TURIN, Italy — The final installment of the 2025 “Sincaraz” rivalry was won by Jannik Sinner.
The sixth meeting of the year between the two dominant players in men’s tennis took place on Sunday, with No. 2 Sinner defeating No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (4), 7-5 for the ATP Finals trophy.
Sinner defeated Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final, defending his title against Alcaraz for the second time this year in front of fans in his native Italy. Alcaraz still leads Sinner 10-6 in career meetings.
“It’s been a great season,” Sinner said. “It’s very special for me to finish like this in front of the Italian fans.”
Alcaraz had already secured the number one spot in the annual rankings and was competing in his first final of this event, which is a competition between the top eight players of the year.
Sinner and Alcaraz have met in the past three Grand Slam finals. Alcaraz defeated Sinner in a fifth-set tie-break to win the French Open, Sinner got some revenge at Wimbledon, and Alcaraz took the lead again at the US Open.
The two faced off this year in the Italian Open final (which Alcaraz won) and the Cincinnati Open final (Alcaraz won after Sinner retired due to illness).
Sinner also won the Australian Open, defeating Alexander Zverev in the final, giving him and Alcaraz two major wins each this year.
In total, Alcaraz has six major wins and Sinner has four.
The first set was close, with Sinner saving a set point at 5-6, but with a big second serve that Alcaraz couldn’t return. Sinner took control of the tiebreaker by knocking down a drop shot and responding with a lob that led to an overhead putaway.
“I’m very happy with how I handled the situation,” Sinner said of defending the set point.
Alcaraz had her right thigh treated twice by a trainer and had it wrapped after the first set.
He broke Sinner’s serve in the first game of the second set, but then Sinner evened it up at 3-3.
In the next game, Sinner reignited the crowd by winning a long rally and putting his fingers in his ears, signaling more noise inside the Inalpi Arena. He broke Alcaraz again to end the match, with the Spaniard missing a backhand wide before falling flat on his back onto the court in relief.
It was Sinner’s 10th straight win in a final since losing to Novak Djokovic in the 2023 final. Additionally, Sinner didn’t lose a set in that stretch.
Sinner extended his winning streak on indoor hard courts to 31 games.
In the doubles final, Hari Heliovaara and Henry Patten defeated Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski 7-5, 6-3.
