Photo Source: Camera Sport
Wimbledon, Day 14: and then there were two: The men’s final will take place at the Championships on Sunday, where Carlos Alcaraz will bid for his third consecutive Wimbledon title against first-time Wimbledon finalist Jannik Sinner.
See the full Day 14 Order of Play Here
Here’s a look inside the matchup…
[1] Jannik Sinner vs Carlos Alcaraz [2]
Head-to-Head: Alcaraz leads 8-4 Trend: Alcaraz has won five straight over Sinner, including a victory in an epic Roland-Garros final, last month. Key Stat No.1: Alcaraz is bidding to become the fifth player in Open Era History to complete a successful Wimbledon men’s singles three-peat. Key Stat No.2: Sinner is bidding to become the first Italian to ever win a men’s singles title at Wimbledon. Key Stat No.3: Alcaraz has won five on the trot against Sinner, with four of the five wins coming in a deciding set.
Does Jannik Sinner have a Carlos Alcaraz problem? Well, who doesn’t? The Italian has narrowly missed taking out Alcaraz in four of their last five meetings, but he has come up empty in each of those clashes and has not defeated the Spaniard since 2023 Beijing.
But zoom out a hair and take sight of the whole picture: Sinner has evolved in so many ways over the last two seasons, and he has come into his own on clay, where he reached his first Roland-Garros final in June only to have his heartbroken by Alcaraz, as well as on grass, where he took out Novak Djokovic in straight sets on Friday to become the 11th man in the Open Era to reach at least the final at all four majors.
Besides the rough luck against Alcaraz – and there has been a ton – Sinner has been rocketing into the tennis stratosphere of late. He has won his first three major titles and taken the No.1 ranking, and he’s improved so many facets of his game that he’s become virtually unplayable.
But to get the respect he earns, he must find a way to get past Alcaraz in a big match and shed the reputation of hard-luck loser in this rivalry. Undoubtedly, it will happen at some point. History tells us that. Just look at the course of the Federer-Nadal, Djokovic-Nadal and Federer-Djokovic rivalries. Trends always give way to new trends, and with Sinner rising as a force, his time to take a chunk out of his rival is surely coming.
But it might not come tomorrow, because Wimbledon is Alcaraz’s house for now, and he’ll benefit from the advantage of being a better mover and having more comfort on grass when he takes on Sinner for the title on Sunday. Sinner has made huge strides on grass but Alcaraz is light years ahead of everybody on this surface at the moment, as his game is perfectly suited for it. He moves effortlessly, and this will be his biggest advantage against Sinner on Sunday. He’ll have to get the Italian off his baseline and into different areas of the court where it’s harder for him to relentlessly attack with pace.
Easier said than done, because Sinner has become a much better mover on grass and now he’s serving and returning better than ever. So has Alcaraz, in fact, which means that Sunday’s final should be a match of very thin margins, and shorter rallies.
Can you say classic grass-court tennis?
It will be an intense battle for sure. Rarely do these two disappoint. There’s something combustible about Sinner and Alcaraz on the same tennis court – throw them out there in a major final and good things happen.
Alcaraz has never lost a major final, and Sinner knows what heartbreak potentially lies in wait. It’s now his job to impose himself on his rival and make him taste a bit of that doubt that he’s been experiencing since 2024. He’ll have to play flawlessly to do it, on a surface that he still hasn’t mastered.
Pick: Sinner in Five, simple because he’s due