This one hurts

Roland Garros 2025

Philippe Chatrier, the stadium where French Open final was played reads Victory belongs to the most tenacious. Was it that Sinner wasn’t tenacious? Not at all. It takes more than tenacity to play 5 sets for 5 and a half hours, the longest match in the history of Roland Garros. But this is what comes with every sport, one has to take the gut wrenching punch wrapped in the word- LOSS and the other person takes the WIN. A couple of days back Jannik Sinner, the world number-1 took this blow from world number-2 Carlos Alcaraz.

I personally don’t watch much of lawn tennis since RAFA has retired. But I have a knack for sports which does not go away so I keep watching it & both of these players are a treat to watch and have played the longest match of Roland Garros ever. But I didn’t watch the full match and it felt like real FOMO afterwards that I didn’t watch one of the greatest finals of French Open.

There is a backdrop to what happened on Sunday at Roland Garros. Everyone remembers what happened a couple of days back but I don’t know how many of you might remember Quarterfinals at US Open in 2022 as I watched that match from the start to the end, almost same thing happened as Sinner was leading the match after 4 hours 15 minutes (3-6,7-6,7-6,5-4 with Advantage) and had a match point but couldn’t win. And Carlos saved the match point, Sinner had a couple of double faults and Carlos broke Sinner’s serve twice and won the fourth set 7-5. The match ended in 5 hours 15 minutes in favour of Carlos Alcaraz as he won the fifth set 6-3. At that time, it was belter of a match and was recognized as one of the best matches of US Open.

If one has watched Jannik play over the last couple of years, whether he wins or losses he doesn’t show much of emotions. There is not much over riding of emotions but after loss at Roland Garros even he seemed to be crushed to the core while sitting at the bench. I don’t know whether he is quite good at bottling up emotions or is he that level headed that he didn’t broke down in tears once in front of the crowd. There were moments when it felt like he would cry but he held up. He even said it is easier to play than talking now and that he won’t be able to sleep tonight very well (almost cried). Jannik Sinner was holding up even when Carlos was appreciating Sinner after receiving the trophy. There seemed a difference b/w the way both were smiling for the photos with trophies after the presentation ended.

Key Takeaways from the game of upcoming greats:

1. Fight till the very end- Both players didn’t gave up but Alcaraz being in the trenches and then pulling himself back showed that it is not over until one really wins, even if there is a single Championship point to be played/defend, play it like you can still win it and turn the match around. Carlos said how he clawed his way back in the match in the post match interview is by just Keep fighting all the time. There is no way you can let the guard down even for a single point.

2. HOPE- Carlos was asked after beating Sinner in the quarterfinals at US Open in 2022 how he manged to win that match, he simply replied that you have to Believe in Yourself all the time and HOPE is the last thing you lose. This tells a lot about the way he approaches the game and this helped him even after 3 years while almost being done & dusted. This goes the same for Sinner as well as he said he didn’t let the losing of fourth set let him change his narrative about the game, every set is a fresh start to the match & it was a tougher pill to swallow but Sinner kept fighting as the fifth set also went to the tiebreaker.

3. Respecting each other- For the last couple of years, both have been considered as the upcoming greats after the Trio of Nadal, Federer and Djokovic. They have had intense battles but both show immense respect to each other. Both of them keep appreciating each other as they know it is because of the other person that they have to be on their toes of A+ game all the time and they have to level up every time they face.

4. Viewing Lense- Jannik Sinner told in the post match interview- This one hurts. It explains that he is gutted to lose the match. But on the other spectrum he also says he was on the losing side today which is he got the sad part and if he only watches the sad, he will never come back. He also focuses on the good part that he has improved as a player since last year which he is confidence booster for him in every aspect as you can’t totally control the result, what you can control is how you can improve day to day basis.

5. Letting Go- It clearly shows that both are quite good at the art of letting go & dealing with storm which goes inside the mind. Carlos was playing the point he was in and especially while defending 3 Championship points, he could have gone to thinking n number of things which could have impacted his performance but he gave his all point by point and pulled his way back. Even Sinner had to let go of thinking in the present moment that he was about to win French Open and now he has to play the Fifth Set to win, where he kept playing his highest level of tennis. The art of letting go might be one of the biggest differentiators between these two players & all the other players playing tennis.