The ‘Sincaraz’ rivalry lights up the 2025 season

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner turned 2025 into a thrilling tug-of-war for tennis supremacy, winning the Grand Slams for the second consecutive year, while the women’s game featured depth and drama with four different major champions.

Sinner’s dominant win over Alexander Zverev at the start of the season helped him retain his Australian Open title and become the first Italian to win three majors, surpassing Nicola Pietrangeli who won the French Opens in 1959-60.

What followed after Sinner’s three-month ban in February for anti-doping violations in 2024 was nothing short of spectacular, as he took his era’s defining rivalry with Alcaraz to the biggest stage in an epic five-set Roland Garros final.

Alcaraz eventually prevailed after saving three match points – one of the sport’s great comebacks in the longest Paris final in five hours and 29 minutes – with the Spaniard establishing himself as the “Prince of Clay” in the post-Rafa Nadal era.

The “Sincaraz” slugfest continued into the Wimbledon final, where Sinner avenged his painful defeat by beating Alcaraz to lift his first trophy on the famous All England Club turf, perfectly setting up their inevitable showdown at the US Open.

After beating Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals to extend the Serb’s wait for a record 25th title, Alcaraz dazzled under the New York lights to dismantle Sinner in the final and tighten his grip on their rivalry.

“I’m giving 100% every day to improve … to see what I can do better to beat Jannik and win these kinds of trophies,” Alcaraz said after his second US Open triumph.

“To have that rivalry means a lot. It’s very special to me, to him and to the people who enjoy it every time we play.”

With six Grand Slam titles under his belt to Sinner’s four, Alcaraz will be looking to eclipse Nadal and become the youngest man to complete the all-major set when he heads Down Under in the new year.

Melbourne provided the biggest surprise in the women’s game as Madison Keys dethroned Aryna Sabalenka to win her first Grand Slam title at the age of 29, the American becoming the fourth-oldest first-time champion in the professional era that began in 1968.

Coco Gauff lifted the French Open title, beating Sabalenka in the final to give American fans another high point, but Amanda Anisimova endured a brutal reality show in the Wimbledon final where Iga Swiatek triumphed without dropping a game.

Anisimova shrugged off the double bagel to reach the US Open final, but Sabalenka proved too strong in the battle of the big-hitters and retained her title, taking her Grand Slam tally to four.

Sabalenka’s hopes of ending the season with another title were dashed when the world number one was comprehensively beaten in the WTA final, where Elena Rybakina won $5.235 million after a flawless campaign in Riyadh.

Bigger prize pots were a major talking point during the season, as the Professional Tennis Players Association filed a lawsuit against the sport’s shareholders and top players wrote to the Grand Slams asking for a bigger piece of the pie.