Grab Bag Special: Historic French Open 2025 Finals! Men's final now considered an instant classic. Coco brings it home for the American women tennis!
- Colby Michaels
- Jun 10
- 4 min read
Hello...you! It's been a while since I've dipped into the Bag. The French Open 2025 finals proved to be both epic and historic that it gets it's own post! First: My boo before he lost several pounds on Sunday:
French Open 2025: How was your past Sunday? Mine was watching what is now considered one of the best French Open finals, ever! it ONLY took FIVE HOURS and 29 minutes ( a record), it ONLY took one player to ever come back 0-2 in sets and on the verge of losing, to rally back to win the match, also making Roland-Garros history. It ONLY took THREE tie-breaker games to settle the remaining three sets (unheard of!), but in the end, it was Spain's Carlos Alcaraz (#2 ranked) beating Italy's Jannik Sinner (#1 ranked) in five grueling, amazing sets, 4-6, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, 7-6. Yes, THREE tie-breakers!
Lowest ticket price for this match in the 16,000 Roland-Garros Center Court was 2,200$, on a sunny day with light winds, so the roof was open, and they got their money's worth as these two early twenties players gave it their all. Oh, and for the Zoomies, Mercedes driver George Russell was in attendance, along with French driver for Haas, Esteban Ocon!
Jannik has never beat Carlos on clay, as Carlos beat him in the semi's in last year's French Open before he went on to win the 2024 French Open, so Carlos is now a reigning champion at Roland-Garros! Almost 400 points total, with each player splitting that number almost equally! Carlos is now 13-1 in five-set matches. It is the first time Sinner has lost a Grand Slam, and the 5th time Alcaraz has won a Grand Slam. How did we get there? I took my shot at doing a recap that would not be to in the weeds, and go long as the match itself, so here we go!
The first GAME of the match took 12 minutes! Jannik has only had his serve broken five times thru the six rounds of this French Open, Carlos does it on 5th game in first set. Carlos gets some clay dirt in his eye, so game delayed for about four minutes while the doctor flushes out Carlos right eye, which may have thrown his game off as he drops the first set, 6-4 to Jannik, which took an hour to complete! Second set sees both players trade breaks back and forth, leading to a tie-breaker, which Sinner wins, 7-6 (7-4), putting Jannik just set away from victory! Another set that went over an hour! Carlos is 0-8 after dropping first two sets in a major....hmmm....:)
Third set finds Alcaraz much more confident in his serve and his baseline play, and with that, Carlos not only wins the set, 6-4, but puts an end to Jannik's streak at 32 the number of sets in a row he has won before losing this one. Fourth set and considering both players have played intense tennis for over three hours, they are throwing haymakers at each other! 100mph forehands! 135mph serves! Sinner wants to end it here, while Alcaraz needs it to go to five sets. The MOMENT OF THE MATCH was when Sinner was up 5-3, 0-40 thanks to several unforced errors by Carlos, and Jannik needed just ONE point to win the championship, this happened with Carlos serving:
Sinner shot...long ...15-40
Jannik shot long on Alcaraz serve...30-40
On a rally, Sinner hits net...deuce..40-40.
Alcaraz...ace on serve...advantage- Carlos!
Sinner shot..out! Alcaraz wins the game, and has LIFE!
THANK YOU Bleacher Report , for making this available for folks to see! The video is about 10 minutes (I did 5+ hours, 10 minutes is a breeze!) of viewing, with the above exchange taking place at about the 4:05 mark!
The crowd lose their minds! It's now 5-4, Sinner, and Alcaraz breaks Sinner on serve to make it 5-5...we going to a tie-breaker for this 4th set, thanks to Carlos Houdini act! Both players are playing tenaciously, no real sense of nerves, just two young guns slinging it out, and the crowd definitely is backing Carlos to finish this comeback and give them a fifth set! Jannik can win the championship here, but Carlos says, "nah" and wins the tie-breaker, 7-3, and the set, 7-6, to take us to the 5th and final set!
We've had over four hours of tennis, what's one more set? We get a NINE minute, 14 point game, for Carlos to hold at 3-1 in the set on his serve! Carlos goes up 5-3, and is a game away from pulling off an improbable comeback, but Jannik had other ideas, as he breaks Carlos serve, and as the sun is setting in Paris, of COURSE we are going to end this French Open championship on a tie-breaker, cuz, why not at this point!?! (We have obviously hit "instant classic" for this match!). Are you not entertained? (Exhausted am I, as these two players must be!).
Elite talent and Elite effort has been on display during this match, and now it comes down to a 10 point (WHY INCREASE IT FROM SEVEN??!!! SADISTS!), win by two tie-breaker for the game, set, match and championship. Carlos goes into lockdown mode, and wins the tie-breaker, 10-2, the set, 7-6, and defends his title, winning the French Open for the 2nd year!
As it's after 9pm in Paris when this match ended, no escargot, Matias! (inside joke!).
A day before, history was made as #2 ranked Coco Gauff became the first American since Serena Williams (12 years!) to win the Women's French Open final in another thrilling match, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 over #1 ranked Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus! I forgot to DVR it, so why no recap, but apparently it was very gusty on the courts, making the match even more challenging for both players.
We move from clay court to grass next month for the next Open in England. After what Roland-Garros gave us, whatcha got, Wimbledon ? :) :)
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