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We were ready and eager again after a surprisingly long break, but Carlos Alcaraz versus Jannik Sinner did not quite deliver.

Blame it on the swirling wind that contributed to a surplus of errors in a Monte Carlo final that was not postcard ready on this overcast Sunday despite all the beauty shots of club and sea coming from the drones.

Blame it on the surely unreasonable expectations that build before any Sincaraz rematch at this stage.

The outcome was no doubt tennis newsworthy: Sinner extending his Masters 1000 streak and reclaiming the No. 1 ranking by winning his first top-drawer clay-court title with a 7-6 (5) 6-3 victory over the reigning champ.

But these two have hit such heights – the middle-of-the-night US Open duel; last year’s edge-of-our-seats French Open five setter – that lower altitudes seem like a letdown.

The school of thought is that if Sinner and Alcaraz are going to lock out the rest of the tour from big trophies for years at a time, they better make it worth it by being scintillating when they inevitably do meet again.

But tennis, even for the new-age greats, can be a confounding business.

Sinner, the game’s dominant server, was below 40 percent on first serves for nearly all of the opening set on Sunday. Alcaraz, master of the drop shot on any surface, barely reached the bottom of the net with one of his early attempts.

There were still a few bedazzling glimpses of what these two can inspire in each other: a spectacular wrist-snapping backhand smash winner from Sinner off a smart lob; a defense-to-offense masterclass from Alcaraz as he sprinted, or rather flew, corner to corner and converted a break point with a passing-shot combination capped with a forehand winner off the slide and down the line.

More please, always more please.

And yet the defining moments on Sunday were less poetic in motion. Consider the end of the grueling, 75-minute first set when Sinner finally found his first serve in the tiebreaker, going six for six. But at 6-4, having earned a very short ball on his first set point, he swooped in and smacked a forehand sitter into the tape.

Alcaraz, no stranger to resurrection, had new life, and he marked the moment by…..double faulting away the set.

It is, of course, compelling in a different way that Sinner and Alcaraz can also inspire these sorts of gaffes from each other. They are clearly just as aware as everybody else of the stakes and the expectations; of how their duels can swing on a few big points; of how much tennis weaponry each young champion possesses.

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The intrigue is in how it all plays out on any given Sunday. And how it played out this time, in their first match since November, was that Sinner effectively and repeatedly targeted the Alcaraz backhand, which was often the weak link in the extended rallies.

Meanwhile, Sinner found a way, despite his own struggles with consistency, to nimbly put himself in position to hit more forehands than usual and to be the aggressor in return games by attacking second serves from inside the baseline. That is risky indeed because any return that floats or fails to penetrate leaves Alcaraz with so much red canvas to work with.

But it paid off for the most part on a day of heavy conditions, and Sinner’s short-hop second-serve returning was quite a contrast with Alcaraz’s positioning, which usually had him camped way back in Medvedev and Nadal territory, just in front of the rolled-up tarp. That sometimes left Alcaraz out of the classic aerial television angle, which made it look like Sinner was serving to an empty court instead of his archrival.

No such luck, but the deep position was ultimately not the solution. Alcaraz managed to break Sinner twice, but the bigger problem was holding a lead. Up 2-0 in the first set, Alcaraz immediately surrendered the break. Up 3-1 in the second set, he dropped the next five games and the match, double-faulting again at 4-3, 40-30 to keep Sinner’s spirits high.

Or maybe I presume too much. It’s quite a challenge to parse the inner state of Sinner. He gives away very little under his ballcap; plays so quietly in contrast with Alcaraz’s two-toned grunts, roars of self-encouragement, and frequent chatter/banter with coach Samuel Lopez.

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The redhead is no hot head. Sinner is even-keel tennis played at a ferocious pace and after committing himself to bridging the versatility gap with Alcaraz after losing last year’s US Open final, it looks like the commitment is paying off.

Exhibit A: Sinner’s better use of the dropshot, which won him plenty of points in Monte Carlo even if it’s not going to win him many style points just yet.

He also seemed quicker to react to Alcaraz’s drops, even if the Spaniard still sliced a few winners that no sinner or saint could reach.

For now, however, the tide has turned. Alcaraz still leads the head-to-head 10-7 but has lost the last two without winning a set.

Alcaraz roared out of the gates this season to 16-0 but Sinner is the steamroller at this stage. After a halting start, including that surprise semifinal loss to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open, Sinner is 17-0 and has become the first man since Djokovic in 2015 to triumph back-to-back-to-back in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte Carlo.

Djokovic lost five sets along the way to his Sunshine Triple. Sinner, astonishingly, lost just one: to Tomas Machac in the round of 16 in Monte Carlo.

But just as for Djokovic in 2015, the bigger goal for Sinner is winning his first French Open. Djokovic demolished Nadal in the 2015 quarterfinals at Roland Garros only to lose the final to Stan Wawrinka.

Let’s see how Sinner fares after failing to convert those three match points against Alcaraz in last year’s French Open final. He has had his best career results on hardcourts, but he grew up playing on clay, as well. His first deep run at a major came at Roland Garros, where he reached the quarterfinals in 2020 during the pandemic before losing to Nadal, who was full of encouragement.

“Since the beginning, I’ve always said he was nearly better on clay than on hard because there are little things that help him, like having a bit more time to hit his forehand,” said Simone Vagnozzi, his co-coach in an interview with L’Équipe.

The question is how much claycourt tennis to play. Alcaraz has committed to a full schedule and is the No. 1 seed in Barcelona this week. Sinner is taking a break and is still considering whether he will play in Madrid before the Italian Open in Rome.

What matters most to Sinner is arriving fresh and healthy to chase the only Grand Slam singles title he lacks. Alcaraz already has them all and may soon have the No. 1 ranking again if he wins in Barcelona.

The Spaniard can play quite a bit better than he played on this blustery Sunday. But the wind, make no mistake, is at Sinner’s back.

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P.S. Netflix has announced that the four-part Nadal documentary series “Rafa” will be released worldwide on May 29. I look forward to watching it and was happy to play a small part in it, sitting for interviews as I wrote THE WARRIOR, my book on Nadal that goes deep on his career and the tournament and surface where he reigned supreme.

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The Sunshine Double-Double was completed despite rain delays on Sunday in Miami.

Marketing, no surprise, does not always fit reality. But Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka are certainly the real deal, particularly on hardcourts, and they underscored it by winning in Indian Wells and backing it up in Miami.

They have often won big at the same places, and these were their first Sunshine Doubles. The term has gathered rhetorical momentum in the last 20 years with the rise of Indian Wells and the BNP Paribas Open under the ownership of tech baron Larry Ellison. The slogan was not in use when Jim Courier and Steffi Graf first pulled off the double in the early 1990s. But it captures the spirit of the challenge: winning in the dry heat of the California desert and, after a three-hour time change, the coastal humidity of Miami requires adaptability, staying power and a high SPF.

It was all the tougher when the men’s finals were best-of-five sets, which ended in 2007 in Indian Wells and 2008 in Miami.

Statistically, Sinner’s double was more impressive than Sabalenka’s. He set a new men’s standard by not losing a set despite coming very close against Daniil Medvedev in a torrid Indian Wells final that required Sinner to deal with the kind of heat that has sometimes left him shaky on his sneakers.

But as a spectacle, Sabalenka’s run was superior theater and not because it is a great deal easier to read her hopes and fears on court than it is to read Sinner’s.

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INDIAN WELLS – The most celebrated rivalry in contemporary tennis was not available on finals Sunday at the BNP Paribas Open. Daniil Medvedev snuffed out that possibility by resurfacing as his former cephalopod self and confounding Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals to earn a slot against Jannik Sinner.

It did not go the gangly Russian’s way as Sinner prevailed in two tiebreakers, never facing a single break point, to win the last big hardcourt title he was missing.

But while there would be no Sincaraz sequel in the California desert, another stirring rivalry ably filled the time and space as Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina leaned into their latest duel with the women’s title at stake.

The WTA has been short on transcendent mano a mano material for too many years while the Big Three and their successors have taken men’s rivalries to new heights.

But Sabalenka and Rybakina already have created something special, routinely pushing each other to the limit with big titles on the line. Sunday’s match in brutal 96-degree heat might have been their most compelling work yet, and it even had a surprise twist at the finish.

Sabalenka, so prone to cracking in tight finals in the last two seasons, came perilously close to more of the same only to save a match point with a backhand bolt in the third-set tiebreaker.

Two points later, she sealed the deal 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6) with her last clutch serve of the afternoon and was soon showing off the shiny singles trophy, her new puppy and her new sparkling engagement ring after recently saying sim to Brazilian businessman Georgios Frangulis.

“What a week!” she said. “I will definitely remember it for the rest of my life. This is truly tennis paradise, and I’m always happy to come here. Thank God I finally got this trophy.”

In 2023, after Rybakina beat her to win the title in Indian Wells, Sabalenka mischievously stuck out her tongue at Rybakina during her victory speech. When Rybakina said it was the first time it had gone her way against Sabalenka in a final, Sabalenka leaned over and said into the microphone: “I’ll make sure it was the last one!”

It has not worked out that way. Rybakina went on to beat her in their next three finals, including the year-end championships last season and at the Australian Open in January.

Coming into Sunday, Sabalenka’s head-to-head lead was down to 8-7 and Rybakina, with her supreme serve and baseline power, was on a roll, winning 12 straight against top 10 opposition.

But tennis, as Alcaraz’s upset defeat here made clear, can still spring a surprise.

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At the 37-minute mark, it looked like this final might become a rout. Rybakina led by a set and an early break that ended with a Sabalenka double fault. But the match was, in fact, just beginning. It had nearly two hours more to run with the only shade on the hardcourt provided by the combatants’ shadows and the umbrellas on the changeovers.

“I think the sun was pretty strong, and I would say that it hit me in the second set quite a lot,” said Rybakina, who left the court to change after dominating the first set. “I really couldn’t push much. I was trying to give myself time. I left after the first set because I needed some cool air.”

But Sabalenka also kept the pressure on, closing out the second set and taking the lead in the third with some phenomenal serving under duress, including sliced second-serve aces and flat bolts into the corners.

Their rivalry is not a contrast in playing styles: both are pure power players who have rarely met a groundstroke or return they are not content to crush. Both are used to dictating and controlling outcomes. The match, as the saying goes, is usually on their racket, but neither can consistently overwhelm the other in this matchup.

There are subtle differences: I would take Rybakina’s forehand over Sabalenka’s and would take Sabalenka’s backhand over Rybakina’s. Sabalenka is clearly the better mover and has developed defter touch and a more complete tennis tool kit. Rybakina is effective moving forward but vulnerable laterally, The challenge is prying away the initiative once she takes command of a point.

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But the real contrast is in their personalities: Sabalenka, restrained by her standards on Sunday, is an expressive extrovert with a tiger tattoo who shrieks on contact, marks her miscues with exasperatoin and eye rolls and celebrates her key winners with roars. Rybakina is cool and quiet, a smooth-flowing river to Sabalenka’s rumbling shorebreak. She is much more difficult to read and yet has just as much fire in her strokes.

These two champions have a closer connection than you might expect.

“I would say that she’s the kindest one on tour,” Sabalenka said. “We have been playing for so long and so many matches, and honestly, I really enjoy it, even though I lost so many them and really painful ones. But still I enjoy it because it means that the final is gonna be a show. It’s gonna be great tennis, great level, and it’s gonna be a fight, which is great for people to watch and also for me to become a better player.”

Resilience was required on Sunday. Sabalenka, who was raining down big-point aces and service winners for much of the final set, faltered when she served for the title at 5-4. She then failed to convert any of her five break points with Rybakina serving at 5-5.

On a different day, Sabalenka might have blown a gasket then and there, but this time, she held at love and focused on the decisive tiebreaker.

Rybakina led 5-3 with the serve but it was soon 5-5, the match dead even after two and a half hours. Rybakina earned a championship point with a backhand winner down the line off a short hop, and then fired her fastest serve of the day at 121 miles per hour. But Sabalenka, who has studied Rybakina’s tendencies, was leaning the right way and punched the return back in play and answered Rybakina’s quck retort with a full-force backhand winner crosscourt.

It was a spectacular, gutsy shot, and it was now 6-6 with the crowd aflutter on the changeover. On the next point, Rybakina smacked an approach shot after a first serve and was met with a fully ripped forehand at her body that she volleyed just long.

Championship point Sabalenka, and the Belarusian was not about to hold back, slicing a first serve down the T that the lunging Rybakina returned long with her forehand to end one of the better finals of any season.

“Roulette,” Rybakina said.

When the wheel stopped spinning, Sabalenka’s four-match losing streak in three-set finals was over after losses to Madison Keys, Mirra Andreeva, Coco Gauff and Rybakina.

“I am so tired of losing these big finals.” Sabalenka said. “I mean don’t get me wrong, players were playing incredible tennis but still I managed to fight through and to get my opportunity, and I didn’t use it so many times.”

She is an Indian Wells singles champ at last, and so is Sinner. The first set could not have been closer against Medvedev, coming down to the first and only minibreak in the tiebreaker at 6-6 when Medvedev put a running forehand long. In the second-set tiebreaker, Medvedev took a 4-0 lead only to lose the next seven points.

Neither man could break the other in the quick conditions on Sunday, but Sinner’s first serve was the shot of the match. He won 43 of 47 points with it: 91 percent to Medvedev’s 77 percent on his own first serve.

“He’s serving phenomenal,” Medvedev said. “It’s super tough to read. It’s super tough to return, even when you read it.”

At age 24, Sinner has won all six Masters 1000s on hardcourts as well as the Australian Open and US Open, the two majors played on hardcourts, along with the last two ATP Finals, which are played on an indoor hardcourt.

So much for his stuttering start to the season and those disquieting losses to Novak Djokovic in Australia and to Jakub Mensik in Doha. Sinner’s decision paid off to come to Indian Wells early to train with Darren Cahill and his team. Sinner did not drop a set and after cramping in the heat in Australia this year, he looked on Sunday like a man raised in the Sahara instead of the cool splendor of the Italian Dolomites.

“It was warm, but it was not humid, so it makes a big difference,” he said when I asked about the weather. “But look, I have been here a week before the tournament started. It was very similar conditions to today. We put in very long days of practice. I felt very well prepared, so I was not having big issues with the weather and with the heat, which is very positive for me. It’s all part of the process we are trying to do and becoming the best possible athlete.”

His racket-head speed and quickness to the ball were again sights to behold, and though Medvedev knocked off one of the New Two, he could not go where only Djokovic has gone and defeat Alcaraz and Sinner in the same event.

“It’s a sweet and bitter feeling,” Medvedev told me. “Because to beat Carlos yesterday, it feels like (winning) the tournament, especially for me. I lost a lot against him, but that’s not the reality. There is a final to play. I had my opportunity, small opportunity in the first set. A bit bigger opportunity in the tiebreak in the second set. But at the same time, I was hanging by not big margins in the whole set.”

His serving and baseline play, particularly off the backhand wing, are real cause for optimism, however. At age 30, the former No. 1 and US Open champion is resurgent and back in the top 10 and could provide the men’s game with a welcome bit of variety up in Alcaraz’s and Sinner’s rare air.

“I do believe that tennis needs him,” Sinner said. “He has a very unique style of playing. Seeing him back at this level, it’s great.”

All the better, to be sure, when you win both tiebreakers.

On to Miami and then to the clay, where Sinner has a score to settle in Paris. But that’s a story for May, not for March.

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INDIAN WELLS – Daniil Medvedev may or may not be the third man that tennis awaits, but after a downbeat 2025, he still has unconventional brilliance in him.

It has been on display in far-apart deserts in the last month with a title in Dubai followed up by a run to the final in Indian Wells, where Medvedev brought No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz’s winning streak to an unexpected halt in the semifinals on Saturday.

“I play 10 matches against Carlos, probably I’m going to lose more than I’m going to win,” Medvedev said. “But whenever I go on court, I need to believe in myself. I need to try my best and try to win as much as I can.”

That has not always been the case in the last two seasons as the burnout and frustration deepened, but at age 30, instead of settling into decline, he is showing signs of genuine revival under his new coaching team of Thomas Johansson and Rohan Goetzke.

Medvedev was no sure thing to make it here in time for the tournament after war in the Middle East delayed his departure from Dubai. But he has made the most of the opportunity, and there was no hint of negativity on Saturday in the sunshine against Alcaraz: only deep-work focus and Medvedev’s unique, limbs-akimbo blend of defense and offense.

On this toasty late afternoon, when the ball was bouncing higher than usual in temperatures well above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, Medvedev found his range early and never lost it: smoking groundstrokes near the lines and frustrating the formidable Alcaraz with depth and big-bang serving under duress.

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It blew hot and cold, this often-routine Australian Open, but the home stretch caught fire, and you could not take your eyes off it. Both men’s semifinals went the distance on one of the best tennis Fridays in history. Carlos Alcaraz, a young man still in a hurry, found a way to beat cramps and Alexander Zverev. He then completed his career Grand Slam against a resurgent Novak Djokovic, a sentimental favorite at last in Melbourne at age 38 after getting deported in 2022 and unjustly booed in 2025.

Elena Rybakina won the women’s singles, rallying to beat No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in a big-bang contrast of smiles that was a compelling sequel to their 2023 final in Melbourne. Sabalenka won that duel in three sets but has now lost four consecutive three-set major finals. Her composure does not yet match her power.

But the photographers kept their cool, capturing shadow and light. Some shots to remember:

Autographed laundry

Even Alcaraz’s shadow gets to everything.

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Where there’s a will, there is not always a way.

For all Novak Djokovic’s craft and commitment, for all his happy memories in Australian Open finals, there was not quite enough fuel in the tank and precision in the strokes to beat two much younger superstars in a row.

Carlos Alcaraz, not Djokovic, was the history man on Sunday in Melbourne: becoming, at age 22, the youngest to complete the career Grand Slam.

Djokovic, at 38, could have become the oldest man to win a major singles title in the Open era and even had Ken Rosewall, the venerable Australian who holds that record, watching him from the stands in Melbourne. But Djokovic had to settle for a surprising and inspiring stretch run. That was, nonetheless, quite a consolation prize for the tennis champion who has everything, and it came with full-throated crowd support in a city that has not always embraced him.

“I always believe in myself, and I think it’s something that is truly needed and necessary when playing at this level against incredible players like Jannik and Carlos,” he told the crowd. “But I must be very honest and say I didn’t think I’d be standing in the closing ceremony of a Grand Slam once again, so I think I owe you the gratitude for pushing me forward the last couple of weeks.”

Djokovic’s five-set victory over Jannik Sinner in the semifinals belongs on his career short list, not too far behind his most memorable triumphs in majors. For a set against Alcaraz, he stayed on that roll: spryly dictating terms to the world No. 1, a man 16 years his junior, who is perhaps the quickest and most complete player in the game’s long history.

“I thought Novak was joking when he said he was thinking of playing the Olympics in ’28,” said John McEnroe on ESPN. “I’m not so sure right now.”

It was 6-2 in what felt like a rush. Djokovic made 78 percent of his first serves; hit eight winners, with the beefed-up forehand playing the leading role, and made just four unforced errors. His contact points were dead center of the strings. His serves were landing in the outside corners of the boxes, stretching Alcaraz into extreme positions that must have looked delightfully familiar to the elastic Djokovic.

On the set changeover, the amiable Alcaraz was fuming: gesticulating angrily at his team as he could not find what he was searching for in his racket bag.

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A younger Alcaraz might not have shaken free of the tension and the trap. After all, he never did find the solution against an inspired Djokovic in their Roland Garros semifinal in 2023 or their Olympic gold-medal match in Paris in 2024 or their quarterfinal on this same blue hardcourt in Melbourne last year.

Djokovic, with his protean brilliance, can get in your head like nobody in tennis. Just ask Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, who was sitting in the front row on Sunday night, watching intently in retirement as Alcaraz tried to solve the Serbian riddle that Nadal could never quite crack in Melbourne: not even after nearly six hours of supreme effort in the 2012 final.

But Alcaraz, as it turns out, is even more of a tennis prodigy than the precocious and ferocious Nadal. At 22, Nadal had six majors. At 22, Alcaraz now has seven and, while Nadal had to wait until he was 24 to complete his career Grand Slam at the 2010 US Open, Alcaraz already has ticked all four boxes.

It took him just 20 major appearances to manage it. It took Nadal 26. But let’s not get bogged down in too many numbers. Alcaraz is a treat to watch whether or not he is playing for history: a player whose speed, flair and variety keep not only opponents but spectators off balance.

Drop shot or big rip? He often does not know himself until the moment arrives, and his improvisational skills and agility helped change the equation on Sunday: not even a full-cut Djokovic backhand around the post could get past him.

But it seems fair to mention that Alcaraz has done so much so young with the benefit of a tool that previous prodigies could not access: open and frequent on-court coaching. It is now legal and has certainly helped him navigate the ebbs and flows of big matches against more experienced rivals: first with Juan Carlos Ferrero as his primary coach and now, after Ferrero’s surprise exit in the offseason, with Samuel Lopez in that role.

Lopez and Alcaraz’ s team helped him stay calm as he cramped against Alexander Zverev in the semifinals and nearly surrendered a two-set lead. On Sunday, which was also Lopez’s 56th birthday, he suggested that Alcaraz retreat to return second serves after the first set and also get more net clearance on his forehand.

That was sage advice, and it corresponded with a Djokovic dip. This was a chilly Australian Open final -- 58 degrees (14 Celsius) – and a windy one, too, even with the retractable roof far from wide open. From the start of the second set, Djokovic made more errors, missed more returns and first serves. Alcaraz took the hint and ran with it: extending rallies by covering the corners or ripping half volleys off Djokovic’s deep shots.

Alcaraz claimed the second set and then went in front for the first time by winning the fifth game of the third. The break point was a reminder of what separates Alcaraz from the pack. Djokovic hit a fine wide first serve that pulled the Spaniard well outside the doubles alley. But after Alcaraz’s forehand return, he was back at midcourt in a flash to punch a backhand from no-longer open space. The gaps close so quickly against Alcaraz, and the longest rallies began to go his way while Djokovic started to show signs of discomfort: touching his left calf between points and massaging his right hip on changeovers.

He called for the doctor and trainer after losing the third set and later declined to share details of what he had been experiencing: not wishing to detract from Alcaraz’s victory. But avoiding and managing injury is, of course, part of the recipe for success in tennis, and Djokovic’s body has worn and broken down more frequently under Grand Slam duress in the last three seasons as he has searched in vain for a 25th major.

So much went his way in Melbourne this year with Jakub Mensik withdrawing before their fourth-round match and Lorenzo Musetti retiring after winning the first two sets of their quarterfinal. It is hard to imagine Djokovic being quite so fresh again this late in a major, and he pounced on the opportunity to topple Sinner.

But he could do no more than threaten Alcaraz. He might have bedeviled him quite a bit longer if he had been able to convert a break point at 4-4 in the fourth set. But with a momentum shift in reach, he missed a relatively routine forehand to let Alcaraz get back to deuce. On the next point, the Spaniard cheated at physics: hooking a forehand winner crosscourt at a preposterously sharp angle. The hold would be his, and the title would soon follow, as he broke Djokovic in the 12th game with Djokovic missing more forehands on the final three points.

Final score: 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, 7-5.

Alcaraz, not Djokovic or Sinner, is the supreme big-match player of the moment. The youngster is 7-1 in major finals and 8-1 in ATP 1000 finals. He also has an astonishing 15-1 record in five-set matches that is far from a coincidence.

“Mental strength wins matches,” Alcaraz once said. “You don’t have to play brilliantly, show your best tennis or be the best version of yourself to win. In the end, you often win with your head. If you are mentally weak, you can lose even if you are playing the best tennis of your life. You can get through rounds, but when the key moment comes, if you are not strong in the head you won’t make it. In the fifth set of the final is the time to give it all, fight until you can’t fight anymore. That’s what makes you a warrior, and I consider myself a warrior.”

Djokovic can relate, but for the first time, he is an Australian Open runner-up after going undefeated in his first 10 finals. Nadal’s record of 14 singles titles at a major — his came at Roland Garros — seems ever more secure.

It was odd to see Djokovic, of all people, holding the silver finalist’s plate instead of the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup. It was nearly as strange to see Nadal applauding in the stands instead of clubbing forehands and fiddling with his shorts and water bottles.

“Obviously it feels very weird to see you there and not here,” Djokovic said in his runner-up speech to the man he faced 60 times on tour.

Djokovic finished with a 31-29 edge and also won the career head-to-head against Federer, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and all of his leading peers. But he is now 5-5 against Alcaraz and trails Sinner 5-6.

It will only keep getting harder, no matter how ironclad the will. Though Djokovic has indeed talked about playing until the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles and has rightly railed against the constant retirement questions, he re-opened the door to speculation on Sunday night even if his performance would have been enough to keep it shut.

“God knows what happens tomorrow, let alone in six months or 12 months,” he told the crowd in Rod Laver Arena. “It has been a great ride. I love you guys!”

Another Australian Open sounds far from guaranteed, although if he can find this kind of form again this summer, winning an eighth Wimbledon is hardly out of the question.

He will be 39 by then, and Alcaraz, already a two-time Wimbledon champion himself, will be all of 23. On Sunday night, as Alcaraz posed for photos with the ballkids, the thought occurred that he was much closer to their ages than to the age of the man he had just faced.

Injury and complacency can be big obstacles. Precocity does not guarantee lasting supremacy. Who could have imagined Bjorn Borg stepping away at 25? But Alcaraz looked anything but burned out in Melbourne as he completed his Grand Slam collection and proved to himself and the chattering classes that he could win big without Ferrero.

He is setting a torrid early pace and already has as many major titles as John McEnroe, Mats Wilander and John Newcombe.

“Something tells me he’s going to be way past me,” McEnroe said.

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As it turns out, the Olympic gold in Paris was not the last genuine hurrah for Novak Djokovic. As it turns out, he has not been kidding himself and, less importantly, everyone else.

He hammered that point home -- bold forehand and clutch serve after bold forehand and clutch serve -- on Friday night and into Saturday morning in Melbourne, rocking two-time defending champ Jannik Sinner’s world with an inspired five-set triumph that put Djokovic into his eleventh Australian Open final and made a surprising late addition to his short list of great victories.

No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz awaits, and though it is tempting to write that Djokovic has nothing left to prove, he does not seem to see it that way.

“There’s a lot of people that doubt me,” he said in the middle of the Australian night. “I see there’s a lot of experts all of a sudden who want to retire me or have retired me the last couple of years. I want to thank them all, because they gave me strength. They gave me motivation to prove them wrong, which I have tonight.”

With respect for Djokovic and the hard-earned chip on his shoulder, I’m not so sure about his reading of the press room.

Tennis is often at its best as an intergenerational clash, and Sinner and Alcaraz, for all their yinning and yanging, were just beginning to suck some of the drama out of the men’s game with their intragenerational duopoly. Who didn’t want to see Djokovic rise up, continue to push them and carry the Big Three torch a little farther down the tunnel?

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Getting asked (repeatedly) about your retirement plans does not mean that the experts are eager to see you go. They simply feel the question needs to be posed when you are no longer dominating the game; when you are 38 years old and have won everything there is to win in tennis, usually several times over.

Most of us learned long ago not to dismiss aging greats. We have seen Pete Sampras resurrect to win a final major at the 2002 US Open, watched Roger Federer roar back to the fore in 2017 and watched Rafael Nadal find a way to win the Australian Open and a final French Open in 2022.

We certainly know much better than to underestimate Djokovic’s capacity to remain relevant. He sailed back from the doldrums in 2018, saved two match points to beat Federer at Wimbledon in 2019 and won his 10th and perhaps not final title in Australia in 2023, a year after being deported from the country. His emotional Olympic triumph in Paris in 2024, crowned by a a brilliant, locked-in victory over Alcaraz, was a grand masterclass in rising to the occasion and also his only title that season.

“Count him out at your peril” has become a catchphrase.

The only significant tennis line item Djokovic is missing is the calendar Grand Slam, which no man has completed since Rod Laver in 1969. But Djokovic did hold all four major trophies at the same time. He has won 24 Grand Slam singles titles, seven ATP Finals, 40 Masters 1000 titles and spent 428 weeks atop the rankings, finishing as year-end No. 1 on eight occasions.

Those are all records, which he has chased openly and relentlessly, never downplaying how much they meant to him. That clarity of purpose surely played a role in helping him achieve so much, but at this stage, it seems more about the matchups than the math.

Searching for inspiration as he prepared for the 2026 season in Dubai, he found power in projection.

“It becomes, I guess, more difficult for me to motivate myself,” he said on Saturday. “And I ask myself questions: okay, what is it I’m looking for from myself? And I was imagining really playing against Jannik and Carlos in the final stages of the Grand Slam this year and battling it out and really giving it all that I have. And so I’m really fortunate to already get it in the first Slam of the year.”

He has been fortunate in other ways too: getting a walkover from Jakub Mensik in the fourth round and a retirement from Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinals after Musetti had won the first two sets.

Mid-tournament breaks in routine and match rhythm can be detrimental and destabilizing, as at the 2011 French Open, when Djokovic, riding a 43-match winning streak, lost to Federer in a classic semifinal after getting a walkover from Fabio Fognini in the quarters.

But Djokovic was well-served this time by the unexpected respite. Two weeks of best-of-five-set tennis have become a great deal to ask. He needed as full a tank as possible against Sinner, and though he often did not look fresh – leaning on his knees with his hands after long rallies or even vomiting into his towel – he certainly played with vim and vigor. He showed Sinner, dubbed Djokovic 2.0, that old software can still get the job done.

Sinner had defeated Djokovic five times in a row, usurping him as the king of Melbourne and hardcourts. But Djokovic beat him at their own game this time.

Against Musetti, Djokovic seemed hellbent on shortening the rallies, gripping and ripping and charging the net. Against Sinner, he certainly went for more than usual on his forehand, trying to keep the Italian off balance and on the defensive. But in general, Djokovic stayed back and successfully traded big blows: rarely a winning formula against the Italian. It could so easily have failed this time, too. Djokovic trailed two sets to one and had to stare down eight break points in the fifth set.

He fended some of those off with undeniable brilliance: precision serves and down-the-line winners. But he also received some surprising assistance from Sinner, who shanked second-serve returns or edgily went for just a bit too much just a bit too soon.

Sinner, for now, is a more effective sprinter than marathoner. He is 6-11 in five-setters (and 0-9 in matches longer than three hours and 50 minutes).

Djokovic, who struggled in long-haul matches in his own youth, is 41-11 in matches that go the distance.

That 79-percent strike rate is fittingly formidable but can’t match Alcaraz’s. The Spaniard is 15-1 in five-setters (93.5%) after conquering cramps and Alexander Zverev in Friday’s first and longer semifinal.

That is a tribute to Alcaraz’s appetite for the big stage and his staying power, but he still has a losing record against Djokovic (4-5) and also lost their last final: the Olympic gold-medal match.

That was a brutal defeat that left the Spaniard in tears and reeling for months. Though Alcaraz trounced Djokovic in the US Open semifinals last year on a hardcourt and is the clear oddsmakers’ favorite on Sunday, Djokovic surely still has a compartment of his own in the Spaniard’s head.

They are both on the brink of significant milestones: a career Grand Slam for the 22-year-old Alcaraz and a 25th major for Djokovic, who would be the oldest man to win a Grand Slam singles title in the Open era.

Let’s see how they both recover, but whether Djokovic prevails or more logically falters, he already has proven his point in Melbourne.

“I never stopped believing in myself,” he said.

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NEW YORK – It’s a long-running tennis debate.

If you had to pick one man to play a match for your life, who gets the assignment?

For many years, it was obvious: Rafael Nadal with his whipping topspin, warrior spirit and unflagging commitment to each and every point.

Nadal, you could be certain, would not go down without quite a fight.

Then, true to form, Novak Djokovic strived and self-actualized his way to the head of most lines, transforming himself, with Nadal and Roger Federer for fuel, into a grand-match master, capable of locking down in the rallies and tournaments that mattered most.

But this is Carlos Alcaraz’s time and not simply because he manhandled Jannik Sinner in Sunday’s US Open final to recover the No. 1 ranking.

It’s about more than recency bias and current form. It’s about his body of work at age 22. Though Alcaraz -- with his creative streak, crowd-pleasing instincts and shot-selection issues -- has often been viewed as less dependable than his teutonic Italian rival, he is, at this stage, clearly the best pressure player in the sport.

The proof was in his newly efficient, often clinical approach to match play in New York, where he dropped only one set and was broken just three times in the tournament with his upgraded serve setting the pace. He won more than 83 percent of his first-serve points in all but one of his seven matches. Compare that with Wimbledon, traditionally a servers’ paradise, where he was above 80 percent in only three of seven matches.

But the proof is also in the early-career numbers. Alcaraz is a glittering 6-1 in Grand Slam singles finals, the only loss coming at Wimbledon this year to Sinner. At the next tier, he is 8-1 in Masters 1000 finals, the only loss coming to Djokovic in one of the most dramatic best-of-three-set matches in memory: the 2023 Cincinnati Open final.

Sinner’s numbers are 4-2 in major finals and 4-4 in Masters 1000 finals with a 1-1 record in finals at the ATP’s year-end championships, where Alcaraz has yet to reach a final.

Their record in fifth sets is also worth considering.

Alcaraz is 14-1. Sinner is 6-10. Expand that to deciding sets, and it’s much closer, but Alcaraz still has the edge. He is 61-25 (71%). Sinner is 67-33 (67%). Both, it should be noted, remain behind Djokovic, who 218-85 (72%), but as much as I respect Djokovic’s steely will and absence of middle-aged body fat, I’m not picking a 38-year-old who has not won a major in two years to play for my life.

Alcaraz has faltered on big occasions to be sure.

See the Olympic gold-medal match against Djokovic in Paris last year that left Alcaraz reeling and contributed to his second-round exit at last year’s US Open against Botic van de Zandschulp.

See his cramp-filled defeat to Djokovic in the 2023 French semis or his surprise loss in the semis to Jack Draper in Indian Wells this year when Alcaraz felt pre-match dread and played like it.

But much more often than not, he has risen to the grand occasion, drawn to the challenge and the chance to commune with the biggest audience possible.

“His character on the court is so big,” his coach and mentor-in-chief Juan Carlos Ferrero once told me. “He loves to go for the big points and for the big moment and is one of the few guys that you can see who is like this.”

His 6-1 major final record puts him in elite company. The only men’s champion to start faster in the Open era was Federer, who went 7-0 before Nadal beat him in the 2006 French Open final.

Bjorn Borg also went 6-1 but neither Borg nor Federer quite stack up to Alcaraz’s multi-surface achievements in the majors.

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The Spanish youngster already has won two Grand Slam titles on grass, two on clay and two on hardcourts. Borg never won a hardcourt major, failing to seal the deal after the US Open went to hardcourts for good in 1978 and retiring long before the Australian Open switched to hardcourts in 1988.

Federer won his lone French Open in 2009 at age 27, although he did reach four other finals on the red clay at Roland Garros.

The only men to win multiple majors on tennis’s three different surfaces are Mats Wilander, Nadal, Djokovic and Alcaraz.

It is a club that many past greats had no chance to join. Until 1975, three of the four Grand Slam tournaments were on grass, and you have to believe that the likes of René Lacoste, Henri Cochet, Tony Trabert, Manolo Santana, Roy Emerson and Rod Laver – who all won multiple clay and grasscourt majors -- could have won plenty of hardcourt majors if given the chance. The same certainly goes for Bill Tilden and Don Budge.

But this modern-day club reflects versatility and consistency, and if Alcaraz can continue to marry the two while keeping his health and head, he is on his way to double digits in major victories.

It has been a banner year. One of the best barometers for a dominant season is a winning percentage in the 90s. Nadal and Djokovic each managed it twice; Federer did it four times, with three straight in 2004, 2005 and 2006 before Djokovic’s emergence.

Alcaraz, with the US Open in the books, is at 91 percent for 2025 with a 61-6 singles record. Until now, his top mark in a season is 85 percent. Sustaining momentum through the fall will be a challenge, and he smartly decided to skip Spain’s Davis Cup qualifier matches this week to decompress. But it won’t be much of a rest. He is expected to return next week for the big-payday Laver Cup team event, which he enjoyed in his debut last year.

Sinner, with host and reigning champ Italy already qualified for the Davis Cup finals in Bologna, does not have to worry about this round. But he does have to worry about Alcaraz and the future.

For the second straight year, he and the Spaniard have split the majors. If Sinner had converted any of his three match points in this year’s French Open final, he could have done better than a split, although there is no telling what a tough loss in Paris might have done to Alcaraz’s motivation and results at Wimbledon.

But Sinner, to his credit and our benefit, did not sound satisfied with the status quo after his defeat in New York.

He recognized that what works against the rest of the field is not sufficient against Alcaraz. He committed himself to becoming, like his rival, more unpredictable, and not just against the Spaniard.

“For example, during this tournament, I didn’t make one serve-volley, didn’t use a lot of drop shots, and then you arrive to a point where you play against Carlos where you have to go out of the comfort zone,” Sinner said. “So I’m going to aim -- maybe even losing some matches from now on – but trying to do some changes, trying to be a bit more unpredictable as a player, because I think that’s what you have to do, trying to become a better tennis player. At the end of the day, that’s my main goal, no?”

This could be more subtle than obvious: Sinner came to net nearly as often as Alcaraz on Sunday with similar success: winning 19 of 26 points compared with the Spaniard’s 20 of 27. But Sinner did change spin and pace less frequently, and even if he had wanted to drop shot more often, Alcaraz’s extreme quickness makes that quite a risk.

Though it is not easy to go against your core tennis personality, the Big Three certainly added to their games. Federer, once resistant to the drop shot, came to enjoy deploying it. Djokovic and Nadal learned to use serve-and-volley selectively but very effectively.

Sinner, already proficient in the forecourt, surely can expand his range at age 24. But Alcaraz has been playing with great variety since his early junior years. It is part of his makeup, in line with his instincts and his understanding of how to enjoy tennis.

“The way he plays, I think it’s a little bit easier than maybe for others,” Ferrero said of the whistle-while-you-work factor.

But joy and creativity will only get you so far in pro tennis. Devastating power, extreme precision and footspeed are the trump cards, and Alcaraz put the full package on display in New York.

In the Wimbledon final, his average serve speed was about three miles per hours below Sinner’s on first and second serves. In New York, they were equal on first serve speed with Alcaraz having a two-mile-per-hour edge on the second.

At Wimbledon, Sinner had eight aces and two double faults while Alcaraz had 15 aces and seven doubles. In New York, Sinner had two aces and four doubles. Alcaraz had 10 aces and zero doubles and won significantly higher percentages of points than Sinner on both of his serves and when returning both of Sinner’s serves.

In my eyes, it was an off day for the Italian, full of imprecision and uncharacteristic errors. He had 18 groundstroke winners in the Wimbledon final; just seven in the US Open final. The forehand battle, often a spectacularly fair fight, was a rout in New York, with Sinner producing just two forehand groundstroke winners to Alcaraz’s 14. The Spaniard’s form certainly was the main factor.

“I felt like he was a bit cleaner today,” Sinner said. “The things I did well in London, he did better today. I felt like he was doing everything slightly better today, especially serving, both sides, both swings very clean.”

Though there was considerable resistance to this on social media when I suggested it early in the final, there might even have been a minor physical issue in play for Sinner despite his team’s denials. He was treated for an abdominal muscle issue during the semifinals.

If true, it would take little away from Alcaraz’s achievement. The sport is about managing the rigors of a nearly year-round schedule and staying healthy enough to compete, and Alcaraz, let’s not forget, also had a wrap around his right thigh during the final.

Playing with pain is part of pro tennis, as Nadal, Djokovic and Federer would confirm. So is playing with big-match pressure, and Alcaraz is doing that better than anyone in the men’s game.

Sign him up.

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NEW YORK – Aryna Sabalenka is full of life and mirth. A US Open champion anew on Saturday, she played a drum solo with her palms on her fitness trainer Jason Stacy’s bald pate, where, in honor of his employer, he had affixed a temporary dragon tattoo.

Talking with Sloane Stephens on the ESPN set, she made plain her celebration plans -- “Oh girl, we’re gonna drink!” -- then arrived at her news conference with a bottle of Champagne in hand and protective goggles perched on her forehead.

“Cheers, guys!” she said at one merry stage.

But she knows the dark side, too.

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NEW YORK – Let’s start with the remarkable photograph above to remind ourselves what we are dealing with.

Novak Djokovic is close to 40 years old, competing against players like Carlos Alcaraz, who was not born when he turned professional. And yet the Serbian, with flecks of gray in his hedgehog hair, is still able to take flight and contort himself into ball-striking positions that would leave most of his actual peers in need of physical therapy.

He is a marvel and an outlier among outliers, the most successful men’s tennis champion of the Open era and forever on the short list of the greatest players of all time. But he is not going to win any more major singles titles, as this season has made abundantly clear.

Friday provided the latest evidence as he ran out of steam and solutions against Alcaraz, falling in straight sets in the semifinals of the US Open, which remains the last place where Djokovic won a Grand Slam title.

That was in 2023, a year when he took three of the four majors, only losing in five sets to Alcaraz in a thriller at Wimbledon.

But since that season, Djokovic has won just two titles: the Olympic gold in Paris and an ATP 250 in Geneva, bringing his career total in singles to a nice round 100. The desire to conquer may still be there, but the total commitment is not. He is playing a limited schedule, and it is difficult to see him changing that with a young family and a body in constant need of care and repair. Even with total commitment, the power dynamic has shifted for good. Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner now rule.

“They’re just too good, you know, playing on a really high level,” Djokovic said after Alcaraz’s 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory on Friday. “Unfortunately, I ran out of gas after the second set. I think I had enough energy to battle him and to keep up with his rhythm for two sets. After that I was gassed out, and he kept going. That's kind of what I felt this year also with Jannik. Yeah, best-of-five makes it very, very difficult for me to play them. Particularly if it’s like the end stages of the Grand Slam.”

Djokovic, who said he intends to play on, has often looked down and out in big matches during his career, only to revive and find a way: see the classic 2012 Australian Open marathon versus Rafael Nadal.

But appearances were not deceiving on Friday as he gasped for breath between rallies and leaned on the towel box, his features drawn and his signature returns off target when he needed them most. He has hit many a brilliant shot on the full stretch over the last 20 years, shoes squeaking as he transformed defense to offense out of a near split. But he was late to the ball and the target too often on Friday, particularly on his forehand wing.

“Of course, it's frustrating on the court when you are not able to keep up with that level physically, but at the same time, it's something also expected, I guess,” Djokovic said. “It comes with time and with age.”

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He is still, at 38, the third best men’s player in the world. The rankings don’t reflect it – he will be No. 4 on Monday -- but his major tournament results certainly do. And though 2025 will hardly go down as his annus optimus it is a remarkable achievement to reach the semifinals in all four Grand Slam events at this late stage of the game.

“Impressive,” Alcaraz said of Djokovic after his 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory. “Challenging the Next Gen, challenging us, the way he’s doing it is impressive. I tell him always he looks like 25 years old physically.”

What is missing is the 25-year-old’s staying power. And yet the only other players to reach the final four in all majors this season are Sinner, who is No. 1 and about to face Alcaraz for the US Open men’s title, and Aryna Sabalenka, who is No. 1 and just defeated Amanda Anisimova for the women’s title.

There is of course another way to look at Djokovic’s continued success as a part-timer. It shows how steep the dropoff is after Sinner and Alcaraz. For me it is more about their brilliance — and Djokovic’s skill and drive — than their pursuers’ mediocrity. Their rise has been demoralizing to establishment figures who expected their turn to come after the Big Three: see Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas et al.

Sinner’s and Alcaraz’s consolidation of power has to be daunting to their own generation who know how much they will have to lift to join the conversation, how much they will have to stretch and strain to maximize their own talent (let’s all send good vibes to Ben Shelton’s left shoulder).

Sinner and Alcaraz are the total packages, capable of imposing a torrid pace that the pack, for now, cannot follow.

Sinner is relentless; Alcaraz less reliably on task. But they both possess a top gear that only the other can match, and this will be the eighth straight major where one of them will walk away as the champion.

The Big Three raised the bar on longevity, no doubt, but in traditional tennis terms, this is already an era. Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe played all their Grand Slam finals against each other over two years: 1980 and 1981. Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg played all of theirs over three: 1988, 1989 and 1990.

At this stage, it is hard to imagine that Alcaraz, age 22, and Sinner, age 24, will not extend their rivalry over a considerably longer span.

But injury and ennui can spring surprises, so it is best to relish what we have while we have it: a third straight Grand Slam final between sparkling talents who can do damage from just about anywhere and who have shown a welcome propensity for bringing out the best in each other.

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Their rivalry already has quantity and quality. This will be their 15th tour-level meeting: one more than Borg and McEnroe.

Of those 15 matches, seven, in my view, have been genuinely special with the 2022 US Open quarterfinal and 2025 French Open final the standouts.

Both went five sets and over five hours, and Alcaraz won them both after facing match point: he saved one in New York and three in Paris.

Alcaraz holds a 9-5 edge over his elder and has won six of their last seven matches, including last month’s anticlimactic final in Cincinnati when Sinner, ill and suffering in the heat, tapped out before the end of the first set.

He, not Alcaraz, remains the hardcourt master until proven otherwise: winning the last two Australian Opens and last year’s US Open. His short-hop timing from the baseline is unmatched, and he has improved his explosive moment and endurance. He is not as balletic and obviously acrobatic as Alcaraz, but he can get so low at 6-foot-3 and create so much racket-head speed with his whipping groundstrokes.

In real time, his forehand looks flat but slow it down on a replay and you can see how much topspin he is generating to go with the pace. That explains the late dip as his shots near their target: a dip that so often surprises the opposition.

But Alcaraz gets my nod this time.

Unlike Sinner, he has not dropped a set coming into the final: a first for him at a major. He looks fresher physically and is perhaps healthier considering that Sinner needed treatment off court on Friday for a possible abdominal strain during his surprisingly rugged four-set semifinal victory over an inspired Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Sinner has been broken four times in the tournament; Alcaraz just twice, and the Spaniard seems now to have fully assimilated the changes to his serving motion. He has won 84 percent of his first-serve points here, putting 63 percent in play. Sinner, typically the better server, is at 82 percent and 57 percent.

Fine margins to be sure, and Sinner has been the more devastating force when returning, particularly against second serves, winning 65 percent of the points to Alcaraz’s 56.

If Sinner is fit, it should again be close, very close, and there is more at stake than a US Open title. The winner will be No. 1 come Monday. Whoever rules, spare a thought, or something more expansive, for the former king, who spent a record 428 weeks in the top spot before time and the new wave of tennis geniuses caught him from behind.

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