Tennis legend Roger Federer has hailed the Jannik Sinner-Carlos Alcaraz rivalry in men’s tennis, specifically praising their 2025 French Open final, which the latter won in sensational fashion after being two sets down.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion said that all the eyes of the sporting world was glued to Paris when both players were trying to outdo the other to win the title, revealing that he had practiced with them and both were very good ball strikers.
“The rivalry with Alcaraz and Sinner is a great one. They play incredible tennis. I think that French Open final was unreal. I think the game, not that it needed it, but it was great that we had it. I feel like for a second, for a moment, the world stood still in the sporting world and watched towards Paris, what was going on in that epic fifth set because it could have ended much, much sooner obviously for Jannik,” said the 44-year-old according to the ATP Tour website.
“Then all of a sudden it ended up in this most crazy fashion. Maybe one of the greatest games we’ve ever had in our sport. It’s good we still live off that momentum. Then they backed it up by playing against each other in all those other finals. Everybody is trying to keep up and they’re trying to pull away. What we’ve seen in terms of their progression in the last years, it’s been wonderful. I practised with those guys a little bit. They’re incredible ball strikers. There’s obviously more to come,” Federer said in Melbourne on Thursday.
The 2026 Australian Open will offer a Spaniard a chance to complete the Career Grand Slam if he goes all the way and wins the title. Federer compared the quest as similar to Rory McIlroy winning the Masters, hoping that he would be able to do it.
“[Carlos] knows about it. It’s like Rory [McIlroy] going for the Masters. Those things are tough. At the end of the day, the momentum shifts after the first round. Then it’s point-for-point mentality. It’s true, in order to complete the career Grand Slam already now would be crazy.”
“So let’s see if he is able to do ‘crazy’ this week. I hope he does because for the game, again, that would be an unbelievable, special moment. He has another hundred and whatever players that say, ‘We don’t agree with those plans’. They might try to stop him,” he said.
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Federer won six Australian Open titles in his career, but admitted that the win in 2017 was more special than others.
“I guess it has to be 2017 just because of the way it ended in the finals against Rafa. It was surreal. I came here with no expectations… I was maybe going to be happy with the quarters. I think Seve [Luthi], my coach secretly, Ivan [Ljubicic], believing I could do it. I was like more, ‘Yeah, no, not at 17 in the world, not having played in six months, all that’.”
“I played really well at the Hopman Cup. Came here feeling good. Still I knew I had a tough draw, had to go through some big guys to get anywhere close to winning. I think just the way the finals played out kind of makes it maybe one of the best special ones I’ve ever had in my career,” the 20-time Grand Slam champion said.
