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When Carlos Alcaraz is on his game, he’s all but invincible.

That has been something like an ironclad rule of men’s tennis the last few years. It was easy to see why during Sunday’s U.S. Open final, as Alcaraz dispatched his archrival Jannik Sinner 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in a match that wasn’t as close as the not-very-close score indicated. And while a fatigued-looking Sinner played far from his best tennis, it was difficult to imagine that even his A game could have surmounted this video-game version of Alcaraz, whose lethal mix of power and touch — a wonder to behold in person — made the No. 1 player in the world look lost. (Well, the previous world No. 1; with his second Open win, Alcaraz holds that crown now.)

The scary thing for Sinner, not to mention everyone else on tour, is that Video Game Alcaraz is now his most frequent manifestation. The sometimes-transcendent, sometimes-sloppy Alcaraz of old — he lost to Botic van de Zandschulp in the second round of this tournament last year — has increasingly given way to a more disciplined, consistent greatness. Alcaraz was in command at every juncture of every match he played, all tournament long. The one contest where he didn’t play at his highest level throughout came against Novak Djokovic in the semifinals — and he beat the 24-time major champion in straight sets anyway. “I feel like this is the best tournament so far that I have ever played,” Alcaraz said accurately, after the final. Good luck out there, everyone else!

In the monumental 2022 U.S. Open quarterfinal that cemented Sinner and Alcaraz’s rivalry, the two heavyweights both played at the zenith of their abilities simultaneously. That only happened for brief stretches on Sunday, and this wasn’t the epoch-defining men’s final that has consistently eluded the Open. (The two best finals in the last 20 years have involved Juan Martin del Potro and Daniil Medvedev, not quite household names.) Sinner looked uncomfortable from the opening game, in which he was immediately broken. His first serve deserted him for long periods, especially during a dreadful third set, and his heavy groundstrokes, which overwhelm almost every other opponent, were uncharacteristically inconsistent. Even when Sinner hit crisply, Alcaraz kept pace from the baseline, whipping his forehand and applying his unpredictable mix of brilliance — dropshots, slice forehands, sharp volleys — that kept Sinner off balance and searching for answers. Sinner did show flashes of brilliance. He managed to break Alcaraz and take the second set (the only set Alcaraz lost all tournament), and briefly looked to be turning on the jets again early in the fourth. But mostly, Sinner faced the kind of relentless pressure he usually doles out to his opponents, while Alcaraz managed to turn his serve, which has been a relative weakness, into a formidable weapon.

Maybe Sinner was rattled by the presence of President Trump, or at least the chaos surrounding it; the match began 48 minutes after its scheduled start time, with stringent security measures causing infuriatingly lengthy wait times for fans, many of whom arrived well into the first set. (As for the crowd reaction to Trump and his MAGA coterie, I can testify that he received a mix of boos and cheers when he entered Arthur Ashe Stadium, but was more roundly booed when shown on the stadium’s big screen.) Or maybe Sinner was simply beaten down from the wear and tear of a long season. Sinner, unlike Alcaraz, had not quite looked himself for stretches of this tournament, especially in a shaky third-round match against Denis Shapovalov. He took a medical timeout during a tough semifinal against Felix Auger Aliassime, and may even have been struggling with a mild injury on Sunday. Yet he likely could have overcome such an impediment against any other player.

Carlos Alcaraz is not any other player. At 22, he has already won six majors, and is pacing ahead of the Big Three at this point in their careers. Alcaraz also has a firm grip on the rivalry with Sinner, now having won seven of their last eight meetings, including two of the last three major finals. But Sinner is only 24 himself, with plenty of time to refine his otherworldly talents. In an unusually self-critical press conference after the match, he acknowledged that he must change his game to counter the one person on tour who can beat him with any kind of consistency.

Jannik Sinner says he needs to become more unpredictable to become a better tennis player:“I was very predictable on court today. He changed up the game. That’s also his style of how he plays. Now it’s gonna be on me if I want to make changes or not. We’re definitely gonna work… pic.twitter.com/eF9eeofyez

— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) September 7, 2025

Sinner’s openness to a different approach speaks well of him, and heralds a new, possibly even more entertaining chapter in the rivalry. It’s possible a third player emerges in the next year or two to intrude on this new tennis duopoly, the way Djokovic crashed the Federer/Nadal party in the late 2010s (and proceeded to become the greatest of all time). But even if it’s just Alcaraz and Sinner at the top of tennis for years, we’re in very good hands.

Carlos Alcaraz Looked Invincible at the U.S Open Finals

Carlos Alcaraz Looked Invincible at the U.S Open Finals