Draper, Jakub Menšík, Casper Ruud, and Ben Shelton, who have won Masters 1000 tournaments. Shelton, 22, has won three titles and reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam. Mary Joe Fernandez, an ESPN analyst, believes Shelton can be a disruptor. “[Shelton] has weapons. He’s an entertainer, another player who really has fun out there. If he continues on this path of improvement, he could be someone who can disrupt them. There are a few others [players], for sure. But it’s going to be difficult because these guys have really set the bar very high.”
Joao Fonseca, a Brazilian teenager, is another name mentioned as a possible contender. John Isner believes Fonseca could be the one to challenge Sinner and Alcaraz. “I think Fonseca has the best chance to challenge these two,” Isner said.
In the US Open, Alcaraz and Sinner demonstrated their dominance, with Alcaraz winning 98% of his service games. Sinner won 42% of his return games. Both had matches that lasted less than two hours. After Sinner defeated Alexander Bublik, Bublik commented: “You are very good. I am not bad, what the hell?”
The final on Sunday marked the second time in the Open Era that two men have shared all the major titles in two seasons, joining Federer and Nadal in 2006 and 2007. The pair became the first men in the Open Era to play in three consecutive Grand Slam finals in the same calendar year, and the first pair in the sport to do so since Venus and Serena Williams in 2002.
Medvedev, who seemed to be the successor to the “Big Three”, has struggled this year. Patrick McEnroe, ESPN analyst, believes that Sinner and Alcaraz will dominate in the coming years, but they won’t win all the titles.
