India, June 9 -- At the highest level of sport, you can never say it doesn't matter who wins on the night. Especially in tennis, where the gauntlet-like knockout structure is so demanding, so brutal, where losing equals failing, no second chances, one winner and one loser. In all the greatest matches scattered across tennis history, the stakes are of such a nature that winning or losing felt like a matter of life or death.

Something about Carlos Alcaraz vs Jannik Sinner at the French Open 2025 finals transcended this binary. At the end of their instantly legendary 5h 29m battle of wits on Court Phillipe Chartrier, it was the Spaniard Alcaraz who came out on top and lifted the famous Coupe des Mousquetaires, defending his title from last ...